Our Vacation Itinerary:

So it's decided. Friday morning we'll be leaving for our Colorado vacation. Here's the plan at the moment.

We'll aim to leave our home (knowing it's in the capable hands of our house-sitter) around 8 am. We'll drive our fully loaded Honda CRV thru the neighborhood Starbucks to grab a treat for the road, (which has become a traveling tradition) and head north on Arizona 51, then west on AZ 101 Loop to Interstate 17.
Once on the 17, we'll be on our way north thru Flagstaff, AZ where we'll probably grab a tank of gas and a quick bite to eat. Then on thru the somewhat desolate, but often beautiful Hopi and Navajo Nations covering northeastern Arizona, continuing into southeastern Utah, all the way to Arches National Park. It's about 8 hours from home and promises to be our most scenic stop and detour along that stretch of the trip.

We recently discovered that next weekend is a "fee free" weekend for all national parks, which is good and bad news. Good that we don't have to pay...bad that it may mean more people than would normally be expected. Hopefully since schools are starting in the southwest, most families will already be home preparing for the new school year.

We were considering going to Monument Valley as well, but we're learning after all these years of traveling that it's just not wise to cram too much sightseeing (and picture taking) into one day, so we'll save MV for another time. It's only about 5 hours from home and could be done in a long weekend.

After spending a few hours exploring and capturing the beauty of "Arches", we'll drive on to Grand Junction, Colorado for the night, where we'll apparently be crossing paths with President Obama and his family. It wasn't planned that way. I don't think they're expecting us...just coincidence. I hope we don't have any traffic issues. Do you think he might be staying at the Courtyard Marriott where we'll be? Of course not. I'm sure he'd choose the Residence Inn instead.

Anyway, if there's not too much hubbub with the Presidential family in town, we'll get a good night's sleep at our favorite hotel chain.

On Saturday we'll take our time driving the rest of the way (only about 4 hours) to our home base in Steamboat Springs. We probably can't check in until early afternoon, so we'll have plenty of time to get there.

I'm looking forward to settling in and getting the lay of the land. We'll pick up a few groceries, (stop at the Farmer's Market if we get there early enough), check out what's around town, maybe post a few pics if we can find web access and relax for the night.

On Sunday we hope that our dear friends Randy & Linda will arrive to join us for a few days. This won't be the first time that we've shared vacation time, but will be the first time without our kids. I take that back. I forgot about the time that we hiked down Havasupai Canyon as couples together. Of course, I was pregnant with Amy at the time, but didn't know it, so it doesn't really count as having kids there.

I'm so looking forward to some sweet fellowship, laughing, relaxing, and enjoying the great outdoors and beauty of Colorado with a couple of our favorite people. We might even get in a few games of Nertz so the girls can finally avenge our humiliating loss in the campground at the base of Havasu Falls in 1981 (but that's a story for another time).

So, before I get too far off track, if any of you have been to Steamboat Springs or nearby and have tips on dining, hiking, shopping, sight-seeing, photo ops, etc., please let me know soon so we can add them to our list. We're not looking for anything too crazy, just simple and fun.

Be sure to check back for vacation pics next week!

Day 2 & 3 - Steamboat Springs (Saturday/Sunday)

I know it's hard to believe, but I only took a few pictures on Day 2. That was the day that we drove from Grand Junction to Steamboat Springs. The scenery was nice, but relatively uneventful.

When we arrived in town, we picked up our keys to the timeshare, had some very tasty early dinner at Rex's American Bar & Grill (recommended by the desk clerk when we checked in), then went grocery shopping so we were stocked up for the week. We got back to the unit, unpacked and settled in.

That's one thing really nice about being in a condo with a full kitchen. You don't have to eat out every night and you can save a lot of money. We have owned our timeshare since 1984 and it has been a lifesaver in more than one lean year when we barely had enough extra money to get to and from the location. We could find lots of free things to do and still enjoy a fun and relaxing week without a big expense.

When we stay somewhere for a full week, we usually buy enough for 3-4 dinners, all of our breakfasts and some extra snacks & lunch foods to get us thru the week. We always have plenty of food and usually end up going out a few times so it works out well.

When the kids were younger and came with us we used to let each of them pick out a meal and do the cooking too. That way Mom had a little vacation from the kitchen. The kids also got to pick out their favorite "sugar" cereal since they weren't allowed to have it when we were at home. Part of the fun of vacation is having great food and special treats!

Here are a few pics of the condo. It's a two bedroom with a loft that sleeps at least 8 people. It's been recently remodeled and is quite comfortable.

I love this western tapestry design on the back of the chairs. Click to enlarge to see the horses.

Here are the views from our balcony and the view from our bedroom window. Nice, huh? It's been fun to watch the storms roll in in the afternoon hours. We're very comfortable here and close to everything in town.

Check out this sweet horseshoe coat rack that hangs in the hallway. I'm sure it comes in very handy, especially in the winter when there's ski gear and coats all over the place.

So on Saturday night we just settled in and relaxed, got a good night's sleep and prepared for our visitors. Actually Terry took a nice long walk in the morning. He was gone almost 2 hours! I was just about to call him and see if he was lost when he walked in the door. When I asked if he had gotten lost he said, "Well, I wasn't lost but it took me a while to figure out how to get back here." (Should we run thru the definition of lost?) He's so cute.

I stayed in my pajamas working on my photos and blogging until 3 in the afternoon. NICE! Then I finally got dressed because our dear friends, Randy & Linda were closing in on their arrival. It was so awesome to have them join us. We haven't had a chance to vacation together in a long time and we love their friendship and their company. We love to laugh and cry and just share life together. What a blessing to have friends like that who we've known for over 30 years. Thanks God.

Once they were here, we heard about their trip and let them get settled in. Then a few hours later, our son Kevin arrived (around 10:30 pm). He had driven over 10 hours from Omaha and we were very excited to see him for the first time since last summer. He was stationed in Afghanistan with the Air Force for a while since we last saw him, so it was great to get a chance to give him a big hug and to catch up a little on his life. He is now officially finished with active military duty and is in pursuit of his next adventure. He's waiting for a job interview which sounds very promising. We were thrilled that he was able to come over to join us this week because we expect that he may be living somewhere besides Phoenix and our visits with our kids are always so precious to us.

Our Last Day in Steamboat Springs - Day 9 (Part 1)

Just a warning...these posts may not end up to be in chronological order, but it doesn't really matter. You'll get the idea anyway. Our last day in SS was Saturday, the 22nd. There were just 4 things on my list of to-do's before we left town.

1. Pack the car and don't forget anything
   
2. Have breakfast at Winona's
3. Say goodbye to Kevin
   
4. Go to the Saturday Farmer's Market in downtown Steamboat Springs

We dropped off our keys right about 10 am and headed downtown to Winona's. The only reason I wanted to go there was the tiny little ad that I saw in the local tourist paper touting their famous cinnamon rolls. The ad said that their cinn rolls had been mentioned in Gourmet, Sunset and a few other national magazines. My thinking was that if they were that good, they were worth investigating.

Winona's was a tiny cafe with a few extra tables outside. Even though it was starting to get warm (80's) we opted to sit outside, so we didn't have to wait too long to eat. They had umbrellas over the tables, so the temps were fine. The pic here is our view of the mountain from our table.

After perusing the menu I decided on a single order of Crab Eggs Benedict with a cinnamon roll instead of toast. There was no way I would pass up the roll and miss the opportunity for a special treat.

The waitress brought our drinks, then while we were waiting for the rest of our food she set down the cinnamon roll in front of me. I couldn't help but say, "Oh my gosh!!!" when I saw it and the lady at the next table laughed at me. Take a look at this thing compared to the size of the coffee cup! It was HUGE! Not only huge, but delicious too. The roll was warm from the oven and the frosting must have been ladled from a warmer because it was fresh, sweet, warm with a little touch of lemon flavor. Perfect topping for the sweet roll! Terry, Kevin and I all got to share it and we still had about half of it left to take on the road with us.
A little later our meals came. The guy's food looked good, but mine was the best, I'm sure. The Crab Eggs Benedict was awesome with big chunks of crab throughout and the fried potatoes were seasoned just right. Of course, I couldn't finish everything, but what I had was delicious and filling to prepare us for our road trip home.

After breakfast we said our goodbyes to Kevin. He had a 10 hour drive back to Omaha and wanted to get there that night. This is his new car, if you haven't seen it yet. Pretty spiffy huh?

After he drove away, Terry and I walked across the street to the Farmer's Market to pick up a few treats to take home.

First off, we wanted to get some more Palisades peaches to bring home. We had picked a few up on our way into town and they were the best I've had in years! It turns out that we're not the only fans of these peaches. The presidential family made a stop in Palisades to tour the orchard the week before as well. We bought a bag of them at the first booth, then later saw these flats of huge perfect peaches and had to buy another flat as well. They were just that good and we knew we wouldn't have any trouble sharing them!

We also picked up a couple of other treats while we were there: rhubarb preserves, homemade soap and Olathe corn. Next time we'll try to get to the market when we arrive so we can buy food for the week. Everything looked great, but we weren't sure how it would keep during our 2-day drive home so didn't want to take the chance.

I immediately thought of Linda and her love of all things aqua when I saw this little aqua trailer in the middle of the market. Isn't it sweet?

Happy Birthday to my favorite guy in all the world!

Terry's birthday was yesterday!  It's not that I forgot his birthday, it's just that I forgot to create a post in advance about it and we've been so busy that I didn't have time in the last few days.

That doesn't make him any less special or less loved. I'm so blessed that God gave him to me over 30 years ago.  I wouldn't want to share this life and it's adventures with anyone else.

Here are just a few highlights of the fun we've had this past year... what a great year it's been and now we're heading for Bosnia in the next few days!  Can't wait.

 Steamboat Springs, Colorado in August

 Disneyland in September

 Randy Thompson Christmas Concert in December 

Dave Argentati Concert in December

Terry & Bob played several places around town this year

 Flagstaff Snow Day in January

Suns Game in April 

Back to Day 6 - Weds - Fish Creek Falls
O.k., I realize that I've been sidetracked a bit from vacation for the last few posts, so now I'll try to get focused and cover Days 6, 7 and 8 over the next few days, hopefully.

On Weds of our vacation week we went to Fish Creek Falls. It's a short drive just outside of Steamboat Springs, so we decided to check it out. After the quick jaunt in the car, we had a short easy walk to the bridge at the base of the falls and decided it was a great spot for a photo op. Of course, Kevin hammed it up as usual.

You can see the beautiful falls in the background. Interestingly, when I was looking online for info about the falls, I came across a photo that was probably taken in the spring when the water flow is at it's peak. Take a look at the difference between what we saw and what it would look like with full flow.

Soon after we arrived Kevin and Randy decided to do some rock climbing up to the base of the falls. They wouldn't have been able to do it if the falls were full, but in late summer it was very manageable. Since Kevin just had flip flops on, he ended up going barefoot for his excursion. To give some perspective on the height of the falls, if you enlarge the 5th photo from the top you can see Randy and Kevin in the lower left corner of the picture. In the next photo you see Kev jumping from one rock to another (one of his favorite things to do).

Then back at the bridge I noticed this set of miniature clothes laying out on the rocks. Oops! Someone must have wandered a little too far into the creek...and here is the guilty party. Isn't he cute and not phased a bit.

After our hike, I asked Kevin to hold the camera. Guess which pictures he took? Linda and I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Then just before we left Randy, Linda, Kevin and Terry started playing a game that Linda called "Water Bottle Smack Down". She explains the game on her blog post here. You have to enlarge the pic to see the water bottles flying thru the air.

Sadly this was our last full day with Randy & Linda. They left early Thursday morning to do the 14 hour drive all the way to Phoenix in one day. We had a great time with them! What a blessing to have friends that we've known for over 30 years and have so much in common with. We hope to do it again soon.

You can visit Linda's blog to see more about their trip too.

Day 4 - Enjoying our little vacation town
So Sunday night we all enjoyed a good night's sleep, then decided to explore the little town of Steamboat Springs (population around 10,000). We headed down to the path that follows the Yampa River as well as the main highway that runs thru town.

Except for the fact that we enjoyed a nice walk in the refreshing mountain air, it was relatively uneventful. Afterward we came back, had lunch then took a drive downtown to check out the shops.

As soon as we got there, the guys thought Linda and I were taking too long in the first store so they ditched us to go find a music store. Kevin needed buy some guitar strings for later when the guys are gonna play together. We didn't see them again for a long time.

Linda and I had a great time exploring all around town. We found some very unique and beautiful jewelry, but didn't buy anything yet. We also went into a kitchen store and I found this awesome 3 tiered metal stand. It can be used for almost anything! Cupcakes, cookies, fruit, craft supplies, breads, etc. I can also thread ribbon thru the wire or add colored paper or doilies or whatever. I'm very excited about it!
When we were about halfway thru town the guys called us and were ready to meet up again. They had walked the length of town about 3 times and were getting tired. This is them coming down the street. Aren't my boys silly.

We decided to get an ice cream treat in a nearby candy store too! Sweet - literally. Fun coincidence that Terry was wearing an ice cream T-shirt from Tillamook, Oregon.

Linda and I had found an old fashioned black & white photo booth in the local drug store and went back with the guys to do a couple of photo shoots. Randy & Linda did one together, then Terry, Kevin and I did one. The strips of pics came out pretty dark, but I'm hoping I can scan them and lighten them when we get home. I'll post them if we can get them to look good. The expressions are priceless!

Check out this awesome retro gas station sign. Love it!

After we got back home, Linda was inspired to take some photos of these gorgeous peaches that we bought in Meeker. They are delicious! And the wine bottle that they brought coordinated so well in the color scheme that she just couldn't resist the combination. Lovin' this still life.

Later in the evening we spent time catching up online, loading and editing photos, etc.

We also gathered around the laptop to watch Miranda and Phoebe's latest video release, which was so much fun! Thanks girls for sharing all the joy of your trip with the rest of the world. We wish we could have been there with you!