The short version: Saturday we went to the Colorado State Fair, in Pueblo (about a half hour south of the Springs), to see the Demolition Derby. Sunday we went to the park to see the hot air balloon show, and Monday we watched the balloons fly away, then played Mexican Train dominoes with friends Aaron and Emily Otten to close out the holiday weekend.
Who knew that a State Fair would have... pole vaulting? Or even better, pole vaulting from a guy in a Tarzan costume? These guys and gals were really good.
False advertising. There was no Great White shark here. Just plastic ones.
Dana's a trooper for hopping in the cage for this photo op.
In case you were wondering where the bacon was from:
... or a T-Bone steak.
Could you imagine California encouraging kids to use guns? lol
I wanted to try this bow & arrow exhibit out, but the line was incredibly long.
This was the biggest rooster I have ever seen. It won first prize overall at the Fair... and it was for sale. That's gotta be frustrating.
If you thought the prize winning bird for sale was surprising, this will blow you away. A Raiders memorabilia tent in Broncos country. I was shocked that it wasn't engulfed in flames.
Check out the sign next to the fountain. Haha. Welcome to Colorado.
You'd think these people had never seen California sea lions before. Either that or we were spoiled seeing them often in California.
This was a pretty good band. We had a picnic on the lawn here before the big Demolition Derby began.
In our seats. Back row. Better than nothing. We moved up later on in the evening to the front.
I snapped a photo of the Midway behind us.
And here we go. This was the very beginning of heat #1.
They had two giant forklifts to remove the cars. In hindsight, they should have had more than two, because it took a long time to remove the disabled cars between each heat.
Heat #3. The last 3 or 4 cars from each heat moved on to the finale, where it was winner take all.
This car got flipped on it's side by a nasty hit. The driver pushed it back onto the tires, and the crowd cheered to let him continue racing. The crowd won of course.
The start of the mini battle. The car that won had a tail and a snout, and was painted like Scooby-Doo. It reminded me more of the Shaggin Wagon.
My favorite part of the night: the TRUCKS! There were three Suburbans in this battle, and they had a distinct advantage. Not sure how fair that was for the other trucks.
The finale! My favorite car (red station wagon #68) got 2nd place and lost to a yellow station wagon (#45) who wasn't hitting anyone until the end. Weak.
We had this custom sign made at the Fair. The sign is going on our guest room door. I miss my grandparents a lot. Hoping they can visit us sooner than later. (Funny note about this sign: When we went to pick it up originally, it said "Grandma & Grandma's Room" -- Good thing I caught that. It was subtle, but horrifying. They fixed it, thankfully.
Saturday night we went to Memorial Park, near Downtown Colorado Springs. This weekend was the annual Colorado Balloon Classic, and every night of the event, the balloons are inflated and glow bright in the dark (weather permitting).
Unfortunately, "weather permitting" caused the cancellation of the Balloon Glo® show that night since there was lightning in the area.
Kelly and Tyler climbed inside a human hamster wheel and rolled it around for a while.
The next morning (Monday) we got up early and headed out to Memorial Park again, and saw this on the drive over:
Some of the balloons were already up in the air, tethered, and ready to float away.
These were spread out all over town, even in shopping centers.
This was about 7:30am. The moon is still out, and you can see Pike's Peak in the background on the right.
