The Cave of the Winds

Yes, an actual post from the McGuirks.  I apologize, as it has been a month since I last posted.  A lot has happened during this month.  We moved to Colorado--everyone made it, safe and sound.  We got here the day before the big fire in Colorado Springs, so it wasn't the best "Welcome Back."  Fortunately, we were never in any danger.  We did see a lot of smoke, and it was scary for a number of residents, plus the fire did destroy ~350 homes.  But now, a month later, we are settled into our new home and getting back to normal.  I will save the new home discussion for a different post--I've yet to take pictures of the new place because I didn't want to post pictures of a lot of cardboard boxes and packing material.  I will say the one negative has been no air conditioning :-(  Combine this with 100 degree heat, and you get me sleeping in the basement--I would sleep in the crawl space, but I figured that would be uncomfortable :-)

My brother and his family are in town (Pat, Dana, Brenna, Sean, and Devin).  Yesterday, we went to the Cave of the Winds, which was very cool and extremely scenic.

Before going on the tour, Pat, Brenna, Sean and Ashley did something similar to a confidence course.  It was basically a series of obstacles and other confidence challenging things, about three stories high.  However, it probably appeared higher to them because they were right next to a cliff, so I'm sure from their perspective, they thought they were 1,000 feet above ground level.  Here are some action photos.  First, here is a shot of the actual structure.

Next, we have the participants at various stages.  Here's Ashley going across the balance beam.

Here's Sean making his way across the wire.

This is a good picture of Ashley doing the crooked balance beam, and Pat standing on one of the waiting platforms.

Here are a couple pictures of Ashley.  The platform she is on hangs precariously over the canyon.  Ashley said it was windy, so it was a bit unsteady.  She then made her way across the unstable ropes, which just looked like a groin injury waiting to happen.

After the big outdoor adventure, it was time to go into the cave.  It was a wonderful 54 degrees in there--quite a relief from the outdoor heat.  Here's a picture of Mommy and Bode--not the best shot of Bode, but the best we had.

This was an interesting stalactite (hangs from the ceiling).  That's Dana, Brenna, and Devin on the left.

I took a bunch of pictures in the cave, but they don't really do it justice--just looks like a bunch of rocks in the pictures.  But it was well worth the trip.  The last thing we did was the bat-a-pult, which wasn't as scary as it might sound.  Dana, Ashley, Brenna, and Sean rode on what looks like a ski-lift out across the canyon.  They enjoyed it, and said it was fun but not scary (which is good).  You probably can't tell, but Ashley and Sean are in that chair.

The final picture is one of all the cousins.  Getting them to all smile at the same time was difficult.  This was the best we could do.

That about sums up our day at Cave of the Winds.  I have many more posts to get to--hopefully this week.  The next one will be on Bode's tee-ball adventures.  Stay tuned!  Pleasant day to all.