A year by the lists

Because everybody loves a good list. Or at least, I do. So, just for fun, here are some noteworthy lists from Colorado Springs Service Adventure 2015-2016.

First of all, movies: I saw more movies in the theatre this year than any year before. All but the last one were at Gold Hill Theatres in Woodland Park, CO (a little town in the mountains about 30 miles west of our home), thanks to a friend from church who owns the theatre and very generously invited us to come to a movie each month for free.

September - The Intern
October - The Martian
November - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2
December - The Good Dinosaur
January - Star Wars: The Force Awakens
February - Kung Fu Panda 3
March - Allegiant
April - The Jungle Book
May - Captain America: Civil War
June - Me Before You

My personal favorites were probably The Martian and Mockingjay, but I enjoyed almost all of them quite a lot.

We also did a fair amount of traveling, sometimes near, sometimes far. Here are the places we visited as a group:

Albuquerque, NM
Rocky Ford, CO
Central Kansas (Inman, Hutchinson, Newton, etc.)
Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp
Denver, CO
Jackson, WY
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Teton National Park

and separately, over Christmas and for other events that only one or two of us attended:

Lansing, MI
Gainesville, FL
Harrisonburg, VA
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA

As a standard part of Service Adventure life, we had weekly "learning components." During these sessions, the six of us took turns teaching the rest of the group about something. Anything, really. Sometimes the leader was already very adept at the topic they were teaching; other times the topic was something the leader was interested in learning themselves and they did a bit of research ahead of time to be able to give everyone an introduction. And sometimes, we invited a guest from church or elsewhere to teach us about something they knew or had experienced. In the end, we had a wonderful diversity of topics, from sports to traveling to life skills and much more.

Budgeting (Daniel)
How to be a good listener (Meg)
History of Colorado Springs (Daniel)
GUEST: Joe Schrag -- How to hike Pikes Peak
Painting glass mugs & plates (Anali)
Racism (Meg)
American football (Sarah)
Decorating journal covers with collages (Franzi)
Germany introduction and language lesson (Anna)
Yoga (Anali)
Islam (Sarah)
Documentary -- Hungry For Change
Giraffes (Anali)
GUEST: Aly & Sam Kauffman -- Hamster genetics
Bread baking (Meg)
Trip to MCC relief sale -- Apple cider making
Making Christmas crafts and decorations (Franzi)
GUEST: Ed & Irene Schrock -- traveling with YWAM
History of Dresden, Germany (Anna)
Human anatomy and physiology (Franzi)
Outer space (Sarah)
The Olympics (Anna)
Trip planning for our end-of-year trip to Yellowstone (Daniel)
Basketball (Sarah)
Making plantains (Anali)
Soccer/football (Anna)
GUEST: Joe Schrag -- Enneagram
Sign language (Franzi)
Classical music (Meg)
GUEST: Mike Martin -- RAW Tools
How to use Microsoft Excel (Daniel)
Contra dancing (Anali)
GUEST: Bob Harnish -- Birdwatching

German language lesson #2 (Anna)
Cardmaking (Sarah)

Compiling unit recipe books with our favorite recipes from the year (Franzi)
The 10 D's of successfully and unsuccessfully dealing with departure (Daniel)

Wanderlust: Yellowstone & the Tetons

Every Service Adventure unit takes an end-of-year trip at some point during the year's wrap-up. Our group decided on a 5-day trip to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons, so last Sunday after church, we hit the road for a 10-hour drive through northern Colorado and southern Wyoming.

We stopped in Farson, Wyoming (population 313) on the drive up to get ice cream.

First Baptist Church in Jackson, Wyoming, graciously allowed us to sleep on their floor for free. Jackson is a small town, but an extremely popular tourist destination. Staying there meant we had to commute farther to and from Yellowstone, but the drives were beautiful.

Monday, the second day of the trip (but first full day), was the day we had designated to spend in Grand Teton National Park. We spent about three hours hiking around Bradley Lake and Taggert Lake, soaking in this incredible landscape.

Pictures really can't capture the majesty of these mountains. The Teton range is sharp and striking, even more so than the Rockies, due to being a younger mountain range. 

Photo by Franzi Klause

The pictures are gorgeous, but nothing compares to being there.

Photo by Franzi Klause

Wading in the lake at our lunch spot.

Photo by Franzi Klause

We saw a moose! It's that dark blob to the right of the big rock. Exciting times.

Day 3, Tuesday, was our first foray into Yellowstone.

Here we are waiting for Old Faithful to erupt.

 

After that we walked around the boardwalk to check out all the other geysers and hot springs around Old Faithful. Smaller and less famous, but way more beautiful.

These vibrant pools reminded me so vividly of C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew. You know, when Digory and Polly discover the magical wood full of mesmerizing pools, each one of which will transport you into another world.

The Wood Between the Worlds, it was called.

MINERALS.

This place is called Grand Prismatic Spring.

If the cliffs were taller and the water not steaming, this would look a lot like a scene from Cape Town.

We stopped at Lewis Lake on the way out of the park.

Day 4, Wednesday: Back to Yellowstone, this time to take the east fork toward Yellowstone Lake.

So much love.

Also goofiness.

We hiked to see both the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, which created this incredible canyon.

Later we went to see the mud pots. This was one of those rare experiences that was simultaneously fascinating and repulsive.

While the previous day's geysers had smelled faintly of sulfur, these mud pools positively reeked. We gazed upon them in fascination (what a weird and cool phenomenon, this boiling mud!) while at the same time trying not to suffocate from the overpowering stench.

The sludgy waves lapping on sand, steaming and toxic, with a searingly acidic pH of 1, were exactly what I imagine our beaches will look like post-apocalypse.

 Anyway, this was also the day when we saw the most animals. No bears, but several elk, a mountain lion, and about a zillion bison.

Hanging out at Jackson Lake on the way back like the cool kids we are.

Day 5, Thursday: We ate breakfast at Persephone Bakery in Jackson before loading up for the trip home.

So delicious.

And so we said goodbye for now to Wyoming and trekked back to the Springs.

By the time we made it back, we were sick of being in the car, but full to the brim with the unique joy that comes from exploring an exciting new place with great friends!

Inclinations

On Saturday, the group crossed another item off our must-do list: the Manitou Springs Incline.

The Incline is a one-mile trail that ascends over 2,000 vertical feet.

It is steep.

At the trailhead:

WARNING: THIS IS AN EXTREME TRAIL.

Because of the very steep grade, the trail is essentially just stairs.

After living in the Springs for ten months, surrounded by extremely adventurous and fit people, it felt great to finally check off another rite of passage.

I know people who have done the hike in 20-30 minutes, but that's unfathomable to me. I did it in an hour and thirty-four minutes and felt awesome. Like it was a challenge, but a good one. Not so hard that I couldn't enjoy the gorgeous views.

On this particular day, we were joined on the trail by a lot of out-of-towners. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as a tourist attraction (it usually takes a few days for our lungs to acclimate to just being at the 6,000-ft elevation of the city, let alone taking on a strenuous hike before you've adjusted), but it was fun to see the sense of camaraderie that permeated the whole place. We were all sweating and gasping our way through this together.

I'd actually like to try it again sometime soon and improve my time. Now that I've done it, I know I could have pushed myself to go a little faster.

We made it!

The gang, minus Anna, who was spending the day visiting Royal Gorge with her host family.

So glad to have spent this year with such adventurous and determined people!