My mother's day evening, the weather turned unexpectedly from chilly and grey to a glorious, gilded spring evening, just in time for us to all head over to our oddball local vintage amusement park.
Lakeside was a favorite of my ours before we were married, when we were still living in Vail and just making day trips to the city on occasion to take photos here.
So it somehow felt indisputably right when the house that we eventually chose to buy in Denver was just three blocks from the main gates.
It also feels right to see Q here, on a mother's day evening, with the sun just spilling through the cloud cover onto the lake.
We photographed all these spots years ago, when we were just newly in love and discovering all the things we had in common.
And here we are still, loving this place just as much as we did, in all its quirky glory.
Every year I'm afraid that it will be the last for this relic of the Victorian era. How can this place still keep running, in the hyper-regulated, homogenized age of giant rollercoasters, Disney rides and virtual reality?
And yet here it is, year after year, our old faithful haunt, with its fortune tellers and chickens laying golden eggs, its mechanized race horses, its faux-Matterhorn, and its pink ticket booths.
And here, unbelievably, four years have passed at lightening speed since I first became a mother. Here, my almost-five-year-old is riding the adult rides with her daddy, an ear-to-ear grin on her face, and not a fear in the world.
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| It does a mother's heart good. |
Just as the evening began to chill, we were able to dash out the back gates and across the street to our favorite taco joint for extra-spicy tacos al pastor, cooked under a tent on an outdoor grill, and seasoned to perfection.
What a day. Here's to the girl who made me a mother, and the man who made me want to be one. Without the two of you, I would never have known any of this.
What: Lakeside Amusement Park
Where: 4601 Sheridan Blvd. at 46th Street
www.lakesideamusementpark.com
Don't miss: the vintage carousel - gorgeous hand-carved animals!
AND
What: Tacos Tijuana
Where: 4406 Sheridan Blvd at 44th St
Don't miss: the tacos "al pastor"
What: Lakeside Amusement Park
Where: 4601 Sheridan Blvd. at 46th Street
www.lakesideamusementpark.com
Don't miss: the vintage carousel - gorgeous hand-carved animals!
AND
What: Tacos Tijuana
Where: 4406 Sheridan Blvd at 44th St
Don't miss: the tacos "al pastor"
"I think you know of our struggles with children and parenting. I have no idea of yours, but I do know that there is no such thing as "easy". So on this ridiculous corporate fiction "Mother's Day" let me just say that there is a virtue in doing the right things, even if they are done in a parlous way, in a difficult place, for the wrong reasons and for no better excuse than hope and desperation. The grace is in the doing, and not in the hope of reward."
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Happy Mother's Day to you and yours, from us.
wonderful post! i would pick the amusement park over disneyland any day!
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