Let’s go to the Pyramid House!!!
Several times before she got here, Mica said to me, “I hope we get to see Peoples when we visit!”
No Peoples sightings. The coyotes stopped yowling when she came in to my room to hear them. The bison weren’t out (they live on another street). The ducks didn’t visit until Monday morning (probably because our pond is so scummy right now – we’re about to start working on that), and didn’t stay long when they did.
Sigh. We just had birds, squirrels, chipmunks and frogs (and horses, but not on our property, ha).
Nature was mocking me!
Then, of course, this guy shows up Monday night, after she left:
And another one visited our bedroom balcony in the middle of the night! I’m not sure if either was Peoples, though. The one in the photo has different markings, and looks slimmer. I wish he would have visited when she was here!
Luckily, the animal portion of the trip was the only bust. Well, that and me thinking their train to the city came later, and getting them there with a minute to spare but not being able to get on the train because the train came early and blocked the track crossing. I felt like such an arsehole (and they were completely cool about it). Moving on.
Mica and Harrison are in Chicago for a long visit and spent Saturday night through Monday afternoon with us. I know Mica through blogging, and Steven and I spent time with her and Harrison in 2013 and hit it off. And we hadn’t seen them since then (but Mica and I text most days)! I was greatly looking forward to chilling and catching up, but also, showing them some of the stuff around our house.
Like… the Pyramid House!
I totally forgot about this place until I drove by it on moving day with my Mom in February. And I showed it to my snister when she visited in April. When I emailed Mica and asked if we should check it out she responded enthusiastically “OMG YESSSSSSSSS.”
(I love Mica’s enthusiasm for things. She’s a lot of fun to be around.)
So basically, this family was interested in pyramids, and the dad was always building small ones around the house (to test their powers…). When it became time to build a new house in the late 70s, they decided to build it on the land he had for his construction business, in the shape of a pyramid. They didn’t intend for it to be more than their home, but people were so interested in it, they opened it to the public in the 80s and have been giving tours to some extent since then.
The house itself is very dated (and a bit tacky with the combined Egyptian/country/floral themes).
The most interesting part is the exterior – they’ve gone through many different surface materials and different methods to try to make the house appear to be gold. And they’ve had many issues – with the quality of the materials, the materials’ reaction to snow and ice, and with people complaining about them (being too shiny).
They also had an interesting response from the county after building this fifty five foot Ramses II statue… they were a bit over the county height limitation. It’s actually been raised to sixty feet since it was built so they’re okay now. (I only know the county height limit because we had to research it when we thought we needed to built a wireless tower on our property – at ninety feet.)
The father who started the pyramid interest is no longer alive, but the mom still lives there, and the youngest son gives tours. The tour is a bit of a sales pitch – for their mineral water they have on site, their beer made with the mineral water, trips to Egypt, and their conference/reception area. Ha ha. And don’t forget their HUGE gift shop.
But the tour was interesting. In a nosy, peering in to other people’s lives sort of way. I like that it’s unique, and that it makes them happy. And it sounds like a very interesting childhood, to be constantly working on these Egyptian themed house projects with your parents!
After our tour, we hit up a local ice cream shop we’ve been wanting to try. Then drove by the decommissioned Zion Nuclear Power Plant,
and went to Illinois Beach State Park.
These are all parts of our new town that I’ve been wanting to explore and it was fun to do it with Mica and Harrison!
We also went where we do with every guest – El Famous Burrito!!! And caught up on Game of Thrones so we could watch the newest episode with them Sunday night. It was fun to talk about the show with other people who watch it! (And so weird to watch it the same day it aired!)
And it was really fun to catch up, in general. There are so many stories that are hard to share over electronic communication, and it was a treat to do that face to face.
And we asked them a zillion questions about San Francisco (where they live). I’d love if that was a trip we could make happen next year! We shouldn’t go three years without seeing each other again, and it’s our (overdue) turn to visit!
Themocracy
Which ice cream shop??
I felt the same about the pyramid house. I was underwhelmed, but it was interesting.
Shirl’s was the name, I think, on Lewis.
Exactly! It’s interesting from a construction perspective for me… but the rest of it seems goofy!
Oh, you popped your Illinois Beach State Park cherry already? Sigh. We’ll still go with you sometime though 🙂 Were the trees all still empty there? I can’t wait to go once things have actually bloomed!
I have to say… the interior of the Pyramid House was totally not what I was expecting. It has the same tackiness as the Hearst Castle (in California, which you should visit when you finally get out there!), but doesn’t make sense for a pyramid!
Ha ha, yeah 🙂 We had been thinking about going there with them! I had hoped to have a picnic or something, but I just couldn’t get my shiz together to get groceries. Hmm… we were mostly on the beach so I didn’t pay too much attention to the trees! We did say how pretty it was though, and that it would be desolate in the winter, so there must have been some leaves! We’ll definitely have to go together – we only went to the beach.
I think I have heard of that place and seen pics of it! The wife (at this place) was probably like “You can build it in any shape you want, but I get to choose the decorations!”
Oh a picnic would be fun! We did the whole hike, but only spent a couple minutes on the beach (long enough to take a picture and get our shoes full of sand ha ha).
Haha yes, that’s probably what happened. “The outside of this place is so tacky, let me at least make the inside look respectable.”
Funny how the interior has nothing to do with the exterior of the pyramid house…and honestly, the entire thing (OMG that statue) is a little on the tacky side – but fun to go visit!
Peoples looks like he was standing up to wave to you. 🙂
I think that is what makes it so odd – that the outside has nothing to do with the interior!
Ha ha, that raccoon gave 0 f*cks about me being out there!!! He was like, “oh! hi!”
On our bike ride a few weekends ago, Matt and I rode by this and I was reminded that I wanted to visit it. It just sounds sort of interesting to see once.
We still haven’t been to Illinois Beach State Park but that’s also on my “to visit” places in our new area.
Hope you get a chance to see both!
Why I am not surprised it was built in the 70s? I see weird things, find out it was the ’70s, and leave it at that. Gotta love that decade.
Wow, I had no idea anything like that existed. It is so weird how out of sync the exterior and interiors are but kind of interesting too.
Also, I have a hard time with the idea of giving tours of the house you still live in! I think that is the introvert in me but that sounds awful, lol!
I love that raccoon. There’s such a challenge on his face. “You watchin me eat? You watching me eat? …well okay, whatever man. Whatever floats your boat.”
I wonder what kind of interior WOULD look right inside this house though 🙂 Clean lines and simple? But then, how do you live in that?
I was thinking it would be horrible to have your home open for tours, too. I hated it when we were selling our place. Here you walk through a small part of the house, and it’s only a few hours every other weekend but still… blah.
Yeah, that raccoon gave zero f*cks that I was out there. LOL
That’s a good question. I have no idea!
How have I never heard of this Pyramid House!? Although the statue and the exterior of the pyramid are very cool, the interior living room/dining room looks a tad disappointing.
Yeah, only the outside was actually interesting. The inside is good for gawking, ha ha.
I’ve driven by the Pyramid House several times but have never been inside! Thanks for helping to quell my curiousity. =)
Did I ever mention to you that Adam and I strongly considered having our wedding at Illinois Beach State Park? It was really hard to find venues which allowed getting married right on the water without having to incur exorbitant cost – and the hotel there was actually pretty reasonable.
Game of Thrones – I don’t watch it, but Adam does, and apparently “Hold the Door” was a big thing this past weekend?
I don’t think I knew that! Where did you end up having it? I should know 😉 Your anni is soon, right?
Yes, it was a very big thing and explained something about a character. You can tell Adam I was chucking as I yelled “hold the door” to some coworkers getting in to an elevator today 🙂
Thanks for such a fun weekend!! That Golden Pyramid (“Pur-mid!”) was crazy. We never would have gone there, so thank you for suggesting it.
I’m so glad we could catch up and laugh about silly things and watch GoT and eat delicious frozen treats together!
Purmid. Ha ha ha. Ha. Sigh, that guy.
Me too! It was a lot of fun! And thank you for offering to help me with cables!!! I need to get my knitting back out – I think it may help with my aggression issues, ha ha.
What a nice visit with Mica and her husband! And that pyramid house – how interesting…fascinating how far people can go with a hobby/interest/obsession. Smart how they created a business around it, too. It’s so strange how the rooms look like rooms in a normal house from the inside – I thought they’d have slanted walls or something.
Yes, totally smart to make it a business! I wonder how much they get from it – it seems like they use the money to maintain the house. The guide talked about projects he wanted to start this year – like re-doing the siding, again 🙂 And I think they still have their construction business!
There are rooms with slanted walls, I just didn’t share pics of those 🙂 Mica got a pic of one room with them on her blog – https://micapie.com/2016/05/24/we-see-a-golden-pyramid-in-illinois/.
What a funky place – especially the combination of pyramid + interior decor. Whoa. I do like visiting places of interest when visitors come to town. It always forces me to check out what’s around and what’s going on locally! The pyramid house sounds like it was well worth the visit!
It’s so much more fun to go to places like this with guests and discover it together! 🙂 Have you had many visitors in CO?
Not tons but certainly a few. Last summer, we went on the Celestial Seasonings tour which is great, even if you aren’t a huge tea fan.
Oh cool! I’d like to go on that tour!
That house is really cool! The Ramses statue is kind of over the top lol I love different stuff like that though. Your description of the decor was right on!