Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig!

The Colorado Steam Coal Train

A day in Durango, CO!

We traveled on a Steam Coal Train up through the San Juan mountains to a small mining town called Silverton. It was absolutely amazing!! Looking up at the mountains that were over 14,000ft. elevation and covered in snow. The Amansi river bursting with snow melt was dancing and swirling beside us all the way. We saw more waterfalls here than in Hawaii! This was truly God's country! The train was an original coal train from the 1880's and was used when they were mining silver from the mountains. We have a video of it chugging it's way through the canyons and up to Silverton. I just thought I'd share some of the pictures and their beauty.

OH! Colorado!

Today was spent in Mesa Verde National Park where the Anasazi Cliff dwellers lived from approx. 800AD-1300AD. There are 1000's of dwellings within the park. Many that have yet to be discovered. It is absolutely amazing to see how they lived. We traveled to Durango Colorado where we relaxed, shopped and had a bit to eat before deciding we would stay and take the steam train ride up into the mountains tomorrow. Sharay (Greg's wife) suggested we do it and we think it will make a very memorable experience. Soooo...this puts us a little behind schedule. We will drive to the eastern portion of Colorado (& what a beautiful state it is so far) after the train ride. It will make for a loooooong day but then we can more easily get to Wichita, Kansas to visit my girlfriend on Wednesday. We are estimating a Thursday evening return home. I guess we'll see. I'd love to spend more time in Colorado but I guess we'll have to return someday. Thanks for all your supportive emails. I'm glad you're enjoying the pictures. Only wish you were here for the real thing. You know how it is...pictures can never do it justice. Love ya All! See you soon!

Where in the world is Rick? Can you find him? He's pretty sneaky....hee hee!

These were taken in Arches National Park in Moab,Utah. God's country for sure. They even have an area they call the garden of Eden. Uh huh!

I can't help myself! These are just soooo beautiful! God is really a master artist isn't he? The balancing rock is called the Mexican Hat because it is said to resemble an upside down sombrero. I think God's sense of humor is great! Now if we all had that it could be a beautiful world!

The Grand Canyon!

Rick told me I don't need to post so many pictures but I say..."How do you choose which pictures?" I'm trying not to post too many as to bore all my wonderful peoples out there but I am overwhelmed with the beauty and Grandeur of God's world! It makes you feel so small and insignificant. And yet......

One last Visit

Thought I'd share a picture (finally) of the four of us together. It's been a very memorable week and a heartwarming reunion. We love these people! "Cracka" Jack is taking a time out in his pool to cool off from the heat. Isn't he the cutest?! Thanks for everything Greg and Sharay! We love you! Now look out Grand Canyon...Here we come!

Just tourists

We spent part of the day in downtown SLC in a shopping area called Trolley Square. It's an old trolley station that's been converted to a mall. They had a lot of cool unique shops and a Hard Rock Cafe. We had lunch there and took some pictures. I'm standing next to Madonna's Corset she wore in her 1987 UK tour. I remember this and thought it was pretty cool at the time. Hee hee! Rick opted for the more conservative picture (it figures). This was a really cool Hard Rock! It had tons of memorabilia and it's only 8 years old!

A day in Salt Lake City

We visited downtown SLC yesterday. They have a courtyard located outside the Gateway Mall that is dedicated to the 2002 Olympic Athletes. This area had all the athlete's names listed among waterfalls. Beautiful! In the center of the courtyard is a fountain area in the shape of a snowflake that spurts water up into the air randomly and the kids run around in it having a blast! Every hour on the hour there is a choreographed water fountain display and (I guess) it is amazing! It was soooo hot that we (Rick mostly) didn't want to sit around and wait the 45 minutes to the next display. Oh well...watching the kids was really fun. Then we headed over to the Church of Latter Day Saints Temple (in Temple Square). If you don't already know this, Salt Lake City was founded by a Prophet of the LDS named Brigham Young in 1847. The community was founded by Mormons and continues to thrive today on that foundation.There's your history lesson for the day! Ha! We went on a tour and got introduced to a few of their beliefs and traditions. The Tabernacle is being refurbished and so we were unable to go inside. A little disappointing but we strolled throughout the square and took a few pictures anyway. Then we headed to the east a bit to see a couple other beautiful and old churches...one was the Church of St. Madeline. This was much more impressive, kinda reminded me of the Basilica in Minneapolis. Then around the corner to one of the oldest Episcapalion Churches in Utah. This was under construction too so we were unable to go in. They really take good care of their buildings here and even though much was being renovated it was nice to see the people here take pride in their city. It was Reeeeeally hot downtown (upper 90's) and so we headed back to the mall area and had a frozen yogurt to cool down and grabbed the car. We went into an area of the city (my brother told us about) that reminded me of the Summit Drive area in St. Paul. Lots of old style mansions (I found the one that WILL BE MINE!) and quaint victorian homes. Then we went over to my bro's house, introduced he and his wife to geo-caching and then out for dinner at a wonderful Mexican Restaurant where we laughed and got reaquainted. It's been a lot of years since we've seen each other so we had a lot of catching up to do and getting to know his AWESOME new wife (Sharay). Tonight we'll get pictures and spend another evening with them. Greg is cooking a brisket (which will take all day) and invited us and his good friends over for a meal and fun times. Tomorrow we leave for the Grand Canyon! We'll have to say goodbye to Snowbird and Salt Lake City. It will be sad but fun to anticipate what's ahead too. Well...enough of this chapter in the travel journal of R & C. Stay tuned for more fun! Love you all!

Rick and I went for another hike in the canyon on Wednesday. It is sooo beautiful I just have to share more pictures! I wanted to share a special picture but I realized that Rick didn't take a picture...he took a video and I can't post it on this blog. It was so weird...we were walking along and found this creepy old abandoned shelter area just off the beaten path so we went to check it out! As we were wandering around we heard this music in the distance. I turned to Rick and he said, "I hear music!". So we sat quietly for a bit and, sure enough, it was coming toward us! What we heard was beautiful bagpipes! Sooo...we hustled back to the path just in time to take a video of an older man walking along playing his bagpipes!! We just stared in amazement. It was such a beautiful sound in amoungst the canyon, river, and mountainous area! I don't think I will ever forget that unexpected experience. Oh the wonders of the world!

Happy Birthday Ricky Dean!!

Welllll...in honor of Rick's birthday, and because the state of Utah is so honored by his presence, they decided to blast cannon bombs off at 6:57am today! I was thinking that maybe they knew exactly the time he was born and decided to scare the livin' hell out of both Rick and I so we would both "go out" on the same day he was born! As we found out later they were blasting for avalanches! Surprise to you Utah...we survived the shock! HA! Ya can't keep a good Minnesoooootan down! Long Life to ya Rick!

We visited 2 Olympic sites today. One in Park City where they held the 2002 luge, bobsled, and ski jumping and the other was downtown Salt Lake City where the Olympic Cauldron was lit and the opening and closing ceremonies were held. It really makes you wish you had been there. So inspiring!

Muskrat Looooove!

You naughty little Bat.
Why do you scare my Meggie Loo like that?
A tennis racquet in the head
Is what you get to make you dead!
Oh Bats, Don't come round here no more
Or "Wayne" will return to settle the score!

Today we went on a mountain trail and saw the most beautiful Heavenly scenery! The air is so crisp and clean. Temperatures in the mountains are around 12 degrees cooler than in the city. We traveled to the Great Salt Lake and walked the shallow shores. It was really weird. Temperatures were 90 degrees today so being near the water was a treat...even though it was super salty. Tonight we plan to go up to the rooftop jacuzzi and sit and watch the stars. It might even be somewhat romantic....Hmmmm. Tomorrow is Rick's birthday so he gets to plan the day the way he wants to. Hope you enjoy the picture show. More later!