The Long Road Home

I planned the trip home so we did not have to spend any really long days in the car.  We drove from Aspen to Vail and stopped at the farmers market, then on to Golden (outside of Denver) and had lunch with friends and then on to Colby, Kansas where we spent the first night.  The next night we drove to Kansas City for the night and then on to St. Louis for the next night.  And finally home.  Nothing to see along I-70.  Not true!  K thought that the Prairie Museum and Prairie Dog Town were so much fun.  I loved the wide open spaces, blue skies and fields of sunflowers.

The largest barn in Kansas at the Prairie Museum-we got to climb around in the haylofts

Five legged cow at Prairie Dog Town

Identifying hides at the Children's Museum in Kansas City

Tight rope biking in Kansas City

The Meadows

Kimmie called one morning to see what we wanted to do for the day.  Hiking and biking were out because I was not feeling well (note to self-do not eat Sushi in Aspen) so I suggested going to the Meadows for lunch.  Kimmie and I grew up in what is now considered the chic West End of Aspen.  Many of the old Victorian homes have been torn down and replaced with billionaires homes.  When we were growing up it wasn't so chic-just the part of town where everyone with kids lived because it was close to the elementary school.  Our Victorian house is still standing.  The best part of living in the west end was the proximity to a resort (I don't think it was called a resort back then!) called the Aspen Meadows.  We all took tennis lessons there and then would use the pool afterwards. There are some lovely sculpture gardens where we loved to play-it started to rain right after lunch so K did not get to play in the sculpture gardens, maybe next summer.

The other great feature of living in the west end was the series of irrigation ditches that ran throughout the neighborhood.  We used to spend hours and hours building bridges and floating things in the ditches.  A favorite activity was to build something (could have been a stack of leaves tied together with grass or a bunch of twigs), drop our "boats" in the water and hop on  our bikes and ride to a designated spot to see whose boat arrived first.  K spent over an hour playing in one of the ditches, in spite of the cold and rain.  

Today the Aspen Meadows is a conference center and the pool is gone.  Who would have thought that the mid-century style of the Meadows would be so popular again?  Aspen Ideas Fest was going on while were there and it lunch we sat next to Condalisa Rice and Walter Issaccson.  K loved her Arnold Palmer that Kimmie introduced her to.

K building a boat.  I think that is Lance Armstrong's house in the background.

Doggie Valet

We loved the Residences at Little Nell where we stayed in Aspen.  The service was great-the valets even provided dog sitting services.  Every day K stopped and played with this dog who the valets were dog sitting. I love how the dog had his bed and ball with him.

Mutton Busting and a Kindle

A trip to Aspen isn't complete without a night at the rodeo.  We love the  barbeque and games for the kids before the rodeo.  We had friends from Atlanta who were in Aspen so getting to spend the evening with Cate and Madison made it even more special for K.  The girls decided that they were too old to participate in mutton busting this year (Madison has a trophy from mutton busting a few years ago!).  Truth be told, Tracy and I were thrilled because it was a muddy, cold night.  

Kimmie (my BFF from high school) joined us at the rodeo and since I hadn't seen Kimmie since last summer we had a lot of catching up to do.  We were sitting in front of the rest of group and it occurred to me that Tracy was being very quiet and that we were being kind of rude by not including her in our conversation.  I turned around to talk to her only to realize she was so quiet because she was reading a book on her Kindle.  She cracks me up!  

Madison and K

Cate riding the bull

K getting nuzzled by a sheep

Let the games begin!

A mutton buster holding on for dear life!

Glad I am not her mom!

Does this sheep look maniacal or what???

Looking pretty chaotic!

Another muddy kid!

On the Road Again

The next leg of our road trip was Santa Fe to Aspen.  I think this has to be one of the most beautiful drives in the country and not one you would make unless you happened to be driving from Santa Fe to Aspen.  There are 2 small towns along the way and lots of wide open space.  It is so peaceful.  We left early in the morning which made the drive even more spectacular.  We love to stop and hike in the Sand Dune National  Park.  These are the tallest sand dunes in North America.  I was glad that we got there before it got too hot, it can be a very challenging hike.  We didn't make it to the top-maybe when K is a little older and I am not in flip flops.

Dramatic contrast of the sand dunes against the alpine peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

A couple of llamas along the way

Continental Divide at the top of Independence Pass

Santa Fe

Our next stop was a couple of nights in Santa Fe.  It felt like heaven when we got out of the car, the air was cool and had the wonderful smell of pinons and sage brush.  We relaxed in Santa Fe and hiked, biked, swam  and K went horse back riding.  

K's Big Summer Adventure

K and I took a very ambitious road trip this summer.  We drove from Atlanta to Dallas where we spent 5 nights.  Then we drove from Dallas to Santa Fe for a few nights and then to Aspen for a week.  Our trip back home took us through Colby, Kansas, Kansas City and St. Louis.

We had a wonderful time in Dallas visiting old and new friends and spent a day at Hurricane Harbor to get out of the heat.  It was around 105 every day that we were.  I didn't take any photos in Dallas.  This is the first photo I took on the trip when we were in Amarillo on our way from Dallas to Santa Fe.

K at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo