Two Interesting Music Groups

One of the more interesting groups to come to Ponderosa was the Western Academy of Music.  The academy, operated by a man and his wife, offers private lessons on all orchestral instruments.  Between the two they have 85 students ranging in age from 6 to adults.  At the beginning of each summer they gather at Ponderosa for an intensive week of group rehearsal and then present a concert.  This was their 17th year at Ponderosa.

On the left is the symphony orchestra performing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".  The vocal was performed by Richie Law a 6th place finisher a few years ago on American Idol.  On the right they are performing Aaron Copland's Hoe-Down.

 The other group was a youth choir from the Isle of Hope United Methodist Church in Savannah, GA.  They based out of Ponderosa and presented a couple of concerts each day around the Colorado Springs area.  Above they are singing as a part of a joint concert with the First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs.

 While the instrumental group was all work, no play, the youth choir took a morning off to enjoy the challenge course at Ponderosa.  At left is the zip line and below the wall climb.

Tiffany's Last Days at Camp

It wouldn't be right to come to the Colorado Springs area and not go up on Pike's Peak!  The day we were there it was 28 degrees.  Below is Tiffany in short sleeves and Baca bundled up at the summit.  Tiffany enjoying a snow snack. 

While at Ponderosa Tiff got hooked on geocaching.  The cache here is called "School House Rocks".  If you don't know about geocaching, it's kind of like "treasure hunting with a GPS."  She went home with a new GPS system and we hope she will continue this unusual hobby.  The cache below is called "Stick in the Mud".  Notice where the cache is hidden.

Pictured above is Megan, our nurse intern for the summer; Emily, daughter of the camp chef and office manager; and Tiffany.  They had just gotten back from a hike that started in the daylight and ended in the dark.  They claimed to be looking for bears - not altogether impossible since we've had a bear(s) visit camp several days last week!  It's questionable whether they had any idea what to do if they encountered one.  They had a good time anyway.

It was quite an ordeal for Tiffany to get home.  Our granddaughter Stephanie, who works for U S Airways, was going to fly in on a Friday and she and Tiff were going to fly back together on Sunday evening.  Unfortunately, all flights were overbooked and she was down the list for standby passengers.  Stehanie's mom Chris flew out after work on Wednesday and arrived in Denver at 12:20 Thursday morning.  We brought her back to camp, showed her around the area and then took both back to Denver to get a flight home.  They finally arrived in Phoenix that night about 10:00.  We had a great time spending almost 3 weeks with Tiffany.