Road Trip: Day 3

Today started off with a trip to the Downtown Aquarium in Denver. We already knew Calvin would love it since he's always loved looking at fish.  But even before we got in the door, Calvin was totally floored by a woman near the ticket line who was showing off a gigantic Golden Eagle!  All he could do was stare at it!  I don't think he was aware that birds came that big!  Once inside, as we had thought, Calvin had a great time.

While we were looking around, I pointed out a funny looking little crab to Calvin and he promptly responded, "That's a spider crab!"  Denise and I both blew it off that he was just saying it looked like a spider, which it kind of did.  But then Denise looked at the sign next to it and, to our amazement, it was actually called a Spider Crab!!  When we asked Calvin how the heck he knew that, he replied very casually, "From Octonauts."  So thanks, Octonauts!

Because of all that, we didn't get on the road until after noon.  And then, just outside of Denver, we drove up into the mountains so we could get out and prove to Calvin that we were, in fact, in the mountains.  He kept telling us that we weren't. He then became obsessed with mountains and kept asking when we were going up another mountain.  Much to his disappointment, he slept through most of western Colorado and therefore missed most of our drive through the mountains!

Once again, we asked Calvin what his favorite part of today was. Was it the awesome aquarium he got to go to?  Driving through the mountains?  Going to McDonald's?  Nope.  He said it was picking out his snack at a gas station!

Anyway, after around 500 miles driving, we didn't get to our final destination, Richfield, UT, until around 9:30pm local time.  Tomorrow on to Anaheim and Disneyland!

Road Trip: Day 2

After a continental breakfast in Lincoln, NE, we hit I-80 and headed west towards Denver.  We drove somewhere in the neighborhood of 530 miles.  As anyone who has driven through most of Nebraska and northeastern Colorado knows, that drive is very uneventful.  Just miles of farmland and cows.

Once we got close to Denver, Calvin thought the mountains were pretty cool but we kept telling him to wait until tomorrow when we continue our drive west up into them!  We were in a little bit of a bind since we had told Calvin we would go swimming but our hotel only has an outdoor pool which is closed for the season.  Fortunately Denise thought about her YMCA membership.  We found a Y only about 5 minutes from our hotel and went swimming.

After that we went to good ol' Casa Bonita.  We got to see cliff divers (which thoroughly amazed Calvin!), a puppet show, a haunted cave and a bunch of other things.  The food is very average but it was worth it for the rest of it!

Continuing our tradition, we asked Calvin what his favorite part of the day was.  Was it seeing the mountains?  Going swimming?  Seeing cliff divers?  No, it was getting ice at the hotel with me!

Tomorrow we're planning on visiting an aquarium before hitting the road for Utah!