Colorado Day 3

Sunday, July 26, 2009: Today we were able to sleep a bit later. We got up at 8:00am and after getting ready, went to the Ute Coffee Shop for breakfast. As it turned out, they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner 24 hours a day and they had a salad bar! So B1 and I got lunch food while Bruce and B2 got breakfast food. We then headed to Mesa Verde National Park. I mainly wanted to go there to show the girls the cliff dwellings that the Indians lived in a couple thousand years ago. I remember going to the Manitou Springs cliff dwellings as a kid. The park turned out to be much large than I had anticipated. A person could really spend an entire day there but we chose not to do that. After speaking with a park ranger, we decided to check out the Spruce Tree House dwelling on our own. Many people were there doing the same thing. The walk down to the dwelling was even hard because it was so steep, but coming back up was not fun for someone like me, who is NOT in shape! But I made it! The dwellings were really neat and have been very well preserved. When we were done there, we drove a 6-mile loop around 2 other dwellings, one of which was the biggest one there. We did not walk down to see that one close-up but we got some good pictures of it from afar. Also on this drive, we saw a coyote! He was pretty darn tame and just stood there basically posing for us! We also saw 5 wild horses who also posed. The girls thought the animals were pretty cool! We then drove to Durango in hopes of riding the alpine slide at the Durango ski resort. But…..it began raining as we drove there and once we got there, the slides were closed for the day. Bummer. So we came back and checked into our hotel (Travelodge), brought our bags in, and then headed to downtown Durango. We walked all up and down Main Street looking in the shops and ate dinner inside the Strater Hotel at the Diamond Belle Saloon. The waitresses and bartender were dressed in period clothing and the inside gave you the feeling of an old time saloon. The tables were small and there was a piano player. We ate upstairs, looking out at the bar room from a balcony. The food was good too. We continued walking about the remainder of the shops and finally had dessert about 8:30pm at Cold Stone Creamery. Now we are back at the hotel, watching TV and getting ready to go to bed soon.

This was taken at one of the lookout places in Mesa Verde National Park


B1 and B2 next to a cliff dwelling

Our family next to a cliff dwelling

The coyote!

B1 and B2 "bellied up" to the bar! I made them go down for this picture!

The girls in the balcony seating area

We saw this guy at Cold Stone and then watched him get his dog ready for a motorcycle ride! It was lik nothing we had ever seen before. The dog even has glasses on! He is connected to his owner at two spots. The owner said the dog really likes riding!