Colorado 2019 - Kid Friendly Summer Vacation - Days 1 & 2

On somewhat of a whim, a few weeks back we took a one week getaway to Colorado. You can read about the beginning of that story here.

Below is a continuation of the story - the first two days of our trip.

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Saturday, August 3rd - Day ONE
Flight out of MSP, 7am
Arrival DEN, 8:30am

A little back story:

First, our three year old has been asking about what it takes to ride a "big airplane" for quite some time (and since my husband has a private pilot license, our son has a hard time understanding the concept of why Daddy can't just fly a "big airplane" for us, hahaha).

Second, being that three year olds don't have a great grasp of timelines, up to the day prior we hadn't told our son about our plan to go to Colorado (the "are we there yet?" struggle is REAL).

At dinner the night before departure, we finally told our son about the upcoming "big airplane ride" and vacation.  He was PUMPED!  So, during dinner, we had a little pep talk.  We discussed how we'd have to get up really early, and that he couldn't cry about it, because that's what we have to do if we want to go for a ride.

Surprisingly, the pep talk worked - waking up our three year old at 4am for this trip was a non issue.  When I turned the knob on his bedroom door, he heard the click and sat up lickety-split, smiling and saying "see, I not cry!"

Battle one - WON!

Of course, the security process at the airport was ... well, the security process at the airport.  Which was particularly bad that day at over 1+ hour wait.  Even arriving 2 hours prior to our flight, we barely had time to grab a quick breakfast before boarding began.  Despite it all, my son still handled it like a champ - and soon enough, we were here:

Stop one - Red Rocks Amphitheater 

It was about 9am when we got on the road out of Denver.  With hotel check-in not technically available until 3pm, there was no hurry to get to our first destination (Breckenridge), so we took our time driving and made a pit stop at the Red Rocks.

Our visit's timing was particularly good, as we got there just after the fitness classes were winding down for the morning, and before the sleepy tourists would wake up for their breakfasts.  Enjoying a fairly people-free visit, my son loved touching the rocks in areas accessible to the public ... and picking rocks from the gravel parking lot to put in his pocket (face palm - what is it with kids and rocks?!).

After taking our fill of the scenery, we hit the road to Breckenridge, finding lunch along the way as well.



Stop two - HOTEL: Hilton Double Tree, Breckenridge

Due to his business travel, my husband has minor status with Hilton.  Combining that with some seasonal rate promotions, Hilton Double Tree in Breckenridge was a reasonable price for us during our visit.  FYI - I think the seasonal promo was 4 nights for the price of 3 ... or some such thing.

Pros of the hotel - good price, friendly desk/front end staff, walkable distance to Breckenridge's "downtown"/main street, free shuttle service to/from the hotel to downtown if you don't want to walk, and a somewhat lucky thing for us: they had a room available despite our early arrival (three cheers hooray, my son got to take a nap day one).

Cons of the hotel - pretty much everything else.  The room was "cooled" with a cheesy floor AC unit that never really made the room feel air conditioned, and it vented hell-fire hot air onto the room's patio rendering that area pretty much unusable.  The bathroom was so small that the door hit the toilet seat, so you had to stand in the shower to close the door.  During the day, housekeeping staff parked carts every 30 or so feet in the hallway so you could "help yourself" rather than bothering to service our room the first 2-3 days we were there.  The parking was $25 per day, plus valet serviced, so that added an extra cost we hadn't anticipated.

Overall, the hotel was OK ... not bad, but not great either ... so I would say look at all your options before you make a decision on where to stay.



Stop three - Exploring downtown 

After nap, we took the free hotel shuttle down to the "end" of Breckenridge's downtown area, essentially where the Gondola operates, and walked up the street heading back towards our hotel.  Stopping here and there, we spent some time checking out trinket shops and decorative benches.  Of course, my son spotted the local toy shop, so we killed some time there as well.



Stop four / Dinner - Piante Pizzeria

For the first night in Breckenridge, we mistakenly selected a vegan pizza restaurant.  Since we had dummy vacation brain, we didn't put 2+2 together until after I placed my order for my son's almond milk and the server walked away (me: do you have white milk?  server: we have almond milk if that's ok?).  Despite the "surprise",  I loved our meal, and I highly recommend the restaurant.



Sunday, August 4th - Day TWO
Everything we did this day was - FREE!
Well, except the eating parts, obviously.

Three year olds make awesome alarm clocks when you need to go to work.  They make less awesome alarm clocks when you're on vacation, and in a time zone that's one hour behind your normal schedule.

That's the long way of saying we had a built-in 5AM wake up call for pretty much every day we were in Breckenridge.

Since the hotel didn't offer complimentary breakfast, and we hadn't made it to a grocery store yet, after getting dressed for the morning we hit up the hotel's shuttle and headed out in search of breakfast.



Stop one - Daylight Donuts

Our hotel's shuttle service began at 7am, so we immediately hopped on and headed to the area where the Gondola operated.  I had read online that nearby was a decent donut shop, so we opted to have our first CO breakfast there.

Coffee was good, donuts were fresh.  Everything was reasonably priced and service was fast.  The place even had hot breakfast options (IE eggs, etc - I did not order those so I don't know what they were like).

Recommendation: get there early, or risk not getting a table.  After we placed our order just after 7, the place suddenly packed to the gills.  We were lucky to have beat the rush.



Stop two - Main Street Playground, Blue River Plaza

As any parent knows, after sugar a kid needs some time to run.  That's the beauty of Breckenridge's main street area, as there are two playground areas - right on Main Street!

Since our goal for the morning was to ride the Gondola, and it didn't open for about another hour after we finished our donuts, we went up to the Blue River Plaza area and let our son burn off his donut.

Good to know: there appeared to be a public yoga class in the grass across the river from us, so if that's your thing, it might be worth researching.  Also, for kiddy potty emergencies - there is a very nice public restroom in the basement of the welcome center, right next to the playground.



Stop three - Gondola ride to Peak 8

After killing about an hour at Blue River Plaza, we walked back down to the Gondola area to queue up.  While we were in Breckenridge, Gondola service ran from 9am - 6pm.  At about 8:45, we found ourselves to be one of the few people ready to ride, but I heard that the wait can be a bit long later in the day.

Riding the Gondola is 100% free, and you have the option to board or exit at 3 points along the way.  Since there isn't much on the mountain at the other stops during non-ski season, we opted to ride the Gondola the entire way to the final stop - Peak 8.

On Peak 8, there's a "Fun Park" called EPIC Discovery.  It offers things like alpine slides, rope bridge courses, chair lift rides, and zip lines.  Being that my son is 3 and basically not a candidate for any of that stuff, we opted not to purchase the $60 "below 54in" ticket, and instead just hike around the park.  There are plenty of walking trails and things to see, so you can easily fill an hour or more just looking around.  We were particularly entertained by the snow field, which was still substantial even this late in the summer.

Pro tip: bring your own water.  Two bottles at the peak's snack shop was $14 and change!!!

With the early wake up, by about 10am or so my son was starting to wane.  Factoring in the time it would take to ride the Gondola back down, plus get lunch, we decided to end our morning outing and start to transition back to the hotel.

Stop four / Lunch - The Canteen Tap House & Tavern

I was a little burned out prior to taking this trip due to dynamics at work, so I have to admit I didn't do a ton of research or planning for this vacation.  That meant either my husband picked our places to eat based on his last second Yelp reading, or we randomly walked in based on what looked good.  I think we ended up at Canteen based on Yelp. 

Either way, highly recommend.  Good food, good beer selections.  Everything we had was delicious.

Stop five/rain delay and eventual dinner - Downstairs at Eric's

After lunch, we all enjoyed a nap.  Unfortunately, we woke up to thunderstorms, which made walking around and doing sight seeing less than desirable.  No big deal, as we needed to make a supplies trip anyway (who wants to keep buying $14 worth of water?!).

Since I had forgotten to pack a usable hiking day pack, and we wanted some basic groceries to make our own breakfasts and lunches, I suggested we go to a store that was more than just groceries.  Since my husband has banned me from dragging him to Wal-Mart when we travel (I'm looking at you, Arkansas), we opted for the 20-30 min drive to a local Target.

Hiking pack for me - check.  Hiking pack for an insistent 3 year old - also check.

File this under things I never knew my 3 year old MUST have.  Hidden benefit to me - he got to carry all his "must haves" the rest of the trip, including a spare zipper hoodie and his growing rock collection.  Any pack mule mom knows what I'm talking 'bout on that one.

As an aside, I do recommend the above Swiss Gear sling bag from Target.  It holds 2 water bottles on the exterior, and had enough space inside that I could fit a child's soft sided lunch box. This worked out perfectly for vacation day trips with simple sandwich lunches.

Anyway, after getting a few must haves at Target and putting our purchases away at the hotel, once again we boarded the shuttle to find dinner.

Unlucky for us - due to the rain, everyone had the same dinner idea as us.  Take the kids to the indoor arcade and let them run.

Lucky for us - because I told the host we would be happy to squeeze three people at a two seater, we waited less than 15 minutes for a table.

Downstairs at Eric's had great pizza, a fantastic tap selection, and surprisingly good "healthy" menu as well.  Knowing we were bound to eat out a lot on this trip, and thus our "junk" intake would be high, I was thrilled to order an appetizer of celery and carrot sticks served with hummus.

After a good dinner, we hopped back on the hotel shuttle to avoid walking home in the rain, and called it a night.

Colorado 2019 - Kid Friendly Summer Vacation - Intro

On somewhat of a whim, a few weeks back we took a one week getaway to Colorado. 

C is for ... Colorado!

If you know my last name, you know why we did this.

Ok - to be fair, it was ... well ... maybe more of a 50/50 whim, since historically we tend to take a vacation around my husband's birthday each year.  In fact, you may recall some of these trips from previous recaps like our 2017 Flying Vacation and our 2015 trip to see the Chicago Air Show.  (The years 2018 and 2016 being excluded from our trip "historics", with the purchase of the new house in 2018 and the birth of my son in 2016.) 

Anyway - this year, after having no major family summer vacations in some time, my husband and I started brainstorming random ideas. 

Surprisingly, selecting a destination was a little tricky.  Our plane Bubba is down for a total engine refurbishment, which takes 2-3 months to complete.  And a three year old isn't exactly a great road trip companion.  Well, let's be real: a three year old isn't exactly a great travel companion, period.  Taking these factors into consideration, we weren't sure what to do.

With my husband's Delta buy-one-get-one bonus in hand (I think it's a benefit of a Delta credit card or something, I don't remember what he told me), we started debating cheap AND short flights to areas of possible interest.  Weighing a few ticket prices against the cost of lodging upon arrival, and activities available once there, we eventually settled on flying into Denver. 

Honestly, it was kind of a straw pull that we ended up in Colorado, with the cost of visiting tipping it in Denver's favor.  But either way, a week or two after booking tickets, I found myself waking up at 3:45 to catch a 4:30 taxi to the airport ... for a 7:00 flight.  Yes - those are AM times.  BLECH!

After arrival, we spent a week floating around areas south of Denver, and we had lots of fun outdoors time.

Over the next couple of blog posts, I'll recap my trip.  More to come!

2017 Year in Review

Yikes, I am well overdue for a year in review post.

I suppose the reasoning for that is pretty obvious.  As you can tell, my fitness commitment for the last year has been ... lackluster, to say the least.  And being that this is a somewhat fitness oriented blog, it's hard to admit publicly that I"m not working out enough.

Sure, sure - I have a good enough excuse for my lack of fitness with a new child in the house and all, but still!  In the end, an excuse is an excuse, no matter how good it may be.

Disappointment in fitness aside, my life has been filled with a lot of other fun things ... and still a few races despite it all.  So ... let's do this.  Let's recap 2017.

2017, a year in review!

Races

For 2017, all my excuses left me with the smallest race completion list ever on this blog - a whopping 7 races complete in 2017:

Tri-U-Mah, more aptly named "Dumpster Fire"

Bay to Breakers, easily my best race costume to date

Rainbow Run, a tradition 7 years running (literally)

Freedom 5, where I passed the torch ... again ... and again ... and again ...

Lake Run, my first family costumed race

Howl'oween Kids Run, where I spent my day chasing burgers

Terror Trot, the last of my costume recycling in 2017

Total miles raced - about 23ish miles

Cumulative info:

     Races 82 - 88

     Bibs 78 - 83

Costumes

As you can see above, I was somewhat less creative here in 2017.  This is partly due to the fact that I've saturated myself with race costumes over the last few years.  I mean ... once you've run as a pair of stewardesses with a pilot, a mermaid, a statue of liberty (handing out torches, no less), a unicorn, wonder woman, a skeleton, a hamburgler chasing hamburgers, a robot, a mariachi, a rainbow with a pot of gold side kick, a sriracha bottle, a Christmas tree (of sorts), and a woman on fire ... 

Well ...

Plus, my budget for InkNBurn clothing, and generally race registrations as a whole ... with an 18 month old in 4T clothing (yes, I said 4T clothing, as in the size of a 4 year old) ... you know where my money is going.  And it ain't on race registrations and workout gear.

Keeping Healthy

Yeah, may as well skip this category in 2017.  

Last year, I didn't complete the year of the swim (hence my lack of final recap there), I hardly did any races - and the few I did participate in weren't competitive anyway, and I even let my group fitness participation fall to the wayside.

Rather than focus on the negatives of 2017, what I will say is this: I got sick of being disappointed in myself late last summer, and have therefore started to work towards putting myself back on track.  

Right now, I can confidently say I am doing 4 group fitness classes a week (two of which I teach), am committed to starting back on a running program next week, and have signed up for year of the swim attempt #2.  

And ... I'm hoping that this re-commitment to fitness will help me in the weight gain area, as I am not happy with where that is a year and a half post baby (almost two years ... in April!) 

Changes

Aside from my fitness regime changes (at first in a bad way, and then in a good way), I am also learning to adapt to this "mom" thing.  Or rather, this "extra mom" thing.  Because, you know ... Talk Like a Pirate Day and Halloween are just two of the many reasons through out the year that I can dress mini me in a costume as well.

And honestly, my change in a "bad way" has actually been a good thing for me.  By carrying some extra weight right now, and by being "lazy" and not working out as much, I have had to practice self forgiveness and acceptance - two things that I have never been great at, but have gotten a whole lot better at in 2017.  So chalk one up to personal growth.

In regards to things NOT changing, I'm pleased to be able to say that despite having a child, my family's love for travel has not been lost.  In fact, we were fortunate enough to take two adventurous trips this year: San Francisco in the spring, and a summertime flying trip that carried us in a loop from Escanaba & Mackinac Island / Niagara Falls & Toronto / Dayton, OH / Madison, WI and then back home again.

Finally

In all of my year in review recaps, I take a minute to revisit my previous years of blogging ... and not to pat myself on the back this year, but it's kind of nice to see how I've grown:

2013 was when I was peaking in my physical fitness, my life was finally coming together, and I was feeling great about things.

2014 was a year of struggle where I tried to cope with a miscarriage, some physical setbacks, and I still tried to maintain a healthy attitude and life balance.

2015 and coming into my mid 30's, I finally settled into a happy place in my life.  Some time around 2012 or 2013, I learned to accept things in my life for what they were, and to eliminate things from my life that didn't make me happy.  In that process, I found an authentic me that I've just become ... happy with.  Which means, I don't really go into a year expecting it to be AWESOME or BAD anymore, I just hope that I can continue to maintain that authentic me, and have a good time while I do it.  

So aside from becoming a mom in 2016, and growing into that mom role in 2017 ... I just continue to focus on being an authentic me, looking forward to what more adventures are to come!

Flying Vacation 2017 - Stop 5 & Heading Home

Over the last two weeks, I've posted an overview of my recent flying vacation and recapped the first four stops of the trip (stops one & two here, stop three here, and stop four here).  Today, I'm continuing on by recapping the fifth stop of our trip and our final return home.


Thursday, August 10th - Depart Dayton International Airport, Dayton OH
                                        Arrive Dane County Airport, Madison WI
                                        Flight time - about 2 hours 15 minutes
                                        Hotel for 2 nights, Hampton Inn off State Street


I mentioned at the beginning of this recap series that for various reasons, we didn't really have a firm plan on this trip.  That is mostly true.  However, there were two sticking points on this vacation that we definitely wanted to hit - (1) Niagara Falls and (2) a stop back at both my husband's and my alma mater, Madison, WI.

With a quiet final night in Dayton, and one last hot breakfast the next morning, it seemed there was nothing left to do on our overall trip check list except for head to Madison.  So off we went.

Our flight from Dayton to Madison was fairly uneventful, thanks to not needing customs and having a nice clear day weather wise.  While my son was a little antsy, I managed to keep him entertained well enough I guess (it helped that I had picked up a few new things at the Air Force Museum gift shop the day prior, by the way).  Without much ado, we arrived in Madison just in time for ... a birthday lunch for my husband at the infamous Nitty Gritty!

In case you're wondering ... as if this flying vacation didn't have enough of an aviation theme, my son "bought" Dad a celebratory memorial brick at the Oshkosh EAA Airventure's iconic Brown Arch. 

We haven't quite settled on the inscription yet, but it will look something like one of these:

I suppose that means we'll need to head back to Oshkosh again next year for the air show, huh?  Flying vacation 2018 here we come!

Anyway, back on topic with Madison.  After lunch at the Nitty Gritty, and one free glass birthday mug heavier, we headed back to our hotel for the usual toddler nap time.  And then we spent what was left of the day walking around State Street and enjoying  a lovely dinner in the somewhat new rooftop restaurant Fresco, located on top of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

The next morning, and the final full day of our trip, we started off with the usual - hot breakfast included at the hotel (thanks for the stays, Hampton Inn, you've been real ... and if you could extend my husband's status into 2018 due to this blog series I'd appreciate it *wink*).  With the skies looking overcast but the weather claiming no rain ... we left our hotel on foot heading towards Madison's free zoo - Henry Vilas.

Obviously, weather men are paid all too well for being wrong.  Drenched after making it maybe 1/3 of a mile (and roughly a quarter of the way of our walk), I asked my husband to think of a smart hide out to go dry off and wait for the rain to pass.  Reminding me that Union South had been remodeled in the last few years, and we had yet to see it, we stopped by there and had a coffee.

Well, had a coffee after chasing around a toddler for about 20 minutes and needing an energy boost.

 

Oh, BTW, thanks for all the paper towels, UW.  I suppose I kind of earned them after paying off student debts for the last 10 years.

Finally, it seemed like the majority of the rain/mist had passed so we walked the rest of the way to the zoo.  There, we were rewarded with a fairly decent pick up in weather and even a tid bit of sun.  Not to mention a couple of hours of fun animal viewing ... and a little boy VERY excited for his second ride ever on a carousel.

Knowing I'd have another lunch on the horizon after our zoo trip, the night before I had looked into some possible food options and ended up with my eye on Rockhound Brewery.  Since things went well at the zoo and I knew my son would be patient enough for a meal there, that was our next stop.

Oh, don't worry... while there, we had a little tasting, of course.

And then ... after the last nap time of vacation, we headed over to the Union Terrace to enjoy the lake, some ice cream, and a pontoon ride.  (Since we're alumi association members, in the summer we can partake in a free pontoon ride on Friday afternoons ... might not justify the cost of a membership, but it sure is a fun perk!).

Once we left the lake, we ended the night with dinner at Zandru's on State Street.  Eating there was actually a pretty good deal.  For an early dinner, we split a plate of paella and some happy hour deals - 3 tapas plates for $15 and $5 mules.

 

The next morning, with the end of vacation hanging on the horizon, we spent a little time roaming campus and shopping for some team apparel.  With the goal of a return flight during nap time, we stretched the morning out by going to see Abe on Bascom and having a slice at Ian's Pizza for lunch.

And then ... sadly, we were on our way home.


Saturday, August 12th - Depart Dane County Airport, Madison WI
                                       Arrive Flying Cloud Airport, Eden Prairie MN
                                       Flight time - about 2 hours


The return flight, or rather return nap, was a success.  Not long after take off, my son was asleep, and a smooth flight helped keep him there for quite some time. 

After about 2 hours of flight time on Saturday, and a total accumulation of 11 or 12 hours total in the plane ... we were home.

Flying Vacation 2017 - Stop 4

Over the last two weeks, I've posted an overview of my recent flying vacation and recapped the first three stops of the trip (stops one & two here and stop three here).  Today, I'm continuing on by recapping the fourth stop of our trip.


Tuesday, August 8th - Depart John C. Murno Airport, Hamilton ON Canada
                                    Waypoint for air navigation purposes Erie PA
                                    Arrive Dayton International Airport, Dayton OH
                                    Flight time - about 2 hours 15 minutes
                                    Hotel for 2 nights, Hampton Inn Vandalia
                                    Rental car secured for ease of local transport


After a rather uneventful afternoon in Brantford, following a busy morning in Toronto Island Park that same day, we awoke to our last morning in Canada.

Wait, I lied.  The afternoon in Branford was actually kind of eventful.  Well, for my husband anyway.

Turns out the process of private flying OUT of the United States into Canada is quite painless.  You do your customs advance notification paperwork, you file your flight plan or whatever else, and you're good.  You can even do this documentation submission the day of your flight.  The only minor sticking point in the Canadian process is that you have to be fairly precise with your landing time - I don't recall exactly what the parameters were, but I think it was +/-15 minutes of the arrival time to your designated airport (that you documented on your customs paperwork).

But for RE-ENTRY into the United States, OYE!  The process is much more challenging. 

Not only do you do your customs advance notification paperwork and so on, just like you do for Canada, in addition you have to do a customs advance notification telephone call AND you have to be even more precise with your arrival time - you CANNOT be early, and can only be within 0-15 minutes past your originally documented time. 

To make matters worse, the rules for each individual US airport varies.  So for example, we were originally going to fly into Saginaw MI, where the rules were: customs advance notification paperwork and phone call one business day in advance of your intended landing.  Ok, technically, not that bad.  Assuming they answer their phone.  Or at least have a message line.

I'm sure you can see where this is going.

During the entire 2-3 hour window when my son took his nap (after we visited Toronto Island Park), my husband closed himself in our hotel bathroom and every 5 minutes tried re-dialing the customs line for the Saginaw airport.  He even got desperate and tried calling other international airports in the MI area ... no one answered and there was no way to leave a voicemail requesting a call back.

Encroaching on end of day, business hours 9am - 5pm, we threw in the towel on Saginaw and started to punt.  Challenge: what small US airport along the Canadian border, near Toronto, would allow us to come without a day prior phone call?

After reviewing a few options, we realized that Dayton OH might potentially let us in without the day prior phone call.  As an added bonus, it is an airplane mecca (more on this later), and also had a couple of stamping locations for my son's National Parks Passport (which you can read more about here).

Fingers crossed, we began the process of preparing to land in Dayton instead of Saginaw.  And as an emergency backup to Dayton, we had our eye on Erie PA - since they have a much more lenient customs filing process, and would allow you to file as late as 2 hours prior to your arrival.

Not really knowing where our next morning would take us, we cooked dinner in our hotel room one last time ... thanks for the kitchen upgrade, eh! ... and called it a night.

Eh.  Eh.  Eh!!!  (Just gotta throw a few more of those in, since this is the last of my Canadian recapping).

The next morning, wonder of all wonders ... the Saginaw Airport customs person called my husband.  WTF?!  Turns out they saw that we filed paperwork and wanted to complete our telephonic reservation.  My husband simply told them that since they didn't answer their phone for over two hours the day prior, we had re-filed for customs clearance in Dayton instead (no, my husband did not tell customs to shove it ... he is much more polite than I am ... heh). 

The kicker?!  The Saginaw customs person didn't even apologize for not answering the phone or the fact that we had to fly almost 300 miles further south due to their underperformance.  They simply said "OK, goodbye."

If you can't tell, I'm a little heated at Saginaw, folks.  Do not recommend.

Whatever, the entire mishap actually worked out to make our trip even more interesting, because Dayton turned out to be pretty fun.  And their customs agent was MUCH more friendly, might I add.  So that was an extra little icing on the cake for us.

With all the customs hoo-ha, and using Erie PA as a waypoint to get our plane into US airspace sooner rather than later, by the time we landed and unloaded at Dayton it was pretty late.  If I recall correctly, after a quick lunch on the way to the hotel, we ended up checking in at around 2pm.  I felt a little bad about keeping my son up that long, but the bonus was we were only about 1 hour early for check in so a room was actually available.  Good news for us, as our son got to take a solid nap in a hotel pack and play that day instead of the car.

For dinner that night, we opted to try out a nearby brewpub -  The Hairless Hair in Vandalia - and weren't disappointed.

While the location is nothing to look at OUTSIDE, what they have inside is worth the trip.  In fact, Hairless Hair had a summer pineapple IPA on tap that we liked so well we actually took a growler of it back to our hotel room.  Plus, their in house made pizzas were fantastic. 

After dinner at the Hair, we tucked in to our hotel for the night ... but the evening was none too peaceful.  Apparently, our hotel neighbors must have had too much to drink or something because they came "home" around 2am and started a screaming match.  It was so bad I debated calling the front desk or the police to file a possible domestic abuse report.  But, as I was about to look for a phone, what I assumed was the woman of the couple screamed "FINE!  I'LL JUST SLEEP IN THE CAR!"  Then ... silence.  There were a few more doors slamming that I just passed off as a drunk man taking out his aggression ... and eventually I dozed back off. 

I guess I was none too surprised by the drunken melee, as about a quarter of a mile away from our hotel there was a literal DRIVE THROUGH LIQUOR STORE.  Earlier in the night, I had found it kind of amusing, and had Googled photos of the place.

Apparently, it was less funny to me thereafter.  Huh.  Imagine that.

Thankfully, none of the midnight shenanigans disrupted my son, so at least he was well rested the next morning.  I on the other hand ... was really looking forward to the coffee included with our hotel's hot breakfast.

Once we filled our bellies at the hotel's breakfast buffet, we looked at our adventure checklist for the day and noted that one of the items on our list - the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center - opened at 9am.  Though we were a little early yet even for that, we had nothing else to do to pass the time, so we went on our way to explore.

Following a short drive from our hotel, we arrived at the center and were pleasantly surprised to find that the grounds actually opened at 8am.  Which meant that although the educational building itself wasn't open yet, we could pass the time exploring outside until they opened their doors.  Score!

So of course, we did just that.

 

 

The timing worked out wonderfully, as we had just finished making the loop of the informational kiosks and viewing the flying field when the building was opening for the morning.  Not wasting much time (I mean, a newly walking toddler can only enter a building SO fast), we went inside to read more about the Wright Brothers using Huffman Prairie Flying Field as their training grounds for basically the world's first pilots.

While my son wasn't interested in most of that historical stuff, he did think sitting in an old timey flight steering rig with dad was pretty fun.

Those boys.  They are going to have some flying adventures in the years to come.  I just know it.

After finishing up inside, my husband talked with the ranger in the gift shop while I stamped my son's National Parks Passport.  Based on the ranger's eagerness and encouragement of us to go visit the actual field itself, I got the impression that maybe not many people visit this sight, which is actually too bad - the view was beautiful and the staff was incredibly friendly.  And since the ranger taking to my husband was so enthusiastic, we decided to take his advice and drove down to see the actual field itself.

Which, btw, the drive down there alone was worth the trip.

Excuse my terrible mid-drive photo with dashboard included.  Don't worry, I was the passenger.

Since the field was mostly just an open, grassy prairie, I'm not going to post photos of it here.  Mostly because it didn't really photograph well, and any photos I do post will only make the area look less impressive than it is.  Just trust me that if you head out that way, its worth the extra 10-15 minutes of your day to swing by and make a visit.

After we wrapped up in the Huffman Prairie area, we headed to our next stop - the National Museum of the US Air Force.

Seriously.  This place.  Four hangers - FOUR GIANT HANGERS - filled with almost every kind of flying object imaginable.  And I'm not kidding.  Check out this range.

As you can tell, my son was not impressed by Air Force One.  I, on the other hand, WAS impressed by those missiles.  HUGE!  Here's some additional pictures so you can see just how big they are.

 

 

We even walked through an actual scale model, retired training unit of a NASA space shuttle.  To me, to see how SMALL of a space the astronauts actually live in during their missions - that was cool.  Hands down one of the coolest things I saw in the entire museum.  At least to me.

Huh.  After looking through everything I took photos of, I guess I was more impressed by the space portion of the exhibit hall ... which was actually less than a quarter of what they had on display.  Most of what was there was large military planes, various kinds of experimental small planes, and other similar items. 

I guess part of my lack of enthusiasm/photography for those kinds of items may be that I've been saturated in the last 1-2 months at numerous air shows and a trip to Oshkosh Airventure 2017.  Sorry.  Google for yourself if you want to see more.

Speaking of lack of enthusiasm, at about the halfway point of touring the museum my son started to struggle.  As you can see in the missile photo above, all the exhibits in the museum are simply stanchioned off with basic tube railings or poles with ropes.  And of course, they are all perfectly toddler height.  Which means my son, if let to roam free, could have easily ran under any restraint in the museum and touched whatever he wanted.

Not being one wanting to pay for historical aircraft damage repairs, we opted to leave our son in the stroller or carry him through the entire museum.  For a new walker, that was torture.  At least he played along for about an hour and a half or maybe even two hours during the visit.  But by the 4th hangar, he was D-O-N-E done!

But, at least there was a light at the end of the tunnel for my son.  Once we (quickly) cleared the last hanger and the gift shop, we took him outside and let him walk to the on site toddler playground, which he loved.  I'm not sure if he understood this control panel and thought he was flying like dad, but ... either way, he liked it.

With lunch time at hand, and nap time quickly approaching thereafter, after about 20 minutes or so in the playground we started heading back to the general area of the hotel.  And since I've never had an iconic Big Boy burger ...

 

As you can tell in the photo, my son was slightly less excited to meet Big Boy than I was.  Hey, at least they had milk to make up for the trauma.  Which came with an awesome accessory!

Curly straws.  Heh.  I didn't even use it and it still made me feel like a kid again.

Coming back to our hotel after lunch, I guess I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was to take in this sight.

In the lobby, we found two police officers chatting with the hotel's ... I'll assume she was the manager ... and a hotel trolley cart stacked haphazardly with a few random bags of luggage and a load of broken décor. 

I'm sure you can guess where that came from.

Being a bit worried, and since the cops were blocking the elevators anyway, I told one of the cops our room number and mentioned that the people next door were yelling a lot last night.  The first cop kept pretty mum just saying something like yeah, but the other cop basically said "yep, that's what happens with meth."

OH DAMN!  Not what I was expecting to hear.  Sorry drive through liquor store, you are redeemed!

Also, I can't quite figure out ... we were staying at a Hampton Inn which isn't exactly a bad hotel.  And there were plenty of dive hotel options just across the street and down a block.  So why did our "neighbors" pick Hampton Inn for their smash-up adventure?

I guess I will never know.  Either way, my husband and I were glad to know that those people definitely weren't coming back for a second night.  And while it was unfortunate for the hotel, the meth heads had damaged the room enough that it was not rentable for the next night, which ensured a peaceful night's sleep for us at least.

After chatting with the cops, and a nap for our son, my husband and I took off on one last adventure in Dayton that afternoon - the Wright Brother's Cycle Shop (another historic sight for the National Passport as well).

This building is actually the main building for the historical context of the site, and is set up on the mail floor (in the windows that face the intersection) to look like an old timey grocery.  If you continue walking the sidewalk to the right of the building, back behind is a second free standing structure that is the actual cycle shop.

Inside the main building, however, is where the meat of the exhibit lies.  There are a lot of informational kiosks about the history of the Wright Brothers - from print shop operators and bicycle salesmen, to aviation inventors.  There was also some other information about African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.  I was unfamiliar with Mr. Dunbar, so that portion was interesting to see as well.

My son, already a poet enthusiast apparently, enjoyed Mr. Dunbar's interactive poetry reading exhibit:

He actually stood there and listened to poetry readings for quite some time.  #wearesocultured (sarcasm)

On the other hand, my son was less impressed by a later interactive exhibit featuring a large wood propeller and antique motor with lots of rubber belts.  When he pushed that button, which my husband and I didn't even realize he was about to do since we were distracted by other informational items ourselves, the VERY LOUD motor fired up the giant prop ... and promptly threw my son into a crying panic.

The poor guy!  His heart was going a million beats a minute after that.  Amid the drama, another couple in the exhibit couldn't help but snicker at the scenario.  After knowing our son was ok, of course.

After finishing up in the main building, we headed over to the cycle shop.  There, another incredibly friendly ranger was available to offer information and answer questions.  He even took one of the few family photos we had from the trip.

The shop also included a couple of informational signs that helped me close the loop as to why Wright Cycle evolved into Wright Flight.

Whew!  After recapping the above, I just now realized how full of a day we had in Dayton!  And I'm not even done talking about the day.  Although, I don't have much more interesting to say, really - we simply had another dinner and had a quiet night's sleep.

Meth head free, might I add.