Photo Dump: Before the Flight

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

-Oscar Wilde

June 20th, 2023

You might say that Tyler and I are anti-existing.

Back when we were dating, time was precious to us. We lived two hours apart, and we were both juggling busy work and school schedules. We were lucky if we got to see each other twice a month. When we did spend time together, we made sure we used it well. We went on hikes, talked about life, worked hard to build our relationship. This intentionality has become the backbone of our relationship. Time is precious, and we don't want to waste an ounce of it, even if we are married now.

In short, if we have a few hours before we fly home, we're going to use those hours well!

After coffee at our Airbnb, we took a morning stroll through the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. The landscape there is stunning! I couldn't help but feel as if we had been transported to the wilderness of Utah. The orange rocks cut jaggedly into the grey sky, carpeted underfoot by lush green grass. A mule deer drifted through the stones, searching for its breakfast. It was quite scenic.

When the Focus on the Family visitor center opened at 10 AM, we made sure we were there at the door. Having grown up on healthy diets of Adventures in Odyssey (our favorite radio show), we were eager to peruse the exhibits constructed in homage to the show. It was charming to see the familiar scenes come to life! Embracing our inner children, we shed our shoes to go down Wooton's massive green slide. Perhaps a tad too big for the slide, we were violently whipped around the curves! I'm pretty sure we both screamed at least once. When we were dumped out at the bottom, static stood our hair on ends as we crackled with the dry electric. We tried not to touch each other as we wobbled dizzily. A bored employee sat at the base of the slide. To his credit, he didn't mock the disoriented, giggling adults as we tried to retie our shoes. I was grateful for his discretion!

A Wod-Fam-Choc-Sod was a must-have while we were still in the Adventures in Odyssey landscape. For those unfamiliar with the show, let me provide a brief summary. The entire radio series is centered around Whit's End, an ice cream shop and local kids' hangout in the fictional town of Odyssey. Nearly all of the adventures feature Whit, a kind, Christian grandpa figure who sprinkles copious amounts of wisdom into the lives of the kids who visit his shop. The Wod-Fam-Choc-Sod (world famous chocolate soda) is the name of a chocolate milkshake that becames wildly popular with the kids of Odyssey, and us by extension!

It was delicious, in case you were wondering.

Time was getting tight, but we had one more adventure we wanted to squeeze in before we boarded. We hopped on the highway and took off for Denver, where we hurriedly toured the capitol building. It's a stunning structure. I fully intend to revisit it someday, because we hardly did it justice! My favorite part was climbing up to the balcony on the dome, where we were able to overlook the entire city. How cool was that?

You can look through all of the photos at the link below. Maybe this can serve as an inspiration to you too. The next time you have a few hours to waste, maybe do a quick Google. What sort of adventures can you get into while you wait?

The photo dump: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dWtszQffMXYzk91P7

Places visited:

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Focus on the Family visitor center and bookstore, Colorado Springs

​State Capitol building, Denver