Day four, and we finally spent the whole day in one place. My truck was very thankful to get a day off of pulling the trailer. It's still making a weird noise or two, which we hope to get figured out soon. I'd hate for something major to happen on the side of the freeway in the middle of nowhere (wait a minute, that sounds familiar...) We spent the day exploring and playing, so let's get into it!
Our morning adventure was only a mile away at Soda Lakes, within the park boundaries. The more we stay here, the more convinced I am that it's just a larger version of Eagle Island State Park. Anyways, we spent the morning playing in the sand, wading around in the water, and riding on the paddle board. Parker loves going out on his own, and I'm never really that worried about him doing it, either. All four years we were at scout camp, he always gravitated towards the waterfront. He spent a lot of time in kayaks paddling around the lake there, and he seems to have just as big of a love for the water now that we are home.
We put the kids down for a nap after playing for the morning, and by that I mean that Emmy napped while Parker and Colby made friends at the playground right behind our campsite. I decided to take the chance to get out for a quick run around a new place, and boy was it a fun one. I always enjoy running in new places, and this was no exception. There were lots of trails to choose from. I did right at a 10k of running, which was probably twice as far as I should have gone. I (foolishly) didn't take into account the elevation, UV index, morning doings, or how far I was going to go and ended up getting pretty dehydrated after about 25 minutes. The problem with that, though, was that I had been running away from our campsite for those 25 minutes, so I had to suck it up and keep running all the way back. As hot and tiring as it was, I still enjoyed it.
After the run and Emmy walking up from her nap, we decided to go find something 'touristy' to do in Denver. We decided on Union Station, the Millennium Bridge, and Coors Field in downtown Denver. It's always fun to see a baseball stadium, but this one was bittersweet because I knew we wouldn't be able to experience it like I wanted to. I've grown up as a fan of the Atlanta Braves, but also as a fan of the game in general. Baseball to most (especially my wife) is a very slow, boring game. I see it in a completely different light. It is such an interesting game to follow, with all the defensive shifts, the matchups of pitchers to hitters, and the extreme difficulty of the game in general. I've always thought that baseball players are the most athletic of all the major sports. They could more easily transition to another professional sport like basketball or football, but put anyone else into baseball, and they would fail miserably. We were originally planning on coming to Denver in mid-July to see the Braves play the Rockies and take the kids to their first major league game, but that is on pause for now with everything going on.
We were told by some good friends that if we didn't go to Torchy's Tacos while in Denver, we blew our entire trip. There are five in the greater Denver area, so we picked one and went. I ordered three tacos from their menu, Carrie ordered two, and we got a bowl of their white queso for the kids. They are picky enough, we figured this is all they would really eat anyways. The tacos were OK, the queso was good. Sorry Chase and Jordan, but it wasn't as life-changing as it was made to seem :) Still a solid 7/10 though.
We needed something to do after dinner to keep the kids entertained before going back to the trailer for the night, so we headed next door to the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World. The kids just like walking around and looking at all the taxidermied animals. It was enough to keep them going for the half hour we needed before heading back for the night.
Every time we have driven the freeway in or out of the campsite, we have seen a sign that says 'Dinosaur Ridge'. It's on our list of things to do tomorrow. The kids want to spend some more time at the lake, so we'll do that again and see where the day takes us from there. Until then, thanks for reading!
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