Kid’s day 08

Some rules: Kid’s day falls on the Friday after the 4th of July (if Daddy is off) or on the Saturday after the 4th (unless the 4th falls on a Friday, because that would make kid’s day too close to the 4th of July!) The kids get to pick out what they want to do, but must all agree on it. This worked a lot better when Joel was 5 and Bethany couldn’t talk. So, ice skating was out, Casa Bonita was in and Wings over the Rockies was in.

First we stopped by the pilots shop to get the manual James needs for his test next Tuesday. He’s on flight 4 and he’s studying hard. He said the plane does have a feel and it’s more like driving a boat through the water than a car on land. At the shop we found clipboards for 50 cents, so all the kids got one. It’s nice when a 50 cent clipboard makes them happy! We also found the shirts that James needs for the CAP conference and Joel started a new collection: 6 pack key chains (6 pack refers to the main 6 gauges on the plane.) Now in order to get the next one, he must write a report on the Altimeter gauge. James wants all 6 reports and one on the navigation system Joel will be studying at the conference before we leave for Fl (so he has about 3 weeks.)

We left the shop and headed for Wings over the Rockies (usually referred to as WOTR.) It was open cockpit day so we got to sit in ‘Das Kricket” a kit plane made by a CO. Springs company.

The kids got to move the instruments and move the ailerons on the planes’ wings and the tail flaps. Hannah searched for the right plane to pedal, is it this one?

Nope, the pink one is her favorite.

Grace rode the Wright brother’s plane and this yellow one (but Bethany had to help push the yellow one.)

After all the kids had a sit in the Kricket we wandered over to the rocket maker.

These things will fly high! Get a rubber band, straw, zip clip, foam tube and 3 foam tail fins. Wrap the straw around the rubber band tight and stuff it in one end. Zip the tie clip around the end of the tube so that the straw can’t get out. Hot glue the tail fins to the other end, let it dry and try it out.

Hold the end of the tube with one hand and stretch the rubber band with the other, let go and watch it fly.

We got to sit in the B-57 Canberra bomber (the USAF’s first foreign designed bomber.)

It’s a little smaller than the other bombers we’ve seen.

See that long tube in the front, we learned it’s called a pitot tube. It measures the air speed and then transfers it to the static sensor so the pilot can get a better reading. See here for the math involved!

Joel kind of looks at home holding that yoke doesn’t he?

We passed by the FB-111A (designed in 1960 to meet a USAF need for a fighter bomber and defense interceptor) which has a different cockpit.

The pilots’ sit side by side, we like the way the hatches open.

I don’t think I got a pic of this up close last time. They have one of the Star wars fighters on display from the movie. The cast all signed it, here’s George Lucas’ signature.

We really wanted to do a few more things, but the crew was getting hungry so we headed off to Casa Bonita.

This is not the place you go for good food, the food is ok and sometimes even sucks.

You go here for the entertainment, well even that is kind of hokey, see here. I guess you go for the total experience. Casa Bonita is a whole Mexican village under one roof. You wait in line and order you’re food and walk among stucco walls and flowers to pick it up.

Then you walk up or down to sit by the waterfall or in a mine, in a green vine covered area, under the waterfall or behind the waterfall. We sat on a little terrace above the falls and to the side.

We ate and watched the cliff diver’s dive off the rocks into the pool of water below. They also have puppet shows, magician shows, and hokey black Bart/pirate/monkey shows. They have an arcade, a gift shop and today we got to be there for the whacking of a piñata. We walked around and watched the Chiquita monkey show from the bottom of the waterfall and that’s when Hannah freaked out. She saw that giant ape and started screaming and running at the same time. First Chuck E. Cheese ‘reeks’ her out, then the giant cow at Chick-Fil-A ’reeks’ her out and now an ape costume really ‘reeked’ her out. I’m sure she’ll be telling people all week how the ‘montey at casa nonita really reeked me out, he was so big and he just reeked me out. I tried and ran and said Mama that montey reeks me out!’

But, the rest of us had fun. We took some pic behind the waterfall and after redeeming tickets for candy it was time to go.

Goodbye Casa Bonita, hopefully it will be another year till we meet again.

Next stop the dollar store so the kids could buy some candy and trinkets to finish off the day. I found out at the last minute that Starz was showing the ‘Maltese falcon’ on the big screen. The kids decided it would be too much like ‘Casablanca’ (which I guess we watch too much) and they didn’t want to go. So James and I headed over there. Now the movie was free and they gave out tickets 1 hour before the show. I’m now guessing that means you need to be there at least 1 hour before the show. When we finally got there….no more tickets. Foiled! So we wandered around Tivoli square behind the Auraria campus. Did you know that whole building used to be a brewery? They left the chains and wheel that brought barrels up, copper kettles, the smokestack and more intact and made the college have space around it. We took the elevator and went up to the top, then down to the 4th floor where you could see the tops of the huge copper kettles. We found an open door and went in, it was so cool. We went around reading the plaques about the artifacts they left there from the brewery, that was just really neat.

We decided that we would use the time we had like a date, since we would have been watching the movie if they had given us tickets, and went to eat dinner. We stopped at Papadeaux’s but they were jammed packed. They gave us a card that said 1 hour wait! We left. I folded the card into an origami tie (which probably gave James the idea) and we went to see if Trail Dust was a better wait. We got there and went right in, past the no tie sign, past the hostess, the grill, the waitress (I had the little origami tie on.) We ate and listened to the band. They had a dance floor, but I only took 1 semester of square dance in 5th grade and I don’t dance well, so we just watched. I made it through the whole dinner and then told the waitress they didn’t cut my tie. She came back with a band of people, a bell and scissors. They cut off the mini-tie and stapled it to the wall – take that 1 hour wait!

That was a pretty good kid’s day, even if it ended in a parent’s night out at the end.