Days One & Two...
Monday, July 28, 2008 at 10:02AM Decided to break up the vacation photos a bit, so as not to make a mega-huge post. :) So. On Day One, we loaded up the ol' minivan and headed south for Colorado Springs. After a stop for lunch, we hit our first destination...the Western Museum of Mining and Industry. It wasn't a huge attraction or anything, but the boys were impressed by the big machinery and the allure of panning for gold (which, after seeing it done, they decided they weren't interested in as it looked "too hard" LOL). We did the inside tour first (which was pretty cool actually...very informative and they actually operated a number of the machines) then headed outdoors to wander...
Nathan and the boys enjoyed pushing this old grinder thing (yes, it has a real name...Nathan's not here right now to remind me what that is). Before we left, we stopped at the first of many Penny Presses:
By the end of the trip, we'd made 26 pressed pennies. The boys plan to add them to their little mini albums and I'll likely find a way to use them on scrapbook layouts, too. :) Gotta remember to take some rolls of quarters on our next trip, though.
After the mining museum, we headed for our hotel, checked in and found the pools...opted for the indoor pool the first day because it was shallower and was right next to the hot tub. ;) Found a local restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs for dinner then grabbed some groceries for the next day (lunch and drinks and ice for the cooler).
Day Two. We got up early (for us) in an attempt to beat the heat and headed for the Garden of the Gods. Beautiful. A bit small scale, really, if you've been to places like Arches National Park and Zion and the like, but a great introduction for the boys. They particularly liked the Three Graces:
And all three boys took turns pretending to hold up Balanced Rock (here's Micah):
After Balanced Rock, we visited the "award winning" gift shop. (Btw, we decided ahead of time to try to avoid the inevitable begging for toys and money by giving each boy an allowance each day...it was interesting, though not surprising, to see how they handled their money...Noah hoarded it pretty much, buying minimal things each day and then splurging a bit on Day Five...Asher would happily have spent it all every day if we hadn't reminded him that Noah was saving his and that we didn't want to hear any complaining when Noah had a lot to spend and he didn't...course, Asher still managed to spend a nice bit each day and have fun doing so...Micah pretty much followed Asher's lead.) The boys made more pressed pennies but opted not to buy anything since we had another stop...
So, then we headed to Peterson Air Force base. We had to call ahead of time (last week) to get permission to enter the base and give them our identification information and all, but it was worth it. When we arrived, we had to get a special pass and have our ID checked again. Then we proceeded onto the base and to the Peterson Air & Space Museum. We had a nice little picnic lunch and then headed inside for what turned out to be a private tour. Our awesome guide, Jim Bowden, was a wealth of stories and knowledge and led us through the main terminal and hangar then let us wander the outside exhibits. In the hangar, we got to go inside an ICBM Mission control area (I make no promises that I actually know what I'm talking about here...I'm sure I'm getting terminology wrong) where people trained for launching missiles. It was quite interesting and a bit scary how much responsibility and power those people had. The boys just liked all the buttons and didn't really "get" what it was about:
Outside with the planes, though, the boys were in their element. Nathan, Noah and Asher went from plane to plane examining more of those things I don't know the names of but that they all do. Micah, more at my speed, opted for pretending to *be* a plane and come in for a landing:
Upon the suggestion of our guide, we found this perfect spot for dinner...a restaurant where seating is inside an actual plane. Micah was a bit worried that we were going to take off, but the other two thoroughly loved it. We sat in a booth by that window just below the "T" overlooking the wing:
And then we swam (tried the outdoor pool that night...sticking in the kiddie pool and having fun with torpedo toys in the dark) and crashed. And that's the first two days of our vacation in a nutshell and minus the many other pictures I have. :)
Oh. And, yes, we made tie dye shirts for all three boys for all five days. We got a LOT of comments on the shirts and didn't have any trouble keeping track of them in the crowds. :)
More coming soon...
Reader Comments (2)
We love collecting elongated pennies on every place we go by. We usually have pennies and quarters in a 35mm canister (seems so hard to find those lately) and we carry it everywhere. When we went to Disney World, we almost filled up the Disney World penny album. I think there's over 50 pennies in there.
One tip, if you soak the pennies on Taco Bell hot sauce (the free ones with your meal, the hotter the better), they will turn out really bright and shiny. We usually clean it before pressing it. Also, I heard 1982 or earlier presses better since there's more copper on it.
Great photos....I especially like the one where the boys are wedged between red rock!