Day # 56 - Colorado Springs

Got ourselves over the Rockies and made it to Colorado Springs. One more shining example of my husband’s towing prowess and a sigh of relief from me that I didn’t have to be behind the wheel! Slept in a little bit and then grabbed a bite of breakfast.

We had to go in search of new shoes for the boy. He actually wore a hole in the bottom of his sneakers and the toe seams are starting to give. Luckily, we are back in civilization and there are about half a dozen Kohl’s in the area. We managed to get AJ to hold still long enough to measure his feet and encouraged him to pick the shoes we liked (nice black Sketchers that will hide dirt instead of the cheaply made pair sporting Lightning McQueen). We made our final selections and proceeded to the checkout, then the happy little man proudly wore his new sneakers out of the store.

We decided to not push ourselves too hard today as everyone was still recovering from the drive and Tony was finally starting to feel better again. We thought we would check out the lay of the land and plan the next few day’s worth of activities. We headed into downtown Colorado Springs. Tony remembered that it was a neat downtown area from when he was here on business years ago. It’s more metropolitan than the towns we’ve visited recently, but it still had a small town charm.

The main section of downtown had several sculptures and a few nicely manicured parks. We were looking for a park with a play area for the kids to run off some steam because we were tired of hearing Abby chastise us that we weren’t making full use of the playground at the campground. I don’t know how many times this trip we have had the discussion that we can play at a playground at home. That we want to do things on this trip we can’t do at home. After 2 months, you’d think it would sink in.

Anyway, Tony happened upon Acadia Park. There was a very interesting fountain spouting water that local kids were playing in along with a small but nice area with a jungle gym. We hopped out and were surprised that the fountain was staffed with 2 young men to watch over the play area. Having park staff there made the play seem that much more orderly. The kids in the fountain were certainly having a good time, but it wasn’t a free for all. Our kids were disappointed that we didn’t have extra clothes with us so they could get wet too. They enjoyed playing on the playground for a while. Suddenly, the fountain seemed to come to life. Music started playing and the water was choreographed to the beat. The center part of the fountain rose up displaying a comical figure named Uncle Wilber playing an enormous water spouting sousaphone. Apparently the fountain’s “show” happens every 30 minutes and at night there are lights as well. It wasn’t a Vegas fountain, but it was entertaining and we enjoyed watching it. We took a stroll around town to get a closer look at some of the statues, stopped by Mrs. Field’s for some cookies, Starbucks for iced tea and then walked back to the park to watch another show before heading back to the campground. It felt good to just be out walking around. The temperature was perfect – in the low 70’s!

We headed back to the campground for lunch. After the kids took their rest, we headed for the campground’s playground before dinner. We grilled out for dinner and then everyone got cleaned up and ready for adventure tomorrow.