spring

Monday, July 6, 2009

Summer Travels - Durango, Telluride and Ouray

Steamworks Brewery in Durango
Entering Mesa Verde National Forest

Cliff Dwellings in Mesa Verde - how the heck did they build those?



Trout Lake outside of Telluride


Blues Festival in Telluride



Mom, I promise I didn't just eat one of your bbq ribs!


Mountain Village Square in Telluride


Main Street in Telluride (after the parade)


Telluride - picture taken from gondola

Hugs!

I don't know if my descriptions or these pictures will do justice for the places that we visited on this trip. We first headed to Durango for the first night. Maggie got carsick the last two hours of our trip so the one night in Durango was spent in the hotel room. It was fine though - we ordered pizza and went to bed early. We left Durango and headed to Mesa Verde to the cliff dwellings. This is where indians built their homes in the sides of cliffs thousands and thousands of years ago. That was pretty incredible for their dwellings to still be in tact after all these years. Then we moved on to Telluride. If you have never been to Telluride, you are missing out! It is by far the prettiest place I have ever seen. It's such a unique little town that is nestled in this valley between mountains and there is a waterfall that trickles down one of the mountains. No wonder Tom Cruise has a home there! We actually stayed up in the mountain village where the ski resorts are and it is equally as beautiful. Telluride is out in the middle of nowhere!! There is not a Wal Mart or Target for hours and hours. I'm not too terribly high maintenance, but it would definitely inconvenience me to drive that far for Target or some Sonic tater tots with cheese! Then we started the trek home and stopped off in Ouray. Ouray is known as the Swiss Alps of the United States. I've never been to the Swiss Alps but I cannot imagine it being any more beautiful than Ouray!

Summer Travels - Colorado Springs






We have spent some weekends this summer traveling around Colorado. We spent some time in Colorado Springs (about an hour south of where we live) and went to the Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods is a place that has giant, vertical rocks coming up from the ground and we stayed a night at the Broadmoor Hotel. The Broadmoor has breathtaking views. Ian and I had been several times but this was the first time to take the kids with us. They got to swim in the pool and that made it all worthwhile to them!