Day 3 (Part 2): Purgatory Mtn. to Ouray

While David was racing, I took the kids to Purgatory Mtn. for some fun activities. We rode the ski lift up to ride the Alpine Slide down. This bobsled like ride was pretty long and real fun.

Abby was fearless, she zipped down as fast as she could.

Rock climbing. The tower was a little wobbly so it was a little scary, even though we were harnessed in.

After the race, we headed north towards Ouray where we were staying the night. Along the side of the road is this mound with warm water coming out of it. It was called Pinkerton Hot Springs although there wasn't anywhere to soak.

Silverton, CO. A mining town, where we stopped for a bite to eat.

The place had a lot of animals in it. A little strange eating a hamburger surrounded by all these dead animals...

There was even one of a butt that we couldn't help but laugh at. How often do you see this???

Still snow on the tops of the mountains, even in September.

The drive was just absolutely gorgeous.

Day 3 (Part 1): SSWC '09

This year's host: Durango Cyclery.

You said it Emi!

The Official SSWC Warm-Up Bike

The start, beginning at Durango Cyclery, through town, then onto the trails.

The finish line, across the other side of town.

Some guy on a little kids bike. I wonder if he did the whole race on that...

Four hours after the start, David comes peddling by. I guess there were some pit stops of beer and even bacon. Sounds like he had a blast. Next year's race is in New Zealand, so unless we win the lottery I think we'll be missing that one.

Day 2: Durango

David was doing a shuttle ride so we dropped him off at the park and checked out Durango.

Went to Animas River, initially the plan was to go rafting but the water level was too low. Sage threw rocks as the girls and I collected some rocks. Free souveniers. ^_^

Walked through downtown and played tourist going through a bunch of shops.

Steamworks Brewing Company in Bayfield, in between Durango and Pagosa Springs. Surprisingly, the only brewery stop on this trip.

It was a cool little place, limited menu but the food was tasty.

A little miniature golf action.

Oh yeah, while at the playground earlier a pole jumped out at Sage and hit him in the eye. Damn pole...

Pilgrimage to SSWC--Roadtrip Day 1

The SSWC was in Durango, Colorado this year so we took a roadtrip to Colorado. Colorado is one of the states we are considering moving to so it was a good opportunity to check out some of their towns. We headed out Wednesday around 6:30pm after David got home from work and just drove. We pulled over around 2am for about an hour and kept driving. I usually don't wake up early enough to see a sunrise so it was nice to see one again.

We arrived at the Four Corners Monument around 6:15am to find a sign that says they don't open till 8am and a line of cars. Such craziness, I thought, all these cars waiting to get in on a Thursday! I later realize we went through the time switch so it was actually 7:15am and those people in line were the Indian vendors!

This monument is in the middle of nowhere, and all it was was a concrete slab with flags. And $3/person to get in. So it's now on the been-there-done-that-never-again list. But the kids really wanted to see this place so it was good.

Afterwards we registed David real quick in Durango and headed over to Pagosa Springs where David's friend has a house he let us stay in.

Pagosa Springs Brewery wasn't very attractive from the outside so we headed over to Pagosa Pub Works to get some brews and play some pool. This was Abby & Sage's first time.

Risu's 1st Egg

We're really glad we got to see Risu's first egg since we missed it last year with our other chickens since we were at the SSWC '08 in Napa. We thought we might miss it again this year cuz we're headed to the SSWC '09 in Durango in about 10 days. It's a nice pretty blue egg. And no, the yolk's not blue!