25 June 2008
Breckenridge – 06/25/08
Posted by BaBa under: Travel .
Sheridan ate a light breakfast and then complained about a tummy ache. We got him some pepto tablets. We later learned that it was probably his reaction to the altitude. We went to the resort, but our efficiency was not yet ready. So we decided to spend the day exploring near the conference. MaMa had looked up information about what to see and where to go last night. We choose Breckenridge since it was close, seemed to have some things that would be interesting along with some local shopping.
We arrived quickly at Breckenridge and parked on the street. We were right near the visitor’s center and soon got advice on what to do. The first item was a walking tour of the town with a local volunteer. We enjoyed walking around and learning about the town which had seen a huge boom in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. These were the glory days of this mining town. When the miming played out the town dwindled in size until the skiing boom began in the 1960’s.
Sheridan played outside the visitor’s center while we waited to begin the tour. We were enjoying the quaint architecture (Victorian) and the beautiful mountain views. The pace of the tour was easy and we rolled our passenger from place to place. What a little trooper our tourist is. No complaints at all.
After our walking trip, we went to find lunch. We stopped at an A&W Root beer Restaurant. We had a burger and fries and the food was not great. However, it is one of the most interesting places we have eaten in a long time. It was like the United Nations had been crossed with the Twilight Zone. The workers are all Hispanic while the owners are Jewish. This is not where the weird part begins. There are sections in the restaurant with displays from many different countries. These displays usually have a flag and two or three cultural trinkets on display. What really brought to mind the idea of the Twilight Zone was the music. One selection was God Bless America and then something that sounded like Fiddler on the Roof, then a Hispanic ballad, then an renaissance musical piece followed by hip-hop and then . . . (Well you get the idea). There was neither rhyme nor reason to the music selection playing in the joint. I forgot to mention the large number of religious tracts available at the counter. They did not discriminate between Christian and Jewish and if I looked hard enough, I could probably have found an Islamic tract too.
We left the Twilight Zone Dinner and went back to Breckenridge. We were all going to see a mining camp and then pan for gold. Dreams of finding enough gold for retirement were soon dashed, but that is another story. We learned about hydrolic mining where they blasted the hills with water to wash away the sides of the mountain and then shift through the silt for gold. It was a neat and informative experience. MaMa liked it, but was less thrilled by having her photo taken. See if you can find the correct picture.
We returned back to the resort and checked in. We had efficiency near the main conference pavilion. It had bunks beds for Magoo, a kitchenette and a Murphy Wall bed. It was great. I went to the conference activities that night. I went to the presenter’s party and won $10 in the prize giveaway. I then visited all of the exhibits in the exhibit hall. Finally it was time to come back and work on my presentation for the next day. It was a really late night working to finish the presentation.
He saw an older child jump in the pool to his Dad and so Sheridan wanted to jump to MaMa. He did this about three times with no fear, but the coolness of the water took a toll on him. Our swimming trip was over.
We went back to the room and I quickly changed so that we could get lunch. We had a good lunch and it was then time for them to nap and for me to prepare for the afternoon talk. I found the conference organizer and got the information for the presentation posted to the conference wiki. I then went to the conference room.
I must say it is a little frustrating to draw a presentation slot on the last full day of the conference as the last session of the day in a remote location. I only had 7 people attend the session. I don’t mean to sound pompous, but I am used to presenting to a room full of people. I made the best of the situation and gave a good presentation. I just have to admit that 8 hours of prep work to design a good talk and have such a small audience was disappointing. However, I got over it quickly as I was enjoying being here and the sessions were good. I also loved that all of us could make the trip to this wonderful part of the country.
We had dinner with the conference folks and it was delightful with pan fried flank steak. Magoo was tired and so we skipped the live music and fireworks.
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