The last stop on our vacation was Colorado Springs. We parked in this lovely city for three days and visited several tourist hot spots. On our first day, we checked out the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum. The museum wasn't quite open when we arrived, so we discovered this America the Beautiful Park nearby. It was perfect for some playtime beforehand and our picnic lunch afterwards. Not bad scenery, either!
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This museum was very hands-on and so fun!
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At the start, each of us got a badge that was digitally loaded with our name and whichever avatar we selected for ourselves.
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As we walked around the museum, various kiosks would pick up our names from the badge and put our names on display. What fun technology!
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Nearly every exhibit, like this Olympic torch display, had a screen where you could either watch a brief video clip or interact with maps, charts, or articles to get more information. The kids, of course, loved playing with the screens!
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Other exhibits actually let you try out an Olympic sport.
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The screen to the right featured an actual Olympic runner racing against you. Check out how fast she was!
We could even watch a post-race video of ourselves. Each time we participated in an event, our badges recorded the stats.
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Other events included alipine skiiing (this one was very difficult, as it took you on a test race and required you to memorize each of the turns!),
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skeleton racing,
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archery,
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and soccer. Jaden and Adley tried being goalie and blocking whatever shots came their way. It was tougher than it looked!
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We also enjoyed learning some new info about various athletes and their events.
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We even got to stand in a mini-theater where we were surrounded by screens and pretend that we were in the opening ceremonies.
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What a great interactive, family-friendly museum! We definitely would recommend it to anyone in the CO Springs area.
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That evening, we visited a Penny Arcade in nearby Manitou Springs. This arcade was huge, spanning at least 8 small buildings. It featured over 20 different small electronic rides (which Adley loved), pinball, racing games, skeeball, sport games, games dating back to the 1930s, and more modern games like Deal or No Deal (which Jaden and Cody played multiple times). Sadly, very few of the games were actually still a penny to play, but we were okay with a fun evening splurge.
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The day was a great start to our time in CO Springs!
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