Road Trip

Scotty and I decided we wanted to take a nice getaway in the fall, and had two options: a trip to Greece (I love tzatziki sauce) or a road trip to Colorado. I know, random options. After many discussions, a more mellow road trip won out. While Colorado was our main destination, we enjoyed many stops along the way. I don't have any pictures, but our first stop was Boise, where we enjoyed our stay with the Hamiltons in their beautiful new house. From there we headed to Utah for some time in the Park City/Deer Valley area. The aspens were changing colors and everything was so vibrant.

Reds, yellows, and greens.
Downtown Park City is a trip. This photo is during the day, but we went out to dinner and were so surprised by the scene. I've never seen so many stilettos and sequins in a ski town before!
Exploring the hiking trails around Deer Valley.
From there we moved on to Moab and Arches National Park. I had never been to the area before and couldn't believe how lovely it is. The rocks are an amazing red color and are in all sorts of crazy formations.


This one is called gossiping ladies, or something like that.

It was over 90 degrees that day, and dogs aren't allowed on the hiking trails in the park. We spent most of our time checking everything out from the car. We did one 15 minute hike to check out delicate arch and came back to a very warm dog. Sorry Buddy!

Can you tell I was mesmerized by all of the interesting landscapes? So beautiful there.

Arches is best known for its, well, arches.

Next stop-Aspen to hang out with Dave. Dave and Scotty were best buds in college, and he was the best man at our wedding. We don't see him nearly enough, so it was great to spend some time in his world. Aspen's a pretty groovy place to live.

Hiking thru the aspens in Aspen.

Family portrait, after Buddy stopped chasing the cows.

Buddy at his favorite activity-swimming.

From Aspen we headed on to Salida, and explored the area on the ATV.

Checking out the local waterfall.

Scott's parents live right down the road from this cute little former one room schoolhouse.

Even Buddy got in on the ATV action.

I'm convinced that the Swanteks are trying to kill me. We took a day trip to the Royal Gorge to check out the suspension bridge and faux little mining village, but it turned out it was one of the windiest days of the year.

Mike, Jane, Scotty, and I preparing for our wagon ride out west.

Ooops.

At the Royal Gorge you can take this elevator train contraption thing all the way down into the gorge. It was pretty fun.

It's a LONG way down.

Wheeee!

Here's the view of the suspension bridge from the bottom. Did I mention it was SUPER windy? I've seen the video of 'galloping girdie' from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge enough times to freak me out. This bridge was moving and shaking. I was not a fan.

Next stop-Bishops Castle. Scott's parents told us about this guy who decided to build a castle in the middle of nowhere, by hand, on his own. He's anti-government and doesn't believe in building codes, etc. It's an impressive piece of work for sure, but the guy must be one chicken mcnugget short of a happy meal.

It's a tad rickety. One of the staircases in the middle of this picture doesn't go to anything-just a huge drop-off. That can't be safe.

Scotty thought it was great and was happy to climb around. I was happy to watch from solid ground. No thank you.

Scotty and I have a new nephew-James Michael Criswell, or Jimmy. Well, he's not that new-he's almost 8 months old! He's pretty cute in his Adidas track suit.

Checking us out. See you at Christmas little friend!

Another day, another hike in the lovely Aspens.

Jane, Amy, Scott, and Mike on a walk around the neighborhood with Jimmy.

Our last stop-Crested Butte. Dusty and Annie are building their dream home in CB South, so we had to check out the progress. It's amazing! Hopefully they let us stay there the next time we visit.

Beautiful woodwork, curved staircases.

The last night of our vacation-at dinner in Crested Butte with our friends Ben and Michelle, Kent, Dusty and Annie, and a Seattle-bound Darci.