A mini-vacation in the Springs: Day 1

We started our day by having a leisurely breakfast in our hotel.  Then we headed out to see some local sights.

Fire Museum

We set out mid-morning and decided to check out the Williams Fire Museum because it was a short drive from our hotel, had a fire engine that kids can climb on, and was free to boot!  It was housed in the same building as the fire marshall's office and one of their active fire stations, plus on the same grounds as their fire training site.  This museum was pretty small yet interesting, although I can't say I had the time to read much of the information.  Rather Evan was running around, pulling on the ropes around the non-touchable antique engines, and wanting to go upstairs or on the elevator.  Granted, he did enjoy getting to climb into one of the old engines (that wasn't roped off) and "drive it" and push buttons.

Upstairs there was a TV in a fire truck thing that had lights that flashed and a cartoon about fire safety.  He was less interested in the show, though, and more interested in going up and down on the elevator.

The children's movie viewing area upstairs

View of the small museum from upstairs

What did Emma do throughout our visit to the Fire Museum?  She slept in her car seat of course!

My artsy shot of one of the neat antique ladder trucks :)

The Airplane Restaurant

This restaurant is in an actual plane.  Well, it has some seating in the plane, and the rest in a building attached to the plane (which includes one of the engines and propellors inside that building, but still intact on the plane!).  We were worried the limited seating in the plane would be full, but were delightfully surprised to find it was nearly empty (only one other group sitting in there, while the restaurant itself was much more full).  After that group left, we literally had the whole plane to ourselves!

The whole place, er plane, to ourself!

They had flight navigation maps in the table tops, the hosts/hostesses wore airline pilot uniforms, and the wait staff were dressed in flight suits and called themselves our pilots.  Many of the menu items had aviation-related names.  For example, I ordered the Afterburner Burger (it had guacamole and roasted green chiles on it with pepper jack cheese...yummy with a good spicy kick!).  I upgraded my meal to have their sticky sweet potato fries, although I ordered the sticky on the side.  Meaning, they normally put a sweet and vinegary sauce on the sweet potato fries, but our "pilot" suggested if I hadn't tried it before to have it on the side in case it was too much for me.  I liked it, but was still glad it was on the side so I could choose how much I wanted to put on what I would call sweet potato wedges.  It was yummy!  (Or as Evan would say "yummy yummy, tasty!")

While we were waiting for our food to be made, our "pilot" suggested we could go check out the cock pit.  This was the best!  Evan loved every second of it, and it was a great way to keep him occupied and entertained while we waited for our food.  He loved flipping all the switches and turning all the knobs.

Wow, I can touch all of these?

"This is fun Mommy!"

Evan must have felt so comfortable up there in the cockpit that he shooed John away after awhile so he could have some privacy and poo.  :o  John tried to go change him, but of course there wasn't a changing table in the men's room, so I took him.  While I was just getting started changing him I heard a very loud jet fly by.  This restaurant is right by the airport, but I had a feeling that this was probably not a real jet...sure enough a few seconds later another loud one whizzed by, and then again and again throughout our time in the bathroom.  This scared Evan pretty good...he's never liked public bathrooms to begin with, typically getting scared at every loud noise (hand driers, loud flushes, etc), so this was just enough to set him off crying in fear.  He asked me for a hug, which I gave him, and I tried to explain what it was to make him feel better.  As we left I saw the big speakers high on the wall where these jet fly over recordings were coming from.  A nice touch to follow the theme of the restaurant and provide some background noise in the bathroom, but not so nice for my little boy.  He kept talking about it the rest of the day ("it was loud...bathroom...", etc), including at bedtime.

And what did Emma do throughout our lunch at the The Airplane Restaurant?  She continued to sleep in her car seat of course!

Swimming in the hotel swimming pool

When I went to get Evan after he woke up from his nap the first thing he said to me was "I want...I want swimming!".  He remembered that we had told him he could go swimming after his nap!  He had seen the pool while we were at breakfast in the morning and had been wanting to go since.   So John and Evan got on their swimming gear and we all headed down to the pool.  Evan didn't want to stay in the main pool too long though...not because it was cold or anything, but because was more enticed by the bubbles in the whirlpool ("I want bubbles!!").  

Ta-da...I'm ready to go swimming!

A quick photo op before he got in..."Cheese!"

What did Emma do while John and Evan swam and soaked in the whirlpool?  Well, she watched them for awhile, then I nursed her, then I realized how the smell of chlorine was pretty strong so I didn't want to expose her new little lungs to it anymore than I already had, so I brought her back to our room and she fell asleep of course. :)