Going West

Owen's college counselor advised us that spring break should be spent doing college visits. While we initially talked about going to Chicago to see Northwestern and the like, she balked since 1) Owen isn't really interested in schools in the Chicago area, and 2) we can go to Chicago any time, spring break should be dedicated to the outer reaches of Owen's college orbit.

Owen had previously said that he was only interested in schools where he had family nearby (also liberal arts in a not terrible urban setting), which meant his counselor's preferred option, Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR (known for its undergrad to law school program and well funded endowment) was off the table. However, Dave & Kara just happen to live in Colorado Springs which is just minutes from Colorado College and an hour from University of Denver (and also mountains for skiing and rock climbing), so we booked a flight and a rental car (ok, technically Allen booked them), scheduled some tours and headed out to the Springs.

Our flight was relatively painless (it was on Frontier so it wasn't entirely painless) and while they initially tried to give me pick-up truck at the rental place (which deep down, no one wanted) we eventually picked up some midsize SUV and made it to Dave & Kara's by 5:30 pm. Sadly, Dave was at a work retreat and wasn't there, but Kara greeted us and with cookies and homemade cheezits and snacks galore. After some homemade pizza for dinner, Dave joined us for some homemade ice cream cake as an early birthday celebration for me.

The next morning we slept in and puzzled before exploring downtown Colorado Springs with Kara. After lunch, Owen and I headed to Colorado College for his first tour.

We didn't know much about CC beforehand, but quickly learned that it's on the block plan which means you take one class at a time (for three and a half weeks), eight over the course of the semester. We also learned that they love hockey, rock climbing, public transport, study abroad, and llamas.

We also learned that it's a short drive from campus to Garden of the Gods. So after the tour, Owen and I headed there so that we could explore, although not above 10 feet since 1) we didn't have permits, 2) we didn't have climbing equipment (and Owen was wearing horrible shoes), and 3) Owen technically was still recuperating from his ski injury and wasn't supposed to climb for another few days.

I had purchased tickets for a Rockies-Pirates game, so after the Garden, we headed back to Dave and Kara's for a quick change before driving to Denver. I got a little confused finding the parking garage, but we eventually made it to Coors Field. While we missed the Rockies scoring three runs in the first inning, we were there when the Pirates scored 4 in the fourth and got to see a really fun, low-stakes game from amazing seats.

Wednesday, we headed back to Denver for a tour of University of Denver (or weirdly DU due to some copyright loss to the University of Delaware). The day didn't start off great -- the weather wasn't as glorious as it had been for CC and Owen was pretty exhausted from the previous day's events. Owen started perking up at the tour, though, where he learned that DU also loves hockey (and lets the kayaking team use their olympic pool to practice), mountain campus, study abroad, public transport discounted epic passes, Dungeons & Dragons, and merit aid.

We headed back to Dave and Kara's where we ordered take-out and packed up for the trip home. Having gotten a warning about extreme long lines at the airport (which wrapped all the way around baggage claim -- though we learned about a semi-secret bridge security check which saved us probably an hour in line) so we left their house by 7:00 am in order to return the car, take the shuttle to the airport, check-in and make it through security, before having a lovely brunch and getting on our noonish flight back to DC where we arrived in time for dinner.

In the end, Owen really liked both schools (CC slightly has the edge) and loves the idea of being near mountains, so I suspect he will be definitely applying to at least one of them, and may be moving to the mountain time zone in the fall of 2024. And while thinking about that makes me a little sad, I was really glad to have some fun one-on-one time with him.

 

(To see all of our Colorado pics, click here.)