Ramada Suites Glenwood Springs

... low lying clouds. Brrrr. But when you dunked back down it was heaven. From here we hightailed it to Colorado Springs to meet up with Frank's Mom & her man Martin. We all had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse and watched the Dodgers win. Nice. Did we mention the $5.00 fishbowl margarita's? Really nice.

Started off the day dealing with unexpected car troubles. After spending hours at the closest Subaru dealer, they couldn't do the brakes today as they needed parts. Supposedly they'll finish first thing tomorrow and we'll be on our way with only a couple hour delay.

The girls slept late while I was at the car place, and came later with Hannah and her grandma and we had lunch. After we ate they went to a local hot ...

Up early again today for the long drive to Carbondale, Colorado. We took Highway 285 north through Santa Fe, and up to Route 82 for the exciting trek through Independence Pass and on to Aspen. We enjoyed the wonderful scenery as we moved through northern New Mexico and into Colorado. We saw some elk, and the mountains off in the distance were beautiful throughout the trip.

As we started up ...

... much the same as Nevada although closer to Utah the terrain changes. Large red canyons- much like the Grand Canyon. Some spots are spectacular. The road is fairly winding and some 6% grades. All that winding and twisting combined with hot stuffy air again made Andrew car sick. Poor kid has had a tough go of it all day. We got to Rifle about 730pm. The camp sight is off the main highway about ...

Today was a stunning day of geologic wonders at Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park near Moab Utah. These are both within 50 miles of each other but offer vastly different versions of water erosion. Arches is full of vertical slats of rocks that erode away in the middle to form a natural stone arch. To me the most impressive was the double arch (see photo) followed by the Landscape arch (see next photo). Standing under double arch, the size ...

I made it! I drove down from Eagle to Denver last night in the spring storm. 4 and 1/2 hour drive instead of the usual 2 and 1/2!! Oh well, too bad the ski resorts are closed, fresh new powder! I'm glad I came early just in case the storm caused havoc, but all is well this morning. All the flights seem to be on time. I leave Denver at 10am for Chicago, then on to London and finally Nice tomorrow morning. The flight from DEN to ...

... us. As we stepped out of our condo, snow began to fall...gently, as if to say goodbye. We have been blessed with perfect weather and now we depart, just before a storm was pronounced to come in. Good timing? Maybe. But I believe my dear fellow snowflakes waited for me and my company to leave safely. They welcomed us in, and they guided us out.

Took the roadtrip back out to Glenwood springs. Hit up Glenwood Springs after hiking Hanging Lake.

Great vertical hike. Lake actually hangs off the side of a mountain, small trickle of waterfall.

Humbling to have 6 year olds point out your fear of heights as you are scaling rock trails.

Amazing. But reaffirmed my everworsening fear of heights. Andy had a good time watching me crawl down rocks on my ass. Pathetic!

Excellent night's sleep and a wonderful breakfast in the large Antlers lounge surrounded by massive wood beams. We needed to swap the car partly because it was going to need a service soon also because the full-beam switch is dodgy as we found driving back from Bourne Ultimatum when we were suddenly doing 65mph with NO LIGHTS - kinda scary but mainly we were changing it because if you swap a vehicle in Aspen Colorado (play-ground of the rich) they don't ...

... Lara bought us all lift tickets and hired me modern skis and boots. The guys at the rental shop made fun of my ancient boots. Leigh and I skiied until 1.30 pm snowed all day, windy and cold +++ 10 degrees F which is 10 degrees C. Got a text message from Lara at 1.30 pm that she had booked us into the Spa at the Hyatt for a massage and was ...