The Colorado Springs Flea Market is one of my happy places. It is a huge fenced cement lot full of both storage spaces and vendors that set up camp every weekend of the year no matter what the weather. Two dollars gets you in (12 and under are free) and another $1 gets you a cart. I've been five or six times both with and without kids and it's always fun to go treasure hunting. They've got a bounce house and ferris wheel so my usual strategy with the kids is that if they're good halfway through the flea we'll go buy tickets for some bounce time and then finish the rest of the flea. I always give them a small amount to spend and they usually come home with vintage My Little Ponies and Transformers that cost fifty cents. I never have to talk them into going!
My parents used to take my brother and I to a place called Denio's Farmer's Market in Roseville, CA growing up. It was full of booths that sold just about everything-cheap plastic toys, colorful sunglasses, pinatas, Mexican blankets, bouquets of flowers, blankets with wolves and dolphins on them, tacky velvet paintings, colorful umbrellas, superhero toys, princess wands, and rows and rows of fresh produce. If ever there was a place to buy fresh produce it's California. I remember saving up to buy a pink skateboard, plastic slap bracelets, and pogs. Oh, pogs. This one isn't nearly the size of Denio's but I still love roaming the rows of tools, fresh produce, and toys from my childhood and I love sharing it with my kids.
Have you ever been to a huge outdoor flea market?
-Rachel
