Leadville

Saturday, September 18, 2010

This morning we decided to venture to Leadville.  I don't think Mike's legs were up to an early morning hike.  He's sore from climbing Pyramid yesterday!  The first stop was the National Fish Hatchery.  (Sorry for all the sunspots.  I was having trouble avoiding them!)

It's simple.  You pay a quarter for fish food...

then you throw it in the water and watch the hundreds of fish flop all over each other to try to be the first one to the food!

It was rather entertaining.  I liked to throw one piece at a time and watch the fish fight over it while Brody would throw his whole handfull and feed lots of fish at once.

 

We walked through the informative museum and then climbed back in the vehicles for a scenic drive to Leadville.  Mike and Ben had taken the t-tops off the Jeep after climbing Pyramid Peak yesterday and the wind was pretty cold blowing on us as we drove.  The boys were huddled under a sleeping bag in the back seat while I had the heater turned on full blast on me!

The next stop was the new playground in Leadville. 

Next to the playground were some soccer fields.  Malachi had a friend playing in one of the games, so the guys took the kids down to watch the game.  I don't know how anyone could focus on playing a soccer game when the views around them are so overwhelmingly breathtaking?!  It was here that Julie and I left Mike and Ben with all the kids (except Sylvia) to head into town and get some coffee. 

Julie and I got coffee from a local coffee shop (one of our traditions...although it's usually Bongo Billy's in BV or Metropolitan Coffee in KS) and then meandered through the little shops downtown.  While we were walking we started noticing people setting up lounge chairs and blocking off streets.  We finally stopped and asked someone what was going on.  The response had us both laughing so hard!  The stranger said, "Well, we always have so much snow here on St. Patrick's Day that we can't have a parade.  So, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day in September rather than March.  You're just in time for our St. Patty's parade!"  What?!?  Have you ever heard of a town regularly celebrating a holiday on a day other than what's stated on the calendar.  Hilarious! 

 

Way before we were ready, we started getting texts from the guys saying that the kids were hungry for lunch.  We met up with them at the #1 restaurant in Leadville (according to yahoo)...High Mountain Pies.  It didn't compare to Ben's brick oven pizzas, but it was good.  The inside was overflowing with people (probably everyone celebrating St. Patrick's Day!), so we sat out back.  Julie and I got a kick out of the restaurant's playground.  There was a little slide and then two random frisbee golf baskets (is that what you call the holes in frisbee golf?  I can't remember.)  I'm guessing the frisbee golf is for the employees to use on their break rather than for little kids to use.  Can you imagine what the other diners would've thought if we handed Brody and Malachi frisbees and let them throw in the backyard dining area? 

 

After pizza, we headed back to Hind's Feet for much needed naps for the little ones.