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.
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