The next two days of our trip were completely consumed with driving, about 10 hours a day through Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado. I expected to hate the drive through KS, but instead I found myself wishing we had more time there!
Our couch surfing host in Wichita was a lovely and very funny young woman of many talents who entertained us into the night sharing stories of growing up in Kansas over a delicious home-cooked pasta dinner. She left us a huge list of places to go and things to do in Wichita, but unfortunately we hadn't allocated enough time, so regretfully we had to leave in the morning to make it to Littleton, CO by night.
In Littleton, we spent 3 days with my good friend/old roommate Lea and her husband Steve. Lea was my first roommate in college, and the last few years our lives have kept us apart in different regions of the country, so it was great to catch up again. During our visit, we took a trip together to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which held an impressive display of all things, well, nature and science.
After visiting Lea and Steve, we headed just a short distance south to stay a couple days with Peter's friend Shirley, in Colorado Springs. Shirley was an amazing woman -- one of those people you just want to grow up to
be like. It seemed as if she'd done everything there is to do in life, from growing up on a farm, to working on archaeological sites in Montana, to studying the effects of video games on the brain, to fostering children, to teaching English to immigrants, to negotiating with foreign diplomats in Europe, and so much more. I have never felt more fulfilled with ideas and inspiration!
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| Big horn sheep herd on a mountainside |
During our visit with Shirley, she took us to Garden of the Gods, a park renowned for its dramatic red rock formations. That same day was the beginning of some of the first snow storms we got, so the geology looked even more shocking in the low visibility.
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| Peter showing off his moves again ;) |
Chilled from our drive around Garden of the Gods, next we drove to the sleepy winter wonderland of a town known as Manitou Springs. I would have liked to spend more time here, but there was so much to see and it was freezing cold.
We spent some time at the musty old arcade, playing skeeball and 25-cent target shooting games that looked like they'd been sitting in there since the 1950s.
As if we hadn't seen enough amazing sites that day, Shirley then took us to a little museum nearby called
Magic Town, created by a local sculptor named Michael Garman. I wasn't sure what to expect, but my mind was blown.
Inside the dimly-lit museum was a miniature world of model buildings and people, each with their own personality and features, every detail of every scene scaled down to perfection.
Even more incredible was the arrangement of hidden mirrors throughout
the displays, which made it look as if the alleyways between buildings
went on forever, or rooms inside buildings extended further than reality.
Only if you looked closely enough, could you catch your own reflection
somewhere, giving away the secret behind Magic Town's magic.
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| The main room in Magic Town |
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| Mirrors make the alleyway look longer than it really is |
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| Projects created moving images in the displays |
I never would have thought to go visit Magic Town on my own -- it looked like it could be kitschy from the outside, and the name of it sounds even more cheesy, but thanks to having Shirley as our guide, I was thoroughly enchanted.
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