To Grand Junction and Back

And not a single photo of my sister or her family. I took the camera, I set out the camera, but I never took a single shot.

So here's what I did take photos of - the drive there:The Colorado River - beautiful, beautiful!


The leaves on the trees were just starting to turn. We could see the train tracks, across the river, where you'd ride if you traveled by Amtrak. Maybe next time I'll let them do the driving!

We opted for a picnic by the river, rather than grabbing fast food. Smart us! I think Mom would have been happy to stay right there the rest of the day.

I don't know if this fly fisherman caught anything but it made me pick up the cell phone and call our son, Dan so he could be jealous for a minute. He was. Him sitting indoors at a desk while this guy was outside, fishing the river in Colorado. Who cares if you catch anything, just to be there was such a treat. Not that Mr. Fisherman would have necessarily agreed with me.

It didn't skip my attention that the trash cans were bear proof. That always tells me there are bears. We were not very far from Vail at this point, and they'd had two incidents the past week - one where the bear actually chased the man upstairs in his own house! Bears - nice in zoos, but not so much in the wild, in my humble opinion.

So from there we went to Barb and Rob's, spent three nights with them. We managed to eat Barb's chicken divan, go to the Olive Garden as a group of four girls, see Julie and Julia (my third time to see it but it was so much fun to see them seeing it), visit Barb's favorite book store where I, of course, bought something, lunch out with Rob and Barb at their favorite hamburger joint, Wrigley Field, where the green chili smothered burger was so huge I barely managed to eat half, and a pizza party with Kris and Andy and their kids to finish it up. Then hugs goodbye where everyone managed not to cry, then we headed back across the mountains.

On the drive home Mom and I made a very fun stop in the town of Frisco. We took time for walking around the town a bit, and managed to find an ice cream shop where we ordered double scoops because life is just too short to bother with a single! Arriving back at her house, Mom and I agreed we are getting good at this being traveling partners. By then we'd been together for six days and still liked each other, so I'm already making plans to fly her to Texas then pack her in the car and go see the Alamo, maybe a night on the Riverwalk with some more good mexican food. I already can't wait for it and am confident she feels the same.