September 21, 2018 by coloradotravelingducks

Boulder Creek Hometown Festival 2018

We love festivals. And we love festivals in Boulder, Colorado. Labor Day Weekend, the first weekend in September is one of our favorite festivals. There is a Farmer’s Market.

A Farmers Market in the festival

Yes, we can purchase Colorado lamb and cheerful cut flowers. (Sept 2014)

We like flowers and Colorado lamb

These vegetables are so colorful.

Yum

Makes ducks and humans hungry. Also so many venders here.

Singing Bowls from the Himalayas.

We love the singing bowls from the Himalayas. Kids can get inside balls.

Walking on water in a bubble

Doesn’t this look fun? Or, if you don’t want water, try these bumper balls.

Bumper Balls

And you can watch artists at work.

Artist at work

These are great! But this festival has something special.

So many huge zucchinis

Zucchini Races. Kids can purchase a giant zucchini. The wheels are then put on the zucchini for the young human. There are many choices for these little ones to use for decorating their zucchini.

Work in progress

Now it is time to race.

And the race begins

These races occur every 10-15 minutes, depending when the decorated zucchinis are ready. Isn’t this fun? The young human keeps the decorated zucchini.

Zucchini

If you have ever planted zucchini in your garden, you know that it grows quick. Zucchini is a very prolific plant, so there are always giant zucchinis. Humans can only eat so much zucchini in one summer.

Racing zucchinis

But that is not all for this festival . On Monday, the duck races occur. Of course, we love duck races. Duck races are to raise money for a good cause. The organizers of the duck races have hundreds or thousands of ducks that look almost like us. People or businesses buy (really rent) a duck or ducks. But they are not allowed to touch the duck. Each duck has a number, so humans know which is their duck. All ducks are dropped in Boulder Creek. And the races begin.

Ducks

Many humans are needed to catch the ducks at the finish line.

Wow! At the finish line

The water carries the ducks to the finish line.

Some of the many ducks

The person paying for the winning ducks receive prizes. Everybody loves to watch the ducks race down Boulder Creek. These duck races are very popular and many towns feature duck races in the local festivals. We hope you watch duck races near you and, of course, think of us, the Colorado Traveling Ducks.

September 3, 2014 by coloradotravelingducks

Duck Races in Vail, Colorado

I, Zeb the Duck, and Soapy Smith Duck watched 13,000 of our yellow cousins race down Gore Creek in Vail. It was incredible! Here come some of them.

Ducks racing on Gore Creek

Many cousins got stuck along the bank of Gore Creek.

They can make it!

Humans watched from International Bridge in Vail.

Watching from Vail’s International Bridge

The end of the race got a little congested. Wow, this looks like the traffic jam on I-70.

Some of the 13,000 ducks

So many ducks!

This festival in Vail hosted so many food booths and other venders.

Venders and visitors

This booth is for Macanudo Cigars.

Macanudo Cigars

Didn’t I just see their sponsorship for a televised golf tournament? Here little humans ride the mechanical bull.

He had a good ride

He held on for several seconds. Seems that ducks are the guests of honor. A new game here, Pluck A Duck.

Pluck A Duck Game

We like anything with ducks. This duck cut out is awesome.

Handsome ducks!

Looks just like us!

The Vail Rotary Club sponsors these ducks races. The ducks are the primary fundraiser for this organization. Humans pay $5 to adopt a duck for the race. The first 20 ducks receive a prize. The grand prize is $5,000. There are over 13,000 ducks and more than 10,000 human spectators. That’s more ducks than humans!

Soapy, Zeb, and our moms had a great day in Vail. Vail is about 100 miles west of Denver on I-70, so it is an easy drive to get here. The scenery is stunning. Vail is a great resort, for a day or several weeks. We hope you will experience Vail soon.

We love ducks!

May 30, 2014 by coloradotravelingducks

Boulder Creek Festival

Zeb the Duck, and the rascal Soapy Duck, went to the Boulder Creek Festival in Boulder, Colorado with their moms. We first decided to go for the duck races, but last time we told you about that.

Ducks can be so helpful. Creek to dangerous for duck races

Ducks can be so helpful. Creek too dangerous for duck races

This festival had so much!

This is a great place for kids. These kids are inside plastic bubbles that float on water.

Walking on water in a bubble

Try to walk in there. Looks like so much fun!

Zeb and Soapy were on the kayak.

Kayaking today

This is a big pool. We were in the water also.

And more water fun. Kids could slide down this huge water slide.

Fun for a hot day.

Yes, we did get wet sitting on the edge. And we liked it. Again, we wish we were human.

This train is great. We are on the engine.

We love trains

Kids were smiling and having fun here.

The climbing wall is really tall. We look so small on the ground.

Climb high

Don’t think this is for ducks to climb.

These girls have hula-hoops. And they know how to use them.

Hula-hoops!

The section of the festival with rides had this crazy roller coaster. These humans are upside down.

Roller coaster

Scary for ducks and humans. The assortment of carnival games on the midway was fun.

Carnival fun at Boulder Creek Festival

All these people liked it here also.

Festivals always have so many things to see and buy. This booth has a variety.

Great shopping at festivals

We are sitting on the rack of belts.

Walking and laughing makes our moms hungry and thirsty. We had nachos, funnel cakes, and lots of diet pop. So many food choices at festivals. We hope you visit festivals this summer. The music is so nice and they have a great variety of musicians.

Outdoor festival in Boulder. Great music

We like Colorado festivals, but visit some wherever you are. You will have fun!

Visit a festival this summer

May 28, 2014 by coloradotravelingducks

Duck Races in Boulder, Colorado

We love duck races. But these duck races were changed to a duck event. The ducks were dropped in a plastic pool, without water.

So many rubber ducks!

Then the ducks were scooped out with a net.

Ready to scoop out some winners

I, Zeb the Duck, went to Boulder with Soapy Smith Duck, his mom and my mom. We had a wonderful day at Boulder Creek Festival.

Quacky, the giant duck, supervised this duck event.

Quacky could be my big brother

Quacky helps get ducks out of the pool to determine the winners.

Ducks can be so helpful

Today about 3,500 sponsored ducks competed for 114 prizes.

After this duck event, the pool was removed, the bands played,

Outdoor festival in Boulder

people danced, and a light drizzle began to fall.

Soapy and I and our moms walked along Boulder Creek Trail

Love the fish

to see Boulder Creek. The duck races were to take place in Boulder Creek, but the creek was too dangerous. We decided to look. Boulder Creek is very high.

Close to capacity

Wow! This water is too rough for ducks or humans to navigate and race.

Only May and much snow in mountains

We remember duck races in Estes Park in May

Swim little cousins. Estes Park early in May

and also duck races in Breckenridge last September. Maybe the next duck races will be in the river again. Rivers are fun, but we need to be safe.

Ducks racing in Blue River. Breckenridge Colorado September 2013

May 7, 2014 by coloradotravelingducks

Duck Races in Estes Park

I, Zeb the Duck and “Soapy” Smith Duck viewed the Duck Races in Estes Park, Colorado.

We love duck races

We love duck races and we love Estes Park, so it was a perfect day for us! We saw lots of duck stuff for sale. We now have a new little member of our duck family.

Soapy, Zeb and The Green Lantern watching duck necklaces

Meet our superhero, the Green Lantern.

The first ducks to race down the river were the larger, corporate sponsored ducks. They were decorated.

Great duck

Some arrived swimming rapidly and

Some up and some down

some were turned over by the power of the river. Several large ducks got caught

Oh no!

on a rock and then they were rescued.

Saved! Thank you

Here we are with some large ducks that finished the race early.

So many ducks

We watch the races.

Beautiful day and beautiful river!

Next the smaller ducks raced for the finish line. The rocks didn’t catch these little guys;

Swim little cousins

they just kept swimming for the end of the race. The ducks were caught in large fishnets

Wow! At the finish line

and then checked for numbers to determine prizes.

Did we win???

Soapy and Zeb met our bigger relative.

Our bigger cousin

We liked him! During the races some people made bets on the duck squat.

Does it really mean that??

You can guess what that is. Live ducks in the large enclosed area will make a deposit on the winning square. So undignified, but so funny.

The duck races are loved in Estes Park. The door to the Wheel Bar has pictures of us and cousins!

We ducks love Estes Park!

Duck races must make humans hungry.

Green Lantern Duck at Bob and Tony’s Pizza

Our moms decided to eat at Bob and Tony’s Pizza. Visit http://www.bobandtonyspizza.com

Yum! Hawaiian Pizza

We liked it too.

Our moms said there would be other duck races this summer. We want to go. We hope you can watch duck races also. Either with us in Colorado, or at a river near you. Try them, you will have fun!

Duck racing!

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