Day 4

We slept in. It was the first day not having to press on to another site so we relaxed. I had a surprise planned for Amy. At noon at one of the local mountain spas, I had gotten her a surprise mother daughter massage. I sent her and her mother to get a massage while I watched the kids. This was no easy task. Keeping track of all three is tough. We headed to town and walked around a bit. There was an old time candy store, so I took the kids in and let them pick out a small bag full of assorted candy. It so happened that this weekend in the town square was the annual Scandinavian festival. To celebrate the Nordic heritage of Colorado, performers and vendors from all over come and there is music and demonstrations. I took the children and walked around a bit. We came up on a face painting booth and both children wanted their face painted. Alex had hers done in pink and purple like a princess and Grant had half his face done as Optimus Prime. They were tickled by this and really seemed to enjoy it. I then took them for a slice of pizza for lunch. I was pleased they behaved and actually ate properly. We then went for ice cream cones and ate them at a local park. Amy and her mother were done by this time and met us at the park looking refreshed and relaxed. We headed to the National Park visitor center and got some trail maps to plan for some day hikes in the coming days. We then headed back into town to get some dinner. We ate Nepalese cuisine which was supposed to be good according to the tripadvisor review. The food was good; however the service stunk and put a scar upon the meal. We had noticed a little place called trout haven on the way to our campsite. It is one of these places with stocked trout that you fish and then pay for what you catch. We arrived and the children were very excited about catching fish. We arrived and asked how to get started. The gentleman that was there, after checking the people in front of us in, said they could not let us fish. They said that it closed to new customers at 7pm. It was 7:01. I could see the upset in the kids faces, so I pleaded with the man to let us in. He finally relented and we got started. Using line and bobbers baited with mealy worms, I soon hooked into a trout. I let Grant real it in and we added it to the bucket. After that I had trouble getting any more bites. There was a group of regular customers who fish there and apparently knew that the fish enjoy live crickets and had their own supply. They did not need any more fish and so they would hook one and let Grant and Alex reel them in. Those kids were on cloud 9. They were jumping around with excitement. Even though I had to swallow my pride a bit as a fisherman and fish a stocked pond, seeing the happiness on the children’s faces was worth it. The workers cleaned and put the fish on ice for us and we went back to the trailer with some happy tired children who were easy to put to bed. A good day.