At Long Last

Yeah, yeah, it's true...in the past 3 months, we've started 2 new PhD programs, logged at least 10,000 miles between the two of us, experienced temperatures ranging from well over 90 degrees to 13 degrees, and enjoyed Nepali, Indian, Thai, Western and many other cuisines.  We've descended through clouds in our car, nodded at cowboys passing on the sidewalk, and witnessed no fewer than 5 simulated gun battles.  Still, we know what you really want to know: how was Manitou Springs?!?

In a word: awesome!

The New York Times article that led us to exit the highway on our way back to Laramie from New Mexico says that "Mysterious forces draw people to Manitou Springs, Colo.; a little jewel box of a village at the foot of Pikes Peak."  It was certainly true for us, right from the beginning.  For some random reason, we walked into the store below, and promptly ran into an old friend from Hartwick.  He lives in NH, we live in Laramie, yet somehow we all ended up in this store at same exact time.

We shared amazing (and free!) Turkish coffee with the shop owner, and by chance met a friend of our Hartwick friend, who happens to be an amazing paralympic athlete who we have long-admired via Facebook.

In all, we were only in Manitou Springs for a brief couple hours, but as you can see we had a charmed existence, and managed to sample lots of spring water...

...admire many sights...

...and even receive an impromptu concert from the brother of the owner of a mountain dulcimer shop!  We didn't even know what a mountain dulcimer was beforehand!

Anyway, what would our advice be to you if you happened to be near Manitou Springs?  GO TO MANITOU SPRINGS!!!