Below is a continuation of the story - days 3 & 4 of our trip.
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Monday, August 5th - Day THREE
Exploring outside of Breckenridge
Stop one - Georgetown Loop Train Ride
Colorado has a rich history in mining, and trains played a pivotal role in that history. Since my son (via my husband) has a strong affinity to trains, we had to take advantage of that at some point on this trip.
I don't know how, but my husband ended up finding the Georgetown Loop train service, which we boarded in Silver Plume and rode out & back on along Clear Creek. The entire ride was about 1 hour.
Our ticket was a general admission one and did not include any of the mining add-ons (panning for gold flakes = not exactly a 3 year old friendly activity). Since the train wasn't terribly full when we boarded or when we laid over at the turn around point, there was quite a bit of seating flexibility. We opted to ride from Silver Plume to Georgetown on a car with a roof/canopy, and on the ride back we moved to an open air car - essentially a wagon with no sides or top.
Be advised: this is a real coal operated steam train ride, you WILL have the soot on you to prove it.
Overall, the ride was entertaining and the staff narration interesting. I would recommend it to families with younger children.
After the ride, we took advantage of the well furnished waiting area at the Silver Plume gift shop and squatted for a picnic lunch. The staff present was friendly and engaging, most likely because no other customers hung around once the train ride ended.
Stop two - Main Street Playground, Blue River Plaza
Our morning was more than full with our journey out to Silver Plume, train ride and picnic lunch. After nap at the hotel, we opted to hit up the other playground on Breckenridge's main street and then hunt for dinner.
This park doesn't appear to have an official name on Google maps, but it's listed as 114 North Main Street. It has a statue of a miner out front, some historical buildings behind it, and offers a breathtaking mountain view back drop. The playground portion isn't huge, but for a kid that just needs to pump their legs and burn off energy, it's enough.
Stop three / Dinner - Twist
Again leaving my husband to Yelp, we opted to try Twist. Generally speaking, the service and food was VERY good ... but as for all good things, you get what you pay for - it was a bit more expensive than anticipated.
Looking online now, it appears their menu is seasonal. When we visited, my husband had a scallop dish, and I had an Italian style chicken dish with house made noodles. When I look to try and figure out exactly what ingredients were on our plate ... well, there's all new options on their menu today so I'm out of luck. Regardless, we were both very happy with our choices.
Fair warning - their children's menu is a little ... "advanced". If you go here, make sure you have a foodie for a three year old. Aside from my own child, I know pretty much zero kids who would be happy with an option of shrimp for their main and wild rice as their starch. He sure wasn't complaining, either, as he snarfed down his entire plate - and the dark chocolate gelato included at the end of his kid's meal.
Stop Four - "After dinner drinks"
Being on vacation, I was in the mood to have a few beers after dinner this particular night. I dunno ... could be that this text from a neighbor had something to do with it:
So, on the walk back to the hotel from Twist, I started Googling for a potential 6 pack beer stop.
Normally I wouldn't mention a general convenience store stop like this, but I just can't pass up sharing this one tidbit about Breckenridge Market & Liquor - their liquor store likes to tout their fake ID collection!!
After talking with the clerk and asking permission to take a photo, we found out that the collection is somewhat of a humorous wall of shame for visitors to Breckenridge - especially when Mom and Dad come to visit and see Little Timmy's ID on the wall. HAHA!
Tuesday, August 6th - Day FOUR
More exploring outside of Breckenridge
Stop one - South Park NHA and Boreas Pass
If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember back when I did the South Dakota Crazy Horse Volksmarch, I accidentally discovered the National Parks Passport program. Ever since that discovery, when we take a trip to an area with nearby stamping locations, we make it a point to try to obtain stamps for our son.
We determined that there was only one stamp in the vicinity of Breckenridge, the South Park NHA, so day four of our trip was spent searching for that stamp and randomly selecting activities nearby.
Thanks to the ranger station, my son ended up with a pretty kick ass Smoky tattoo - apparently he turned 75 this year:
Not much from South Park's NHA collection seemed ... fail proof kid friendly, I guess you could say. However, the ranger station had a flyer about the Boreas Pass, which my husband was already previously interested in, so after saying thanks for the tattoo we headed to the beginning of that trail - and yet another train themed tourist stop.
Seriously, don't get excited about the starting point of Boreas Pass. They romanticize it, talking about the Como Train Depot's round table, but when you get there ... it's what you'd basically expect from a run down ghost town. The depot and round table are in severe disrepair, and the fencing around it keeps you at such a far distance that it's hard for a kid to even understand what it is. This lack of ... huzzah ... frustrated my son, who was expecting to see something remotely resembling a train, so we hopped back in the car and proceed driving into the pass.
After exiting Como, it was immediately apparent we were entering a rustic road. But, the road was dry despite recent rains, and with careful attention for pot holes we found it passable in our four door rental Nissan.
To quote an online source:
"It’s a pretty rough, gravel road, but in good weather (and if the road is dry), you can drive it in a regular car. When you get to the top, there is plenty of parking."
And that's exactly what we did. After driving along the pass and hitting the peak, with an altitude just shy of 11,500', we parked and checked out the historic remnants on site - some old rail cars, houses, etc. We were surprised by the Black Powder hiking trail sign, as we had done zero research on hikeable routes, but decided to check it out anyway. The trail was an easy walk even for our three year old, and yielded some of the most beautiful, unedited photos of our trip.
Aside from various wildlife and historical remnants, my son was incredibly entertained by the small streams flowing on the mountain. When we reached a spot where the drop off to the water wasn't too ravenous, my husband walked him down to touch the crystal clear water.
To this day, when you ask my son about it - he still shivers about how cold that snow run off was. LOL!
If my son would have had his way, we would likely still be hiking on that trail today. However, I had zero interest in hiking back down a trail carrying a 40+ pound three year old who decided his "legs were tired". Eventually I called the hike off, and we returned back to the car. Then we continued down the back side of the pass that lead into Breckenridge.
Conveniently, that route lead directly to the park I had my eye on for lunch ... which was 100% not planned, but a very happy accident.
Stop two - High Line Railroad Park
Traveling with a three year old has definitely changed what I look for in vacation destinations, case in point: I had this bookmarked as a potential "must visit" site before we even took off out of Minneapolis.
High Line Railroad Park was noted online to be a train themed museum/playground area, and based on what Google Maps showed, it appeared walkable from our hotel. We never ended up testing the walkable theory, since Boreas Pass fed right into the parking lot along our way "home".
The park itself is actually really nice, and entertained my son for quite awhile. The "museum" ... well ... I think it's here more as a convenience and really isn't much. However, the on site fully restored engine is beautiful, and there are even a few train cars you can walk through and take dumb selfies with.
Using the "eat your lunch and then you can play" trick, we nabbed a nearby picnic table and had lunch before exploring the park in detail. To be expected, my son loved the big on site train.
Finally, after a lot of excited play and disappointed "why mommy?"s, we headed back to the hotel for nap once again.
Stop three - Wrapping up in Breckenridge
Since we booked 4 nights in Breckenridge, and we were heading into night 4, it was about time to reload our suitcases and get ready to move on to our next stop in Colorado. During this clean up process, we realized how much we had accumulated in food leftovers and opted to have "dinner in" for our last night. (I hate to waste, especially considering how good our food had been.)
Not wanting to spend our entire evening in the hotel, we instead decided to have one last go at the main street area.
My son loved the courtyard off of one of the shopping areas nearby, so we let him admire the "waterfall" there one last time while we had a post nap snack - and some happy hour beers for mom and dad.
This is where I learned my son is actually a pretty good photographer. Can you believe he took this portrait of me?!
After milking a table for awhile, we eventually moseyed on to revisit some of the gift shops. Somehow, my son managed to talk my husband into purchasing these:
After picking up our last few Breckenridge mementos, and a VERY tedious process of trying to use a microwave at our hotel, we finally managed to eat our leftovers and get everything packed up.
Next stop - Colorado Springs! (With some minor detours along the way, of course).
Exploring outside of Breckenridge
Stop one - Georgetown Loop Train Ride
Colorado has a rich history in mining, and trains played a pivotal role in that history. Since my son (via my husband) has a strong affinity to trains, we had to take advantage of that at some point on this trip.
I don't know how, but my husband ended up finding the Georgetown Loop train service, which we boarded in Silver Plume and rode out & back on along Clear Creek. The entire ride was about 1 hour.
Our ticket was a general admission one and did not include any of the mining add-ons (panning for gold flakes = not exactly a 3 year old friendly activity). Since the train wasn't terribly full when we boarded or when we laid over at the turn around point, there was quite a bit of seating flexibility. We opted to ride from Silver Plume to Georgetown on a car with a roof/canopy, and on the ride back we moved to an open air car - essentially a wagon with no sides or top.
Be advised: this is a real coal operated steam train ride, you WILL have the soot on you to prove it.
Overall, the ride was entertaining and the staff narration interesting. I would recommend it to families with younger children.
After the ride, we took advantage of the well furnished waiting area at the Silver Plume gift shop and squatted for a picnic lunch. The staff present was friendly and engaging, most likely because no other customers hung around once the train ride ended.
Stop two - Main Street Playground, Blue River Plaza
Our morning was more than full with our journey out to Silver Plume, train ride and picnic lunch. After nap at the hotel, we opted to hit up the other playground on Breckenridge's main street and then hunt for dinner.
This park doesn't appear to have an official name on Google maps, but it's listed as 114 North Main Street. It has a statue of a miner out front, some historical buildings behind it, and offers a breathtaking mountain view back drop. The playground portion isn't huge, but for a kid that just needs to pump their legs and burn off energy, it's enough.
Stop three / Dinner - Twist
Again leaving my husband to Yelp, we opted to try Twist. Generally speaking, the service and food was VERY good ... but as for all good things, you get what you pay for - it was a bit more expensive than anticipated.
Looking online now, it appears their menu is seasonal. When we visited, my husband had a scallop dish, and I had an Italian style chicken dish with house made noodles. When I look to try and figure out exactly what ingredients were on our plate ... well, there's all new options on their menu today so I'm out of luck. Regardless, we were both very happy with our choices.
Fair warning - their children's menu is a little ... "advanced". If you go here, make sure you have a foodie for a three year old. Aside from my own child, I know pretty much zero kids who would be happy with an option of shrimp for their main and wild rice as their starch. He sure wasn't complaining, either, as he snarfed down his entire plate - and the dark chocolate gelato included at the end of his kid's meal.
Stop Four - "After dinner drinks"
Being on vacation, I was in the mood to have a few beers after dinner this particular night. I dunno ... could be that this text from a neighbor had something to do with it:
So, on the walk back to the hotel from Twist, I started Googling for a potential 6 pack beer stop.
Normally I wouldn't mention a general convenience store stop like this, but I just can't pass up sharing this one tidbit about Breckenridge Market & Liquor - their liquor store likes to tout their fake ID collection!!
After talking with the clerk and asking permission to take a photo, we found out that the collection is somewhat of a humorous wall of shame for visitors to Breckenridge - especially when Mom and Dad come to visit and see Little Timmy's ID on the wall. HAHA!
Tuesday, August 6th - Day FOUR
More exploring outside of Breckenridge
Stop one - South Park NHA and Boreas Pass
If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember back when I did the South Dakota Crazy Horse Volksmarch, I accidentally discovered the National Parks Passport program. Ever since that discovery, when we take a trip to an area with nearby stamping locations, we make it a point to try to obtain stamps for our son.
We determined that there was only one stamp in the vicinity of Breckenridge, the South Park NHA, so day four of our trip was spent searching for that stamp and randomly selecting activities nearby.
Thanks to the ranger station, my son ended up with a pretty kick ass Smoky tattoo - apparently he turned 75 this year:
Not much from South Park's NHA collection seemed ... fail proof kid friendly, I guess you could say. However, the ranger station had a flyer about the Boreas Pass, which my husband was already previously interested in, so after saying thanks for the tattoo we headed to the beginning of that trail - and yet another train themed tourist stop.
Seriously, don't get excited about the starting point of Boreas Pass. They romanticize it, talking about the Como Train Depot's round table, but when you get there ... it's what you'd basically expect from a run down ghost town. The depot and round table are in severe disrepair, and the fencing around it keeps you at such a far distance that it's hard for a kid to even understand what it is. This lack of ... huzzah ... frustrated my son, who was expecting to see something remotely resembling a train, so we hopped back in the car and proceed driving into the pass.
After exiting Como, it was immediately apparent we were entering a rustic road. But, the road was dry despite recent rains, and with careful attention for pot holes we found it passable in our four door rental Nissan.
To quote an online source:
"It’s a pretty rough, gravel road, but in good weather (and if the road is dry), you can drive it in a regular car. When you get to the top, there is plenty of parking."
And that's exactly what we did. After driving along the pass and hitting the peak, with an altitude just shy of 11,500', we parked and checked out the historic remnants on site - some old rail cars, houses, etc. We were surprised by the Black Powder hiking trail sign, as we had done zero research on hikeable routes, but decided to check it out anyway. The trail was an easy walk even for our three year old, and yielded some of the most beautiful, unedited photos of our trip.
Aside from various wildlife and historical remnants, my son was incredibly entertained by the small streams flowing on the mountain. When we reached a spot where the drop off to the water wasn't too ravenous, my husband walked him down to touch the crystal clear water.
To this day, when you ask my son about it - he still shivers about how cold that snow run off was. LOL!
If my son would have had his way, we would likely still be hiking on that trail today. However, I had zero interest in hiking back down a trail carrying a 40+ pound three year old who decided his "legs were tired". Eventually I called the hike off, and we returned back to the car. Then we continued down the back side of the pass that lead into Breckenridge.
Conveniently, that route lead directly to the park I had my eye on for lunch ... which was 100% not planned, but a very happy accident.
Stop two - High Line Railroad Park
Traveling with a three year old has definitely changed what I look for in vacation destinations, case in point: I had this bookmarked as a potential "must visit" site before we even took off out of Minneapolis.
High Line Railroad Park was noted online to be a train themed museum/playground area, and based on what Google Maps showed, it appeared walkable from our hotel. We never ended up testing the walkable theory, since Boreas Pass fed right into the parking lot along our way "home".
The park itself is actually really nice, and entertained my son for quite awhile. The "museum" ... well ... I think it's here more as a convenience and really isn't much. However, the on site fully restored engine is beautiful, and there are even a few train cars you can walk through and take dumb selfies with.
Using the "eat your lunch and then you can play" trick, we nabbed a nearby picnic table and had lunch before exploring the park in detail. To be expected, my son loved the big on site train.
Finally, after a lot of excited play and disappointed "why mommy?"s, we headed back to the hotel for nap once again.
Stop three - Wrapping up in Breckenridge
Since we booked 4 nights in Breckenridge, and we were heading into night 4, it was about time to reload our suitcases and get ready to move on to our next stop in Colorado. During this clean up process, we realized how much we had accumulated in food leftovers and opted to have "dinner in" for our last night. (I hate to waste, especially considering how good our food had been.)
Not wanting to spend our entire evening in the hotel, we instead decided to have one last go at the main street area.
My son loved the courtyard off of one of the shopping areas nearby, so we let him admire the "waterfall" there one last time while we had a post nap snack - and some happy hour beers for mom and dad.
This is where I learned my son is actually a pretty good photographer. Can you believe he took this portrait of me?!
After milking a table for awhile, we eventually moseyed on to revisit some of the gift shops. Somehow, my son managed to talk my husband into purchasing these:
After picking up our last few Breckenridge mementos, and a VERY tedious process of trying to use a microwave at our hotel, we finally managed to eat our leftovers and get everything packed up.
Next stop - Colorado Springs! (With some minor detours along the way, of course).
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