July 22 Alamosa CO

Last night's dinner was a disaster!  We stopped at Jack and Janelle's Country Kitchen.  Everything we ordered was cooked to death.  The cook must think that super well done is the new culinary standard.  We could barely eat our food - it was done to a crisp.  We took the girls to DQ for a treat and because we felt so bad about dinner.  When we got back to our B&B, we went to the lounge to play cards.  Ella had a phenomenal night - she got a double run, which is almost unheard of in pinochle.  We got ready for bed and read another chapter of our book - almost done.

We got up this morning and had breakfast.  It was better this morning - blueberry pancakes.  We brushed our teeth and then got on the road.  It took about 4 hours to get to Louise and Mike's in Alamosa.  The house looks lovely - lots of new plantings and sitting arrangements outside.  We had lunch and then went back to town to the Habitat ReStore to say hi to Rhonda.  It was nice to catch up on the news since we haven't been there for a year and a half.  We also went over to the Farm Park - they have done a lot of work in the park since last year.  There was a huge community garden surrounded by newly planted trees.  We came back to the house and the girls jumped in the pond.  Louise and Mike bought a float for the pond and they had a great time floating around and then jumping into the water from the end of the dock.  They played around for a while, but then we heard thunder so we called the girls out.  The girls got a kick out of the fact that Louise won't go in the water because the beavers live there and she doesn't want to meet one while she is swimming.  The other pix are of the girls hugging Sugar - a Great Pyrenees.  Tomorrow we will go to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

July 21 pix

Here are some pix from Mesa Verde.  The cactus is a wooly bear cholo and it is ready to bloom.

July 20 pix

Here are a few shots of Zoe and Ella at Four Corners and one of Dave and the girls in front on a pueblo on the B & B property.

July 21 Mesa Verde

We got up early this morning after a good night's sleep and went to breakfast.  I have to say this was one of the skimpiest breakfasts we have ever had at a B & B.  We brushed teeth and then headed out through Cortez to Mesa Verde for the day.  On the way, nine police cars with sirens passed us going the other way - not sure what the emergency was, but the whole police force was heading for it.  We got to Mesa Verde and I signed us up for the 1 PM Cliff Palace ranger tour.  Since we had plenty of time, we went to the museum to watch the introductory movie and then took the cliff loop and stopped several times to look at pit houses on top of the mesa and views of cliff houses across the canyon.  We drove back to the museum for an early lunch (and to make up for the skimpy breakfast) and then headed down a different road to Cliff Palace.  We had a great tour - climbed four ladders, got up close and personal to the cliff dwellings, peered into kivas and poked our heads into a tower with pictographs overhead.  On the way out, the ranger showed us a series of hand and foot holds that the Anasazi used to climb up to the mesa to tend their crops.  I was happy to have a ladder!  It started to rain as we were coming down and we saw plenty of lightning and heard thunder.  I was glad that we were able to get a relatively early tour time.  I would not like to be on a tour during a thunder storm.  We are now in Cortez, sitting outside of a restaurant, doing the blog and waiting until it is close to dinner time to eat before we go back to the B & B.  Dave is listening to the radio and has his eyes closed and the girls are playing a card game in the back seat while I am writing this blog post.  Since we have a better connection here using the hotspot, I may try to put pix up for yesterday and today.  Happy Birthday, Lolo!!

July 20 Cortez, CO

We woke the girls up early this morning and had breakfast at the Lodge dining room.  So far the food there has been very good, but Ella's blueberry pancakes this morning were without flavor.  I usually don't like to complain, but I did mention it to the waiter.  When I was waitressing, I would have taken the meal off the bill as it was obvious she had only taken a couple of bites, but I guess things are different today.  I offered to get her something else, but she said she wasn't that hungry so we let it go.  We drove toward Four Corners, stopping along the way for drinks and then lunch in northern Arizona.  We took the girl's photos at Four Corners and they walked around looking at the wares available by the Navajo tribe.  One man was making amazing pots, but they were way out of our price range (hundreds of dollars each).  We ran through some showers and saw lots of lightning strikes.  We also saw smoke on a mountain side, which may have been caused by a strike.  We finally got to Cortez about 5 PM in the pouring rain and opted for an early dinner as the B & B we are staying in is 15 miles out of town in the middle of nowhere.  The room we are in is quite nice - a queen bed and a set of bunk beds.  We are here for 2 nights so the girls will take turns on the upper bunk.  They both slept on the upper bunk at the Grand Canyon, but this one does not have a railing.  The place we are staying is on an archaeological site - Anasazi ruins.  We followed the map and found pueblos and kivas.  The girls will see more of them when we go to Mesa Verde tomorrow, but it was cool to walk around and get a preview at this site.  I will put the pix from today on later as the girls are anxious to play cards.  BTW, there is no cell service here, but we do have a slow wifi.

July 19 pix

July 19 Grand Canyon

We went to the ranger program last night.  Fortunately it was in the auditorium at the Lodge as it was during a thunderstorm - lots of rain and lightening.  He talked about fires in the national parks and the question of whether to fight them or let them burn.  There were pluses and minuses for each side of the question - quite interesting.

We went to breakfast at the Lodge this morning and then drove up to the campground to do laundry as everyone was just about out of clean clothes.  Dave and the girls walked to the general store to get granola bars for lunch and then we drove out to Imperial Point (8803 feet) - the highest point on the North Rim and to Cape Royal for more amazing walks along the rim and views of the canyon.  At Cape Royal we got our first glimpse of the Colorado River which had a huge part in carving out the canyon.  It looked very small from our high perch.  We came back and the girls just got their jr. ranger badges and checked out the gift shop.  We are now just relaxing after our drive and hikes.

We decided to go to the buffet tonight instead of the dining room.  The girls certainly enjoyed the options.  They went back 4 or 5 times!  They also enjoyed the apple crisp and blueberry buckle for dessert.  We came back to play cards and I read another chapter of Caddie.  We went to bed on the early side as we want to get an early start tomorrow.  For some reason, the pics aren't loading so will try again in a separate blog.