I used to think that running an in-home daycare would be my all-time worst job ever…………Today I decided that I was wrong and that my all-time worst job ever would either be a delivery person between Durango and Silverton or one of those poor people have to build highways through very steep mountain passes!
We are currently on our “Tour of Southern Colorado” vacation and I really did scream out loud two times and said “Oh my Gosh”, “Drive closer to the Yellow Line”, and “Slow Down!” more times than I counted as we made the drive on the “Million Dollar Highway” from Silverton to Ouray. We are all still alive thanks to Jason not being afraid of heights and, besides that one looooong stretch of road, I have to say that the San Juan mountains that we have been exploring this week hold some of the most beautiful vistas we have ever seen!!!
We left Sunday afternoon because the floor people needed to start earlier to prep for the week’s work (refinishing our wood floor) and stayed in Pueblo. Pretty old-feeling town and not a lot there. They put us on the top floor of our hotel and we got a call from the office that the people below us complained that we were running around and causing too much noise. I felt bad because I thought that the kids were actually being pretty good. Oh yeah, besides the fact that Jantzen actually left the room and was going up and down the stairwell then came back and knocked on the door just as we said “Where is Jantzen?”! We’re still not sure how he got out the door. Are we loser parents or what?
Monday we finished the drive to Vallecito Lake (1/2 hour north of Durango) to the Bear Paw Lodge. It was kind of longish but fun (for Jason and I) to see places that we’ve never seen before. Very fun cabin, complete with fire pit, little playground, and a VCR. The kids didn’t hardly know what to do with the VCR tape we borrowed from the lodge office! Since we were a little before summer season, we were the only ones there and that was fun too!
Tuesday morning we set off to go to Durango but stopped at the side of the road to check out the trail rides on horseback. We decided to do it right then and there so the big girls and I took a one-hour ride by the lake and up the mountainside. Ashtyn got the most stubborn horse and she did such a great job at keeping him from eating grass at the side of the trail. It was beautiful and so fun! Jason stayed with the little two and they got to ride ponies in the corral while they waited for us. We just beat the rain that came through and got to eat at a the little mom-n-pop grocery store/Mexican restaurant. It was REALLY GOOD! We went down into Durango and saw the historic train museum and visited a few shops. Jantzy LOVED the train museum. You can ride the old steam train from Durango to Silverton but it takes about 3 ½ hours and costs about $80 per person! Besides the expense, we thought the kids would be sick of it in about 20 minutes. We had a small heart attack when Jantzen disappeared on main street for about 5 minutes. He had gone to the back of the store where we were buying something and gone out the back door. Meanwhile we were running up and down the street in the front, checking all the shops……So, are we loser parents or what? I’m not sure if we can take this kid!
We decided that Wednesday would be our long day of Mesa Verde and the Four Corners. The kids did great in the car and Mesa Verde was SOOOO COOOL! We saw two different cliff dwelling sites, one self-guided and another tour-guided. We preferred the self-guided one and had a lot of fun exploring. The big girls especially got a lot out of it. Oh yeah, this was another near heart-attack day. You drive into the park and then up the side of steep cliff FOREVER until you reach the sites. Then, driving around the top of the cliffs from site to site is like driving around the top of the Grand Canyon. Jason kept saying….oh, look, this is such an awesome view…..and I was like, I can’t look, it’s too scary!
We were so close to the Four Corners (relatively speaking) that we continued on while the little kids napped. It was fun to get our pictures taken in all four states at one time and……that’s about all there was out there in the middle of nowhere. It was interesting because I was reading an article in the National Geographic about Bangladesh and how insanely crowded it is as we were driving out there through Southern Colorado and NOTHING for miles and miles and miles. How different. There were some Navajo traders selling wares and the girls got some cute necklaces. Jantzen and Aubrey got to run and run and run and run to make up for riding in the car so long. Then, we went back to Cortez and ate at Lotsa Pasta and made the long drive back to Vallecito Lake. It was our goal on the trip to eat at all local, non-chain restaurants. It was really fun. Excepting the Dairy Queen, of course, because ice cream smeared on small children in the car is a treat necessary for all road trips.
Thursday we had multiple options and we ended up having a great, impromptu day. We slept in from our long drive the night before and played Wii at the cabin. It resulted in a fight and we banned them from the Wii for the rest of the trip. We visited the Discovery Children’s Museum in Durango (for FREE thanks to our Discovery Family Pass) and had so much fun playing together! They had a four-seater bike (like a little golf cart) with two seats for bitty kids in the front for rent. Only $6 for 20 minutes…….we couldn’t pass that up, now could we? So, we took it along the riverwalk by the museum and it was SO FUN! Then, since it was lunch time, we rode it up to the drive-thru at Burger King. (No, not a local restaurant, but the only one within biking distance). We ordered our food and the folks were laughing. The kids thought we were SO COOL and we were laughing and having a great time. We returned the bike and ate our lunch at the park by the river. Aubrey fell off the big kid swings twice because she doesn’t worry about holding on but she doesn’t want anyone to swing with her. Little Miss Independent. She was fine. We returned to the cabin and enjoyed the afternoon playing at the lodge playground and making a campfire dinner. Jason brought Bocce Ball and Ladderball which we played with the big girls while Jantzen and Aubrey enjoyed the sand box and the grassy play area. We cooked hot dogs and s’mores over the campfire and even made a music video of ourselves singing and dancing to our trip theme song “Dynamite” by some popular singer named Tao Cruz. We stayed out until it was dark and cold and we thought about how much we love the mountains and the smell of the pine trees and the cool, night air.
Today is Friday and we decided to check out of the lodge early and go halfway home because we’re trying to get Jason to the temple on Saturday on the way up. We went up north to Silverton instead of east to Pagosa Springs because everyone said it was so beautiful and they were right. We planned to visit the old gold mine and do the tour in Silverton but they were having electrical problems and the tours were delayed an hour. Since there was NOTHING to do up by the mine we went back into the town to get funnel cake (yeah, we’ve been eating super healthy this week) and check out the shops. Silverton is truly an old mining town that is largely unchanged. It was pretty cool but we just wondered what people did there??? I bet they are really snowed in in the winter. We decided to not do the mine tour and get on up the road. That’s when I about died twice on the Million Dollar Highway to Ouray but Ouray was one of the most beautiful mountain towns EVER and as we drove through we saw a cool outdoor hot springs pool. Since our swimsuits were conveniently packed at the top of the car, we decided to stop and swim in the pristine valley, surrounded on all sides by amazing, tree-covered peaks! They even let us rent towels and floaties for the pool! It was really fun. Then we ate fried chicken on Main Street at another local place….yum!
We just passed through Grand Junction and are noting the different beauty of the red, sandstone mountains here as compared to the San Juan mountains which were so completely green and tree-covered. We will stop in Glenwood Springs for the night and then go on home tomorrow. We had a bit of a hard time finding a two-bedroom hotel room between Durango and Denver. There are a lot of us to house now, but at least we left the dog at the doggie boarding place! Our floors are done and the landscaping should be almost done by the end of next week. It has taken longer than expected due to a very wet month of May but we can’t wait to see all that has been done in our absence!
Thanks for reading our trip synopsis! Hope you all are likewise enjoying the start of your summer. We look forward to seeing most of you before school starts again!
Loves-
Amy and Jason
1 comment:
Sounds like an awesome trip. I have to laugh when you talk about Summer being here. Up North we are still waiting for Spring to pop its head up and stay up. We are a good month away from any really summer weather. The kids are in school until the end of June also. Such fun family times! Thanks for sharing.
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