Searching for Proper Barbecue - Colorado to Georgia

Quite literally in the middle of Kansas, 600 feet below the surface of Hutchinson, a Strataca Salt Mine tour guide asked me if I enjoyed Roy's BBQ for lunch. Bemused, I learned that Roys has such a distinct smell and the salt mine is devoid of smells, so tour guides quickly learn this approach with tourists. Strataca and Roys, or odd sites and barbecue were the treats on this road trip but the underlying purpose was for a move.

Michael at the Strataca Salt Mine.

My father-in-law (Michael) and I were in Kansas because our calling was to relocate one of our cars from Monument, Colorado to Atlanta, Georgia. The four-day journey was punctuated with a handful of museums and a superb selection of barbecue joints.

We set out from the Denver airport in the late afternoon and drove four hours to our first waypoint in Colby, Kansas. En route, we enjoyed a picnic dinner at the surprisingly well appointed Limon Railroad Park (by donation).

Day two's first stop was the Fort Hays State Historic Park. The buildings and exhibits are very well done. For young visitors, there is a 'bison herd' across the street (with bison numbering just a few). Plan 1-2 hours at this attraction. From Fort Hays, we drove to Hutchinson, Kansas for the Strataca Salt Mine. This was a major waypoint during the trip planning: where else can you descend 600 feet into the crust of the Earth to view an active salt mine? It turns out that the salt vein stretches into New Mexico, but this is the best way to get up-close to the operation.

An industrial elevator carries both workers and tourists down under. The tourist portion of the mine is sectioned off for safety. Tourists get to see dioramas containing mining equipment and the blasting techniques used to excavate salt from the mine - the salt is used mainly for ice removal. The underground gift shop has free wifi and there are a couple of add-ons for your visit. Tourists can ride the mine train in a loop that shows more of the mine or you can book a seat on the tram tour, which also shows more of the mine.

BBQ is an American treasure.

The Strataca Salt Mine was such a great stop that Michael and I decided to check out the other local Hutchinson attraction: the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. We expected a couple of planes and some cheap displays but we were instead treated to a plethora of rare air and space artifacts. The museum's motto, "Out of this World. Right in the Heart of Kansas" is an appropriate saying. Aside from the Smithsonian collection, the Kansas Cosmosphere impressed me more than any air and space museum I have seen (including the National Museum of the USAF, Seattle's Museum of Flight and many others). To quantify my claim, know that the museum collection contains a spacecraft from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (Liberty Bell 7, Gemini 10 and Apollo 13).

Ending a big second day of the trip in Wichita gave us the opportunity to ride the free downtown tram to Old Town where we enjoyed excellent pizza and local brews at Public.

Day three was a 450 mile push from Wichita to Little Rock but we found time for a few diversions. The first was Fort Smith National Historic Site where Michael was able to purchase his National Park System Senior Pass. Ten bucks gets you free access to all National Park properties for the rest of your life (seniors include those 62 and over). The Fort Smith prison, gallows and courtroom are all available for viewing. Kids love romping around the grounds to see the out-buildings and the neighboring Arkansas River. Tip: Pick up lunch at the Garrison Pointe Market, which is walking distance from Fort Smith (it is in a gas station, but those who know of the Whoa Nellie Deli know the deal). In Little Rock, we tried Sims BBQ but were thoroughly disappointed. 

Elvis's Birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Day four's drive was from Little Rock to Atlanta. The main diversion was Elvis's Birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi. Most fans visit Graceland but I found ticket prices there to be obscenely expensive. The Tupelo museum and home were small enough to visit in 1-2 hours and were right on our route to Atlanta. In Tupelo, we tried and liked BBQ by Jim. This joint was a meat and two sides type of place with excellent sauce and a family-focused orientation.

TripTips:

1. Stock the car with cold beverages and healthy snacks.

2. Plan activities in cities between your lodging locations. Most attractions do not open until 9am or 10am, so you will lose lots of drive time if you stick around in a city to do something there.

3. Picnic when you can to save costs.

4. A newspaper or magazines in the car give you something to chat about with your trip partner(s).

Rest & Relaxation at Amelia Island with Toddlers.

If you read this blog regularly you know we are not really "beach vacation" people. My parents invited us to go with them to the Ritz Carlton at Amelia Island and honestly we could not say no.

Our Picnic Lunch Location 

We did the six hour drive in almost exactly six hours. We stopped briefly for lunch, asking the friendly cashier at our bathroom stop to recommend a park in the area. We ended up by a river with a large picnic shelter and a playground. We were in and out so fast I did not catch the name of the park.

Pirate Scavenger Hunt 

Turns out the Ritz Carleton has a ton to offer for the little ones. Although our kids are too little for the Ritz Kids program, several things each day are available for all the kids when accompanied by their parents. Fish feeding, mid-morning story time, evening scavenger-hunts and pirate toasts filled our days. (The pirate toast even included drinks for the adults!)

Game Room 

The game room and movie-theater are open most of the day and offered a good diversion when we had some time to burn between other activities. The ritz kids room has a huge fish tank as well if you just need to kill a few minutes.

The beach on Amelia Island is lovely.. Its nice to be able to go to the beach first thing and play in the tide pools and look for shells and later come down and play in the shallow waves at high-tide, without dragging all our stuff down to and from the beach each time.

We saw dolphins almost every morning playing just off shore. The dune tortuous was easily spotted from the boardwalks and a few times we even saw them crossing the beach.  Early mornings meant seeing lots of birds catching fish and small crabs.

The pool has a great kids area. The water is only a few inches deep with a few splash items. The kids loved running around in this little pool. The larger pool was also a big hit, but required more adult supervision. Its 3-4ft deep all the way around with lots of space and stairs. The perfect place to tire out the kids!

The one thing the Ritz is missing is a playground, but they are plentiful on the island. We took the car out one afternoon and found three great playgrounds just on our drive across the island to Fernandina Beach. We got out to walk around a bit in Fernandina and find some postcards. There is a cute toy store the kids loved, along with several stores with bubble machines. The trains come into the port at this end of the island. The kiddos enjoyed seeing the giant cranes and all the rail cars.


We decided to upgrade to the club level. The club serves food and drinks, basically, all-day. This ended up being perfect for us. We did not have to worry about packing snacks for the kids or about meals. We mostly just grabbed food at the club when we were hungry. There was plenty to make small meals and ended up being a huge value.

Although we like to be on the go a few days relaxing at the beach were just what we needed the week before preparing for the cross country move.

Family Fun North of Atlanta.

Once again we headed north of the city on I-85 to cross a few things off our Atlanta with kids, bucket list: the Atlanta Botanical Gardens Anex, Interactive Kids Neighborhood and Baby Land General Hospital. 

We headed out of the city around 8:45, an hour later then scheduled, thanks to a rough night with the kids and a much needed coffee stop, but an hour later we were still one of the only families at the Gainesville, GA branch of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. This new facility opened in May of 2015 and currently showcases just a small portion of the acquired land.

We took our stroller but could have left it in the car, as we ended up parking the stroller and putting the one-year-old in our ergo while allowing the three-year-old to walk on his own.

The paved section of the gardens is small, currently covering just the walk down to the train garden and then back up through the stream walk. This was easily done with both children out of the stroller. There is a larger unpaved section that includes two half-mile signed "nature walks." These were a bit more strenuous for the kids, but the three-year-old did them with just a little encouragement.

The highlights were the train garden, where the kids can push a button to see two miniature trains run through a set up village.  We spent quite a while here. The staff also set out some play trains on the back deck by the little pond for the kids to play with.

Our total visit time at the botanical gardens was an hour and a half.

We back tracked a bit into town to check out the Interactive Kids Neighborhood (INK). We packed a lunch and ate at the museum. They had picnic tables out front and a few designated eating places inside.

This place is one of the stranger children's museums we have visited. That being said, the kids played here for an hour and a half.



The idea is really cleaver. The museum consists of a long row of rooms that all front a main area. Each room is set up like a different place in a neighborhood - post office, dentists office, grocery store, hospital, theater stage, farmers market, dinner, bank, vet, music room, x-ray lab, school, courtroom, red cross building (had a tv and a huge red cross sign), a barn and a TV station. The rooms however are dated and, although clean, not well organized. (No clear place to hang the costumes. The walls are crowded with posters that are tangentially related to the room topic and ideas on how to play in the room with your children. Most rooms were missing critical play pieces or pieces looked extremely dated.) I perceive that part of my problem is we have seen all these themed rooms done "better" at other museums. The novelty here though is having them all in the same place to seemingly run a small city as a child.


Once you reach the edge of this hall the idea falls away a bit and the exhibits get a little random. There is an old firetruck that you can climb into and sear, but you are prohibited from climbing into the back. There is a police car that you can, again, climb into the front, but not the back. You are able to toggle the police lights. There is a play space for toddlers and a climbing play space (think fast food restaurant play place) for older kids. There is a small twin engine plan to crawl into.

At some point someone must have thought there was not enough stuff here to do because all the remaining space is filled with random toy. These toys are organized into categories but they are random in terms of the theme. There are three train tables, which of course were a big draw for my kids.


Then we move into the completely random exhibits. A box full of toys that could be activated by pushing buttons. An area on eating healthy, that served as a complete contradiction to the type of groceries stocked in the grocery store play area. A train, that was actually a painted recycling station.

This place has a great idea, but needs a bit of focus and a new coat of paint. I would not drive up just to visit, but if you are in the area it is worth a stop. The kids had a blast.

The kids had a great car nap as we pushed the 36 minuets up the road to Baby Land General Hospital, home of the Cabbage Patch Kids. This is basically a huge gift shop for Cabbage Patch. They really commit to the whole hospital theme, you sign in when you enter and the staff is dressed like doctors and nurses to help you find a baby to adopt. Our boys loved it.

We watched as a doctor assisted "Mama Cabbage" with a birth. The show is enthralling for the kids and humorous for the adults. The visit itself is free, but the babies are not cheap. If you want to "adopt one" the fee is $60 for a baby with a plastic face and upwards of $200 for a cloth face. There are cheaper babies available, but they are boxed like you would get at Target, and not up for "adoption."

We knew this before going and were prepared to let the boys get one baby. He asked the doctor for help finding the perfect baby and finally found a bald baby boy, with brown eyes in the perfect outfit ready for adoption.

You can purchase accessories there, but the nurse let me know that all their babies wear premie size clothing from Carters, so you can also find additional outfits there.

After the official adoption we took our new baby boy out on the porch to play a bit. There is a huge lawn to run in and rocking chairs for sitting. There are also picnic tables on the property if you are looking for a place to have your picnic.

Our final stop was Mountain Fresh Creamery, which is conveniently on the road back to Gainesville, GA, where you pick up 85 to head back into the city.  The ice cream is sold right from the window in the milk can and there are plenty of picnic tables with umbrellas. Inside the store you can sample their milk or cheese and see inside the dairy. Walk around the fence line to see the cows at pasture or headed in to be milked. I ended up running back into the store for a $1 quart of cold milk to enjoy on the drive home - its seriously that good!

We did this itinerary on a weekday, so crowds were very low. It was a great way to get out of the city and see some things we had not done before.

Albuquerque with Kids

When the husband said he had a work trip to Albuquerque I was mostly just thinking it would be better to be all together as a family then alone with the kids for a week. I put an APB on Facebook for some ideas for our trip and was flooded with ideas and recommendations, which build some confidence that taking a trip a few weeks before your scheduled to move was a good idea.

So we packed up the car and took off on the 6 hour drive from Colorado Springs to Albuquerque. As usual we found a few great parks on the way to let the boys get some energy out. In Trinidad, Co we stopped at Cimino Park. The park has a great playground, splash pad and is next too the riverside trail. If you follow the trail up across the road there is a large steam engine you can walk around. Our train loving 3 year old is a sucker for any train we can find. There was plenty of street parking. We packed snacks and had a little snack break on one of the benches before piling back into the car. 

Our next stop was Fort Union, one of New Mexico's National Monuments. They have a huge picnic area, so we started there with our packed lunch. The fort is "fee free and pet friendly," so it is a popular spot on this otherwise lonely drive. We stopped into the ranger station and picked up the Jr. Ranger Packet for our 3 year old. They are happy to have kids of any age try it but they do have to complete a set number of activities (you can write for them) and they have to be able to raise their hand and take the pledge. Our kids loved the walk around the old fort. We saw bunnies and lots of birds. The walk took about 30 min, but we went the long way. H was able to complete enough of his packet to earn his very first Jr. Ranger badge. He decided to say the oat "very very quietly" but we could hear him and that was good enough. There is a small museum to walk through (1 room) and a gift shop. Make sure you bring water and a hat with you as you are very exposed when touring the fort. 

With sleeping kids in the car we pushed to Albuquerque in time to check into the hotel and get settled. We decided to try out Sadie's. They have several locations that are reported to all serve delicious food. My husband, however, is a stickler for "the original." The food was good, but it was huge! I attempted to not overeat and even took most of our meal back to the hotel, but I was stuffed. We ordered the dinner sopaipilla that they are known for and the enchiladas. We were there right at 5, but by the time we left the place was getting crowded and a line was forming outside, which seems amazing since the restaurant is so large. 

Across the street from the Albuquerque Marriott was a nice little playground. There were tennis courts there that the women's tennis team (who we were traveling with) were using to warm up so we checked out this great little playground. 

Then it was off to meet a friend at the Albuquerque Studios near the airport. (One of the nice parts of this city is that it doe not take very long to get anywhere.) I cant talk much about what we did at the studios, but it was a nice sneak peek at an upcoming blockbuster film and, more importantly, a fun visit with an old friend. The studios are nice and will remind you of any other studios you have ever seen, but are only accessible with permission from someone working there. 

The kids were ready for some fun so we rolled over to Explora! the touch museum.  There is ample free parking behind the museum and the museum was free as a reciprocal with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. There were so many fun things to do here! There is a wonderful little infant room that had areas to crawl through, balls to push around and plenty to keep our 11 month old entertained. Our 3 year old loved the hands on exhibits. We only made it through part of the first floor before we needed to grab lunch. Since it was free we actually headed back here another morning to kill some time and explored upstairs where there were bubbles, circuits and a room on "love." We would go back here again because even my husband and I were entertained by the exhibits. 

Playing with Light at Explora! 

Bubbles at Explora! 

Floating Balloons at Explora! 

We left to go grab lunch at The Grove Cafe & Market. This place was great, albiet crowded. The lines moved quickly and seats turn over quickly. All the sandwiches come with the fresh vegetables of the day and a pickle - delicious!   There are kids items on the menu as well as plenty of vegetarian options. In fact, the menu is quite overwhelming. In addition to lunch, I got a an iced latte, it was delicious and we all shared a cupcake. Yummy! 

The Sandia Peek Ski & Tramway is a bit of a drive, but worth doing. I looked into taking the tramway up and hiking down but the trails are marked as challenging, and we were ill prepared for a long hike. You can see your hiking options in the area here. The 9 mile La Lutz Trail connects to the Tramway Trail to take you from the top of the mountain to the tramway parking lot. Parking is free at the Tramway. The trams run every 20-30 min. It is not a cheap adventure, but the views are fantastic. Our guide on the way up gave a complete narrated tour and was very knowledgeable about the tramway and the surrounding area. The guide on the way down really could only tell us when to expect the tram to swing as we went over the towers. We walked around a bit at the top instead of immediately boarding the tram back down. We would have stayed and had a glass of wine at the restaurant on top had the kids not been with us. The kids got enough exercise on top to be ready to head back to the hotel and go to sleep when we got back.

Passing the other tram mid-way through the crossing. 

Sandia Peak. 

The next morning we were up early and headed back towards Explora! to check out a park we had seen across the street and the New Mexico Museum of Nature and Science. Tiguex park was the perfect way to start the morning. It had a large play structure as well as a little kids area, a stage and a workout circuit. We were able to walk right to the Museum of Nature and Science when it opened at 9am. 

The museum was free as a reciprocal with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The museum has a lot of stuff, unfortunately our little ones wont hold still long enough for anyone to read so here is what I know about the exhibits. The dinosaur section was great until we reached a dark "cave" section that left the 3 year old in tears. The visiting exhibition on the mating dances of birds of paradise was really interesting and both kids sat through the 25 min video totally transfixed. You can direct the camera of a MARS rover recreation and there is a nice star room. We breezed through these exhibits in an hour and a half and then headed over to Explora! to hang out where there were more things for the kids to touch. 

For lunch we headed to Garduno's, which was luckily across the parking lot from our hotel. The husband did the Taco Bar and was quite happy to try all different types. I ordered off the lunch menu and shared with the kids to try to stave off the inevitable vacation weight gain - then I remembered I was traveling and had a margarita! Garduno's was delicious and more my style of food then Sadies, or perhaps i just ordered better. We were all full enough to go home and take a great nap! 

I actually got a little shopping done and browsing done at the ABQ Uptown with the kids in the stroller before we piled back into the car and headed downtown to meet our friend for dinner at The Standard Dinner. It was delicious! The upscale dinner is totally kid friendly with coloring and a kids menu. The happy hour drink deals are great so going early is worth your time. Plus with kids its always good to eat before meltdown. 

We drove over to Old Town and walked around till we found our first ice cream parlor. It happened to be yay yogurt. We rationalized yogurt was better for us then ice cream. This place is a do your own except you just pay by size, not by weight. So we loaded up our cups and let our 3 year old do the same, including all the toppings you could ever want. 

So this is where our trip could have turned bad, the last full day in Albuquerque we decided to spend it at the ABQ BioPark.  A great plan, until we looked at the weather. The one full day of storms! We picked up sandwiches at Panera so we wouldn't have to worry about food on our trip. The ABQ BioPark is a reciprocal of the Atlanta Zoo, of which we are members, so our admission was 50% off.

Since the rain was coming down we started at the Aquarium. Our nearly one year old loved loved loved this little aquarium. What it lacks in size it makes up for in quality. The large windows were a huge hit. 

If you buy the combo ticket you get to ride the train to the zoo as many times as you want and it includes unlimited train rides at the zoo. This in and of itself would have been enough for us! The train ride was great - they are doing some work on the train station so we did have to trudge through some mud to get to the station, but it was worth it. 

We spent our time at the zoo dodging rain storms, quite a few of the animals were also dodging the storms. In between them though we got to see some animals playing around. We were stuck in a hailstorm with a tree kangaroo, a kookaburra and a koala, so it could have been worse. We took one rain storm to ride the train around the zoo. 

We took the train back to the Aquarium, which is also the location of the Botanical Gardens. The children's garden here is fantastic. So many fun things to play on. We could have stayed in this one area of the park exploring for the whole day. The castle facade is just the start of the magical world inside. Even with all the rain we were able to play without getting too wet. 

The rest of the gardens are worth exploring as well. The event space and wedding garden look amazing! We ventured over into the old farm in an attempt to find some animals. Yes...we had just come from the zoo but farm animals are our favorite! We found a few to look at and an old farm house to explore. At this point we could see more storm clouds brewing and decided we should make our way back to the car. We completely missed the orchards and other vegetable gardens we had seen from the train.  

The next morning we needed a quick breakfast so we could make our way out of town. Satellite Coffee ended up being the perfect spot for a quick breakfast and it was right next to Whole Foods where we picked up thinks for lunch. 

Pecos Historical National Park was our last planned stop before home. Another junior ranger program helped us enjoy our visit with the kiddos. Pecos also allows you to crawl into some of the underground ceremonial areas, which was very cool.

We drove till the kids woke up and pulled into the New Mexico Visitors Center in Raton, NM. Oddly, its closed on weekends, but it did have a train car in the front yard making the perfect picnic spot for us. 

Mount Rushmore (and Beautiful South Dakota) with Kids

Turns out Rapid City, South Dakota is full of things to do! It has been on our "in striking distance" list since moving to Colorado. Honestly, I had pretty low expectations. I thought I would be underwhelmed by a few faces carved into rocks. I wasn't really sure what else to expect, but I wanted to mark it off my National Park list.

One late summer morning we packed up the car with our two-year old and 3 month old and we were on our way. 

Turns out our kids to pretty well in the car. I did have a few fun road trip toys planned for the two year old. A laminated map is always a hit. I also bought some train magnets (we are very much into trains right now!) and I had a magnetic cookie sheet. He loves this toy and it only makes an appearance on road trips. Our library also has playaways, which are portable pre-loaded videos that I saved for those melt down moments. I also checked out two books and CD's from the library. These new toys, in addition to the box of books I typically keep in the car, made the drive fun and easy.

Welcome to Nebraska!  

On the Oregon Trail 

We broke the drive there up into two segments so the kids would have some out of the car time. We stopped for the day in Scottsbluff, New Mexico  We stopped by the Scotts Bluff visitors center, the children prevented us from watching the 12 min video but we did make it in time to drive up to the top. Much to our two year old's delight there are three tunnels on the drive to the top. (No new traffic up the road after 5:30pm.) There is a short hike at the top with amazing views. We also did a little walk by the visitors center that goes past some reproduction wagons and to wagon ruts... we never conclusively found the wagon ruts. We could see Chimney Rock from Scottsbluff but decided not to venture out of our way to get a closer look.


The next morning we completed the drive to Rapid City and checked into the Hotel Alex Johnson downtown. The Alex Johnson has lots of old charm and the only downside is parking is two blocks down the street in the public garage. They have a loading zone in front of the hotel for drop off and pick up.

We grabbed lunch just across the street from the hotel at the Fire House Brewing, Co. The location is great and the restaurant is very cool, full of lots of old firefighting stuff. Service wasn't great and the food was just OK. The beer was good though. I would recommend grabbing a beer here, but skip it for meals.

Our first stop was Storybook Island. This place is crazy. Hundreds of playthings themed after everything you could imagine.  There are slides, swings, diggers and tons of plastic figures. We could have played here all day, but it started to rain. 

Playing in the Orange House. 

Another Storybook Friend 

Once we put everyone in the car the kiddos fell asleep so we decided to drive across town to Mount Rushmore. On your drive from Rapid City you pass a ton of places that look kitschy but interesting - we did not have time to check these out but you certainly could.

Car Squeeze. 

Since the kids weren't awake we took the long way through Needles Highway. This is a beautiful drive, although winding. Our favorite part was passing through several rock tunnels that were nearly as wide as our car. This road does take you into the sate park, where you have to pay a separate entrance fee. Following the highway all the way through the park will return you to the road leading to Mount Rushmore. (You also get a cool view of Mount Rushmore through one of the rock tunnels.)

I had low expectations for Mount Rushmore itself, but I wanted to check it off my National Park list. I was pleasantly surprised. The facility they have built is beautiful and affords great views of the monument. The loop walkway is a bit steep, but not at all unmanageable even with the kiddos. The walk provides spectacular views of the mountain and culminates in a visit to the Artists Shed, where much of the planning for the monument was done. Not to be missed is the museum located at the top of the amphitheater which features incredible stories and pictures of the monument being carved.

We grabbed some ice cream at the restaurant and enjoyed the view from the outdoor tables. The entire family split a small ice cream by asking for an extra bowl! We were trying to kill time to make it to the lighting of the monument, but with two little kids we knew when to throw in the towel and back to the car we went.

As a note, although the monument is free the parking will run you something like $12 - but your pass is good for the full calendar year.

Also within driving distance is the Badlands National Park. This place is full of amazing rock formations.We stopped and took a quick hike out into the badlands, it gives you a whole different perspective.

Badlands 

The kids did not so much think the rocks were cool but they loved the animals... which were not hard to find.

Prairie dogs can be found all over the park. 

Bison roaming the roads. 

Make sure you pack a lunch because there are NO OPTIONS inside the park. I would recommend grabbing something before you leave rapid city. There are tons of picnic benches on which to enjoy your lunch.

On our way out of the park we stopped for a quick gander at the Worlds Largest Prairie Dog. The kids were asleep so I hopped out to get a quick photo!

Equally as weird was the stop at the tourist trap Wall Drug. You should stop there because it is just that weird... and crowded. We sat on the back of the Jackalope and got a free Veteran's doughnut and got back in the car.

Back in Rapid City don't miss Dinosaur Park, where you can climb on the back of six huge dinosaurs. Our little guy just loved hanging out by their feet. Not quite as cool as Storybook Island, but still worth the visit. There are a few smaller dinos at the store next to the parking area, so don't miss those. 

As a special treat for our train loving toddler, we booked a trip on the 1880 train out of Keystone. We were extremely lucky to get a diesel locomotive on the way up and a steam locomotive on the way back down. Parking in Keystone is a mess. We were on the earliest train so there was plenty of parking but when our train got back, everything was a mess. We packed lots of snacks for the kids and made sure to sit inside since it is an hour up and an hour back. We also rode up on the front of the train and changed seats to the back for the return.

Once back in Keystone there are a variety of options for both food and entertainment. My husband LOVES alpine slides and my two year old was overjoyed to try it with him. They rode the ski lift up and I literally heard them laughing the whole way down. It may be my favorite memory from the trip.