29 December 2009 - Day Trip to Leadville, Colorado

Breakfast followed by a trip to the laundromat doesn't seem like a great adventure, but try participating in those events with 14 other people and the dynamics change.
The laundromat was actually a fun outing and it was very warm inside the building. There was a play area for the children and a small TV with several children's videos available. That kept the eight children quiet, but the volume of the TV had to be constantly turned down. Well, I guess that is understandable considering that the seven adults playing "Catch Phrase" and were not very quiet. Fortunately, there was only one other person in the place and she preferred to wait outside in her car for some strange reason.
With our clothes clean and dry, we headed out on our day's Great Adventure. We have given this name to the day's activities so we can be flexible in our plans and not stir up a cauldron of disappointment. This day's plan included Leadville, Colorado. Unfortunately, mobilization of the group sometimes takes a little longer than expected, so we arrived rather late in the day. But the drive was beautiful and the roads clear, so we did not have any problems.
I recalled a Mining Museum DH and I had visited several years ago, so we headed in that general direction. Sure enough, it was still there (well, you never know). I wondered aloud if we could get a group rate as everyone headed for the gift shop to explore while I checked on tickets. The very nice lady at the ticket counter told me the museum would be closing in 15 minutes.There was a collective groan of disappoint from the members of our group. The lady looked at us and then suggested we could visit free for the next 15 minutes, but they would have to close promptly. With a flurry of activity that only our group of 15 can produce, we headed out to see all we could in 15 minutes. I led the group to an attraction that I felt certain they would all enjoy, a real mine environment created to give a realistic look at early mining procedures. This is particurlarly informative since we had family members mining in this part of Colorado in the early 1900's. The children went through that area several times before moving on. There was something of interest to everyone and we fanned out to explore more specific areas. There was particular interest in the neon glowing rocks in one of the rooms. I think they may have allotted us a little more than 15 minutes, but we certainly couldn't see it all.
It was icy cold in Leadville, the highest incorporated city in the continental US, but we decided to walk around town anyway. Well, "walk" might be a misnomer. The children were happy to be out and while we tried to maneuver the icy sidewalks and avoided going into the shops with our crew, the children kept running around. clambering up and down the stairs, and burning off energy. We stopped for a few minutes to eat cookies by the car (we never travel with out a few snacks) then re-boarded for the trip home.
Although there is a lot of snow on the ground, we are still waiting for it to snow while we are here..