On The Road Again: On the road to Phoenix by way of Durango and the Grand Canyon....

We had a beautiful drive from Aspen to Ouray, where we stopped and had lunch. What a pretty little town and no wonder they call it Little Switzerland. It is nestled right in the middle of the mountains. We ate lunch on a rooftop with beautiful scenery all around us. It was a perfect day to be sitting outside. And then the drive into Durango on the Million Dollar Highway is nothing but spectacular. A little scary at times when you could look straight down the mountains. A few butterflies in some parts of the trip!

We decided that since we loved Durango so much at the beginning of our trip, that we should go back there and see if we liked it as much the second time. It is a really cute town, but would we go back now? Probably not. It's one of those, glad we went, places. Ate at the restaurant we thought was so wonderful before and it was - okay, not great. We found it very interesting. Maybe it was the excitement of being there after years of wanting to go there, the first time we went. Now we're wondering if some of the other places we loved so much would be as wonderful as we thought they were. Wish we had the time to go back and revisit some of those places, like Bend and Coeur d'Alene. We do know we love Breckenridge because we did go back there and loved it just as much the second time. We just found that interesting.

Then it was off to the Grand Canyon. We hadn't been there since the kids were 7 and 9. That was a looong time ago! By the time we got there it was the middle of the afternoon. We settled into our hotel and then went to do some viewing. Wow, oh wow, we had totally forgotten how impressive it is. I don't know how many pictures I took, but it was sooooo many! We watched an IMAX movie about the discovery of the canyon and a reenactment of the first time coming down the Colorado River. I don't know who those actors were, but they had GUTS!!! Yikes! From kids running along the rim of the canyon, to the guys in these wooden boats being thrown out of the boats. It was impressive! We enjoyed seeing the canyon as the sun was setting. All the colors in the canyon.....so beautiful.

After a good night sleep we were up and ready to go see another part of the canyon and to find the hotel where we spent the night with the kids ALL those years ago. We remembered that it was one of the old lodges, because both of the kids couldn't believe there was NO TV in our room! :-) And we got there when it was pitch black outside. We couldn't see a thing, almost ran out of gas, it was quite a scary trip getting to the hotel all those many years ago. No mobile phones back then! : ) So I remember asking Gerry how far he thought we were from the Grand Canyon. He wasn't sure. I will NEVER forget getting up the next morning, walking out on the front porch of the hotel and THERE IT WAS. We were right beside the Grand Canyon!!! It was one of those wonderful, exciting, never-to-be forgotten moments in life.

Well, we both recognized this big brown hotel on the rim of the canyon and when we drove up to it we both knew that it was THE hotel. It is called El Tovar, for those of you who have been there before. Gerry even remembered where our room was located. I couldn't believe he could remember that. It was fun walking into it and seeing it again after 30-some years. So we took lots of pictures and then finished our exploring of the Canyon. We were so glad we decided to go back there. It is just a source of amazement for me. I had forgotten how immense it it. It would take days to see it all.

Then we were off to our home for the month of October. We are now all settled in here and enjoying all the beautiful amenities of Sun City Grand. Gerry's enjoying the golf courses and I'm enjoying the pools and the Zumba and Jazzercise classes! Fun, fun, fun!!! We have found a church we enjoy and we've met some wonderful people already and we're planning on just enjoying our time here at Sun City Grand in Surprise, AZ. You've gotta love a place named Surprise! I've got to say, seniors know how to have a good time! It's a very friendly place and it will probably be hard to leave here the end of October! So for right now, we're not going to think about that and just enjoy being here! Happy Fall to all of you!