Deep, dark caves. Hot, sweltering deserts. All of these locations have been explored by Indiana Jones in pursuit of finding fine jewels and treasures. Being a parent can often feel like you have to be Indiana Jones in order to have a great and entertaining day for your kids. There are only so many times that you can continue to do the same thing over and over again before the originality wears off.
Last weekend, our family headed into Downtown Rochester to walk around and explore. My wife and I have often recognized that when we go downtown, we frequent the same stores over and over – all while missing a great deal of little shops in between.
Having this mindset in place, I was instantly hit with the realization that our youngest daughter loves horses. There is no better place in Downtown Rochester than Arizona Saddlery. As we walked in, her eyes nearly doubled in size as she saw the big model horse that sits in the entryway of the store. The next 45 minutes was filled with trying on seven different pairs of cowgirl boots! Some boots were merely pink, while others had been bedazzled with all kinds of jewels. She was living in a dream and it gave us great ideas for Christmas since her original pink cowgirl boots no longer fit her.
Not too far into our visit to Arizona Saddlery, we realized that all three kids loved this store! Every one of them was trying on boots and I caught my wife looking at boots too. She even sent out a tweet asking if they were still in fashion! We cruised around the store while the kids admired the boots, hats, and shirts. Then we hit the “tack” area. Once again the kids eyes lit up with the new discovery of
saddles, leads, bits, and much more.
In the opinion of a person who loves to explore, this was a great day! We only made it three blocks on one side of Main Street before we had to move on to our next destination. The downtown area proved once again to be a fun place to explore with great shops, fun places to eat, and plenty of promising entertainment for next time. Take a day and check out some shops that you wouldn’t normally go to. You never know what you might find!
