A Day in Durango, CO

Alberta had the day off work and Ernie, who has his own shop, took the time for a "vacation day" in Durango, Colorado.  Durango is about 50 miles "up" the road...  this time we went up along the La Plata Highway, towards Hesperus, then took the Wild Cat Hollow Road into town.

The road is curvy, and gains elevation as you get nearer to Durango. 

You can watch the scrubby desert habitat change into conifers, bigger hills...  then even into mountains.  You can no longer see miles of flatlands...  but if you're high enough, you sure can see a long way.

Some City Sights...

Durango is the home of Ft Lewis College, as well as the southern terminus of the Silverton/Durango Railroad.  It's a "trendy" town... lots of "artsy-fartsy" boutiques...  art galleries, music stores, ice cream parlors, touristy things, and many, many place to eat, 

We had lunch at the Doubletree Hotel restaurant...

The lobby was huge - had chandeliers, artwork, and even these huge carvings along one wall.  That columbine at the lower right was in one of the flowerbeds in front.

We ate there because the restaurant overlooks the Animas River.

That's Ernie and Bill in the upper left...  we had a great view of the river and watched fly fisherman try their luck at trout fishing while we ate.
That's my sandwich and fries in the lower left... pulled pork with tiny french-fried onion strings and a heavenly dressing.  Bill had a veggie burger (upper right) and also the hand cut potato chips.  (Oh, were they GOOD!).  That's Ernie's sandwich in the lower right... can't remember what it was.  Alberta can't tolerate gluten, so her "sandwich" was "bun-less"... my photo looked like a pile of lettuce so I didn't include it here.

After lunch we continued our walk through town...
Oh jeez...  I can't take Bill anywhere!

Look at him!  Trying to make time with that sidewalk floozy!
The upper right and upper left photos are of street musicians.
These kids are probably students at Ft Lewis College...  they were playing some Bluegrass and actually weren't too bad.  
Of course we couldn't just walk right past....  those open instrument cases were beckoning.
The lower left photo made me smile...
"Nobody's Inn"
Isn't that a great name for a hotel/B&B?
And the lower right... well, that little guy was doing a pretty good job of guarding his car.  Wonder what kind of driver he is?

We walked quite a while, and darned if we didn't just happen into the Rocky Mountain Chocolate shop....

Personally, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I did add a couple of (dark) chocolate covered cherries to the bag of goodies everyone else picked out

Hey!  Look at this!  Wall Drug!

I bet a lot of you think of South Dakota when Wall Drug is mentioned....  okay, this isn't THAT famous place, but doesn't it look just like the old timey drug stores that were around when we were kids?

The afternoon passed quickly...  time to head home.

Have you ever heard of the "Sleeping Ute"?

The Sleeping Ute

This range of Ute Mountains is about 5 miles wide and 12 miles long, located at the SE corner of Utah.  Just use your imagination and think of the far right as his head... moving left to his throat, chest, stomach and legs.  I've kind of cut off his feet, but if you've got a good imagination you can think of them as well.

We got back to Farmington...  and I think we all felt like we had a mini-vacation.  Just enough time to have a lot of fun but not so long we got weary of it.

The Best Kind!

That's All For Today!