Anne was right, it had been too long since C's last airplane trip. One of the best parts of the trip was enjoying his excitement while going through the airports and on the plane. He was quite the professional little traveler. Not his usual distracted self. He weighed his luggage and dropped it off on the conveyor belt. He enjoyed showing his boarding card. Only asked a couple of times why people have to take off their shoes and dump out their water to go through security screening.
On the plane he was very focused on the safety briefing as well. Curious about the life vests and oxygen masks. He liked moving the window shade and his seat tray up and down. I told him the flight attendants would bring us a snack, but they made a liar out of me. No snacks anymore on United I guess. Even for important people like us. We both enjoyed listening to the pilots talk on channel 9. The sun was setting as we landed. Unfortunately our flight path didn't give us a view of Boulder from our side of the plane. The "flat escalators" in DIA were a big hit.
After leaving the airport, our first stop was an old favorite restaurant: Noodles & Co. After a while, the phrase "you can never go home again" came to mind. It didn't quite live up. We all should have just ordered the mac-n-cheese. Later, we found out that the Louisville location has a bad reputation. At least all the "Noodles" signs were amusing.
After dinner we drove across the street and checked in to the hotel. Anne was lured away by SuperTarget and Kohls while Colin and I went for a swim. There were some beach balls in the pool and we played a game that involved one person throwing the ball in a way that would be hard for the other person to catch before counting to five. I thought a long swim and some time in the hot tub would make for a sleepy Mugs, but he didn't sleep until like 10pm.
One of our travel traditions is to have Froot Loops for breakfast while still in pajamas. Well, for Colin anyway. One of the many times that our normally healthy eating habits were ignored for a special occasion vacation weekend. Oh yeah, I forgot, we also had ice cream after swimming the night before!
We had some time to kill before our hiking date, so we headed to Boulder to poke around the old 'hood. On the way we acted like real tourists and stopped at the scenic overview for a few pics. Then, exit at Table Mesa and South on Broadway. Oh no! It's all the same, but different! There's the vet office, but whats up with that fence? The condo building looks about the same. Some of the same cars parked outside.
Outside our old (repainted) front door was a giant couch, still wrapped in plastic. I assumed it was recently delivered, but neighbor John told me that its for sale because it won't fit through the door. Doh!
The walkways haven't been replaced, but some of the railings have. It seems the tennis court has been repurposed as a place for kids to ride bikes. I was actually surprised to see our crossed-out name still on the mailbox. Colin liked the elevator, of course, and was curious about the "ALSO IN CASE OF SUBZERO TEMPERATURES" label on the elevator sign.
Next it was time to meet our friends for a South Boulder hike. Had to stop at the King Soopers first for snacks and water. Colin was pretty shy when meeting the Rousskov's for the first (well, second) time. But that dissipated quickly once we got on the trail.
I think the stagnant ditch water was a highlight for Colin. Mark showed him how to float wood chips (loaded with various weights of rocks) in the water. He didn't even fall in!
About this time, new Papa Pepple phoned to announce his arrival direct from DIA. We continued our stay at the oasis until Scott arrived with Lowell, who was understandably upset that we couldn't play longer in the water. One on the trail again, the "my legs are too tired"'s started coming. In between sprints to catch up with Mark. We promised to turn around at the next gate.
The gate was a particularly fun, and memorable spot. Colin and Mark could not get enough of having their picture taken on the gate. Colin usually resists posing for pictures, so this was a nice change. Meanwhile, Scott got a lot more than he bargained for when Lowell said he had to "go" out in the middle of nowhere. Props to Scott for taking it all in stride!
After the hike we all went to the Southern Sun -- an old favorite. Seems like it has changed very little, although I sense there were more kids running around. I'm not sure Scott will forgive me for allowing my son to drink root beer. Lowell was extremely interested in Colin's drink, climbing over the table to steal it from him. The food was great, but they didn't have my Raspberry Wheat in stock so I settled for something else. But the highlight was watching Lowell take a tumble from the window sill. Ouch!
Next on our agenda was a stroll down the Pearl Street Mall. While Anne and Colin played on the stone animals I took a stroll through the Kite Store. It was crazy crowded and much more like a "puzzle" store than a kite store these days. Then we moved on to the rock climbing sandbox, which provided some good entertainment climbing to the tops of really tall rocks and sliding under the bridge. I took a stroll through the old TMF hallway. Left Hand Books still going strong. A barbershop, and even the chandelier dude still there. Our old office looked like it was being used for storage. The blinds we purchased 10 years ago are still in the windows though.
Upstairs from TMF used to be a high-end mommy/baby store. I think we bought an expensive stroller (and various other items) there. Now its this crazy candy shop. Good thing I'm not working near there now...
I briefly debated whether or not I should visit Bart's CD Celler (knowing that I'd be there a while and probably spend more than $50). I got permisison to go and, upon arriving, found that it has been closed for about a month. Bummer.
Our pals Scott, Dave, and lil' Cameron met us on the mall where we got caught up, people watched, and swapped stories. That evening Anne went with them to Golden so they could all do the Runnin-O-the-Green the next day. Colin and I went to Dave and Busters.
Sunday Colin and I met with John and Devin. Initially we planned to go to the South Boulder Rec Center playground, but it started to snow. So we headed directly to Red Robin for lunch. The two boys shared the latest tips and techniques on how to stress out your parents. We gave them about $3 to play the video games so John and I could chat, but that lasted about 5 minutes.
Since it was still snowing, John and I thought bowling would be good and we headed to Splitz. Just like everyone else. There was a two-hour wait for a lane, so we just spent $20 on the arcade games instead.
Our flight home was in the evening so Monday morning we stopped by the Pepples' house in Denver and walked over to the Museum. Imagine Scott wrangling two kids while being on an hour long conference call walking through the dinosaur exhibit. After dinosaurs, we had our Slavaggios sammiches for lunch. Soooo good. Then we did the space exhibit. Colin's highlight was trying to dock the space shuttle. Mine was trying to take a good picture of the impressive floating planet.
When we got home late Monday night, ol' Blue-dog was happy to see us and I was happy to not find any surprises left by the pets.
