7-14-10 Day 6 - Glenwood Canyon, Glenwood Adventure Park, Hot Springs

Early start this AM with a one hour drive to Glenwood Springs that took 1 1/2 hours due to stop to take pictures.  Glenwood Canyon has to be one of the most beautiful drive in our beautiful country.
After a couple of false starts, we found the entrance, bought our tickets and were on the tram to the top of the mountain.  It's a small amusement park with an alpine slide, 4G movies, Laser Tag and a Giant Swing that defies description.  Art and I still don't believe that we rode it - note: Jana and Sally rode multiple times.  There are 4 seats (2 on each side, back to back).  We had to leave our backpack, camera, glasses, etc. because as the young man running the ride said "if anything gets lost; it stays lost".  With great tepidation, we sat down on the side facing the overlook (about 3000 feet off of the ground).  The swing then starts (after locking you in your seat) much like a regular swing for one swing then gradually increases both speed and incline until you're swinging a bit more than 180 degrees back and forth at 3 Gs.  The whole ride lasts about one minute and you're quite glad of that.  I will add pictures while we're on the plane home...quite dramatic.  Sally and Jana rode the alpine ride (we didn't).  At noon we joined a group to tour the amazing Glenwood caverns...about an hour long in glorious 52 degree temps (the sun gets very strong at high altitude and it was a clear day.  Our guide was from Romania, spoke excellent English and was very knowledgeable.  Worth the price of admission to the park!  We ate lunch, the girls rode the Swing again (immeditately after eating) and we saw 2 short 4 G movies.  A quick trip to the gift shop and we were off to experience Glenwood Hot springs - with a mineral pool that is the largest in the world and in operation since the late 1800s (although the springs have been used by Native Americans for thousands of years).  We paid the rather steep admission, changed in the available locker rooms and enjoyed both the therapy pool (104 degrees) and the mineral pool (94 degrees) while viewing the nearby mountains. Much more crowded that our last trip here but relaxing and always fun to share the experience with the girls,  We then showered, changed and headed back through the canyon taking even more pictures in the late afternoon light.  We went straight to the Sushi restaurant that we had planned for this evening (half price and quite good) and went back to our unit for coffee and cherry cheese coffee cake for dessert,

Time to begin packing and too tired to work on pictures tonight. :(

Day 5 7-13-10 Rest Day

The girls slept in today  and we all took a day to relax.  Art's wounds from the rafting trip are healing but his gout acted up a bit - glad he brought his medicine with him.  We finally dragged ourselves out for a while in the afternoon...searching for upscale consignment shops.  We found 3 within a few miles of Vail.  Jana bought a purse and Sally made one purchase.  I even picked up 2 shirts but nothing spectacular.  Came back to our home away from home - Jana and Sally ate last nights leftovers for lunch and hung out until we went into Vail Village for dinner at a nice restaurant.  Gearing up for a big day tomorrow - you'll have to check back then to find out what we're doing.  Hard to believe that there are only 2 days left until we head back to the airport!

Day 4 - White Water Raftingt

Up early to another sunny Vail morning - we have been so lucky with the weather.  Art and I got our 'stuff' ready and had breakfast and, suddenly, realized that we'd not heard any sounds from the girls' room.  So....looked into the room to find it dark and two girls sleeping.  I asked, rather loudly if they wanted to go rafting.  The truth is - they CAN  move quite fast in the morning including dressing, eating breakfast and getting to the office where our transportation was meeting us 20 minutes early!  We were picked up in a small bus by a very cute and friendly guide named Ryan who in short order told a few less than funny jokes, introduced himself and the other guide, Paul, to the passengers, told us how many more stops we would make to pick up the final 27 who were going on this trip, etc.  Once all were on board we continued to the place on the Colorado River learned about the mountains, river, names of the rapids, and lots about the guides - all were cute, either college grades or still in college, in love with the active life of the mountains and very engaging.  We were assigned to a raft with a young family including 6, 8 and 10 year old children .and our guide Mike (who seemed to be the lead guide).

Art managed to slip on a rock and bruise his shin before even getting into the raft.  Mike asked the girls if they wanted to ride in front and get the most wet and paddle the hardest.  They declined the invitation.  So, we volunteered and Art and I became the lead paddlers!  According to Mike, Art was the oldest guest he'd taken on a rafting trip.  And we got lots of comments and compliments about our level of activity :)  The first 45 minutes or so were hectic.  One level 3 rapid after another with Mike telling us when and in which direction to paddle.  All of the passengers had paddles and helped out; we just got the most wet!!  When we got to calmer waters, Mike had each of the children paddling along, too.  The 6 year old had been a real trooper, chatting along every minute and being the spotter of each piece of rough water in front of us! Mike told us all sorts of stories about the mountains, rock formation, and beaver huts we passed along the way.  We arrived at a landing place in Glenwood Springs after sailing through the amazingly beautiful Glenwood Canyon, pulled the raft out of the water and carried it (Jana and Sally helped) to the trailer that would take it back for the next group.

David, the bus driver, doubled as the cook.  He had everything set up for a chicken fajita lunch, along with

Day 3 - Sunday - Vail Market, World Cup Finals, Quiet Afternoon

We awoke to a bright, sunny Vail morning with an amazing Carolina Blue sky.  Parked in the Town of Vail parking deck and emerged just where the Vail Market began.  The market included lots (and I mean LOTS of food booths, produce stands with produce that made me wish that I was cooking while here (but not enough to offer to cook dinner :))  Beautiful jewelry, pottery and other crafts booths.  I bought a silver pendant that I've wanted for years that is a modern bear shape - the sWmbol of Vail derived from the Golden Bear jewelry store.  We walked around for a couple of hours, met back up with the girls, bought lunch at several booths and smoked salmon for breakfast tomorrow and headed  back to the ranch.  Just a few pictures today - amazingly enough. 

Art and I watched the Final game of the World Cup; the girls napped and went to the pool, sauna and hot tub (in time for the afternoon rain).  After the game, Art and I did the hot tub and then dinner.  Not very exciting, but relaxing and we look forward to rafting tomorrow AM.

Day 2 - Lionshead, Vail Village, Gondola, Horseback riding - a full day!

We think the weather is changeable in NC and SC - but Vail beats both....it's really hard to plan day to day because so many activities depend on the weather.   We got up this AM to cool, sunny, lovely weather, had breakfast and headed over to buy Gondola tickets thinking we would go up in the AM while the weather was beautiful.  Since the girls wanted to do horseback riding on the mountain, we were told that the best deal was to do the 4:30 PM ride....so we bought the tickets,  and walked to Vail Village along Gore Creek, taking pictures as we went.

We split up in the Village and wandered through the streets,  stopping in shops and along the creek with plans to meet to go back to our timeshare for lunch and a rest before heading up Mountain.  The flowers in Vail are everywhere with vivid colors, in baskets, urns, along paths

 Had a lovely walk UNTIL the clouds suddenly blew in along with thunder and lightening.

Of course, this happened before our planned meeting.  After several phone calls and with rain beginning, Art went to get the car while we waited under shelter.  We called to cancel the late afternoon plans; no one was in a very good mood.  We ate lunch, watched the end of the World cup game, and, you guessed it...the sun came out; the clouds drifted away and we called to say we were coming to the Gondola (which had been closed during the afternoon due to the weather).

Had a fun ride up the mountains (except for leaving my UNC visor on the Gondola) and got to take pictures of the Back Bowl of Vail Mountain with some snow left on the distant mountains.  Note:  My visor had a car all to itself to ride back up the mountain and be retrieved . I was amazed that no one took it as a souvenir - maybe they were all Duke fans :).  

Jana and Sally went down to the stables to get their horses and we walked down a bit later to take more pictures of them on their mounts.

While they had their ride (which was fun), we sat on the patio, enjoying a Colorado micro- brew and the breathtaking scenery.  After the girls returned from their ride, we had dinner at Bistro 14, a casual restaurant with good food on the top of the mountain.  Soon after we finished dinner, the waitress said that we had to leave because of incoming 'bad weather' AGAIN.

 The clouds rolled back in and there was concern about possible lightening.  AND there was to be a wedding on the mountain top that evening.  As we rode down we passed cars coming up with the bride and her attendants....we  hope that the wedding came off OK.

We had wonderful Gelato in Lionshead village near the bottom of the Gondola ride; the rain started and we headed back to the car and our home away from home.   A good, day with a few frustrating moments.

We're in Colorado

Guess my good intentions re: adding posts as the planning went forward didn't pan out.  It's been BUSY spring and I'm delighted to say that our trip commenced with a 6AM wake-up call this AM.  I must admit that it was fun to turn on the lights and wake up two 18 year old girls :)

We headed to the airport without a lot of traffic, checked in without problems, even got through TSA easily despite the fact that the name I had on Jana's airline ticket did not match her ID - my error and, although it caused a bit of angst, we got through trouble free.  Breakfast at the airport and an uneventful trip and we landed in Denver on time.  Got out rental car and drove to Morrison, Co to visit Red Rocks Park and amphitheater.  Our first stop was the Morrison Inn where we had a great Mexican lunch (thanks to Eric who recommended that we stop there).  On to the Welcome Center where the girls got Welcome to Colorado caps and we were disappointed to learn that the amphitheater was closed due to a concert in the evening.  Bummer...it's so amazing and we really wanted to girls to experience it.

But we were glad to get on the road to Vail through the Eisenhower Tunnel, past Lake Dillion , and on to Vail.  Lots of snow covered mountains - in July - and some snow quite near the highway.  Checked in and got a unit with a view of the mountains and the hot tub (which we enjoyed after grocery shopping an a walk).  All of us are tired, having frozen pizza for dinner - with the girls cooking - and ready for early to bed and a start to day two whenever the spirit moves us.  A wonderful day!