Thursday, July 31, 2008

Another key learning for us. Colorado Springs is not fun enough to drive 1 1/2 hours, especially after such a great hiking day in the mountains. And especially after Daddy has been driving and Mommy has been wayfinding all week. Today was not our most fun day. We started with our same routine then headed out (have you noticed that we are routine people?). I slept a bit on the way "there," but unfortunately the "end point" was not that cool and it was too hot and late to hike. So, we drove through the Garden of the Gods park. This park has lots of tall read rocks that people named based on a general shape they saw in them. Kinda like how people name shapes of clouds? But the rocks don't move as quickly as the clouds so you can keep the same name for a really long time, like in this park. We took a short walk through the park (so short that I did not even get into the backpack). I was mainly interested in one of my new favorite things, Ritz crackers. I know what the bag looked like and where Daddy had them (in his pocket) and I am pretty good at grunting for what I want. I drank a little of my bottle and we were off to the next "end point." If I knew we would just be driving around I would have drank more of the bottle at one time. After what seemed like hours of driving and Mommy and Daddy having tense conversations about what to do next, we stopped at the Helen Hunt Waterful (not the Helen Hunt actress from tv). It was pretty but kinda small in comparision to the waterfalls we saw in the Rocky Mountain National Park, and it was pretty hot and dusty there. We just stopped for a minute and we did not even walk up the trail. I was getting pretty tired and bored too.

We did go to a playground next which was pretty fun. We ate our packed lunch, which for me included Ritz crackers and a few Pringles that I snuck from the container before Daddy could get them from me. There were lots of kids playing at this park too so we enjoyed watching them run and play and laugh. Mommy then took me to swing, which I love, and some kids even came over to talk to me and help me swing too. Guess what we did next? We got in the car and started driving. This did not make me happy and I told my parents all about it. I guess I fell asleep for awhile and when I woke up, guess what? We were still driving.

The day did get better and all it took was a little "super cold" Coors Light. We stopped in Golden on the way home to take the free brewery tour and tasting. We did need to wait for a little while for the bus (who knew that it would be so popular that people would wait like at King's Island to get in?). It wasn't too long and I drank a bottle while we waited (no silly, not a beer bottle, not even a "3.2 beer," I had one of my bottles). Mommy did not bring her wallet on the trip because the first day she left her purse in the truck and had a very bad moment when she thought it was stolen, so from then on she left her purse at the hotel. She was a little worried that they would not let her get her free taste at the end of the tour but the man was very nice and figured that she looked 21 so gave her a wrist band anyway. Daddy said that they check IDs to make sure people don't keep coming back for the free beer over and over again and that she did not look like the type so they let her in. Hmm, Daddy always has a good point like that. Anyway, the tour was very quick, mainly because Mommy and Daddy skipped most of it and went to the "tasting lounge" ahead of many people. We got into another line to get our free taste (not me, I did not have a wrist band). Soon enough they were tasting Blue Moon and Blue Moon Honey. Everyone gets 3 free tastes so as soon as we got the first one we got right back in line for the 2nd one. Daddy has said that he does not know why people stand in line for Kings Island rides, but this line must have been worth it because we did it three times! Everyone at the Coors tour loved me too. I met lots of new people and even a 10-month old from Canada who was on her first brewery tour too. The third drink they got was "super cold" Coors Light, the same Coors Light beer that is kept 10 degrees colder than usual. I don't know what the usual temperature is, but I know when were on the top of the mountain and it was cooler we had to put our jackets on, so this must be cold. Don't worry, these were not big glasses so Daddy was still in good shape to drive and Mommy to wayfind. We even got presents at the gift shop! I got a stuffed moose that has writing on it "Moosin' around Colorado" on it. I love him and have already chewed his head.

When we got back, Mommy and I went swimming again and Daddy went to Wal-Mart (you got it, again) for dinner food. We were the only ones in the pool again too. I found a new interest, the bubbles we make when we moved back and forth really fast. I tried to touch them with my finger but they disappeared too quickly to pick them up. I found the water jets too, although I did not understand how they worked or why I could not get my mouth to them.

We had a quiet night with dinner in our room (burgers, brats, peas, spinach, whatever we had in the fridge). We got everything ready for our last day because we decided that we should do more hiking and no more driving around.