Salida and Breckenridge

Salida, Colorado was the next stop on our trip.  It's right about in the middle of the state, a couple of hours north of the Sand Dunes.  Salida is one of my favorite little Colorado towns.  People come here to play on the Arkansas river, and it's very artsy with lots of galleries and good restaurants.  I used to come here with my college interns a lot on the weekends when I worked at the adventure camp.  Being here brought back lots of wonderful memories!!  Anyway, we planned to hang out at this little park in town for a while.  I was bummed to discover that dogs aren't allowed in the park.  I didn't really know what to do with Junior (it was too hot to leave him in the car) so I sat at the corner with him for a while.  Then I realized that this no dogs rule doesn't get enforced too much, so we cheated a little.  I HATE breaking rules, so I was nervous about this.  I know, I'm a nerd!

We spend a little time throwing rocks on the river.  It's pretty fast so I was a little nervous with the girls, but they were good about staying in the boundaries we gave them.  Turns out dogs are allowed down by the river (we found this out later when the police came by and kicked out the few dogs who were at the park).

We spent a lot of time just hanging out and playing frisbee.  Tony had fun taking some action shots.  Here's Clayton.

Kyle.

The boys were good about letting the girls play too!

John.

I think Emma was a bird here. :)

Multi-tasking!!  You can see the river in the background.

We ate a a cool little restaurant across the street for dinner.  We did pretty good about cooking most of our meals at the campsite and then at our cabin the next week, but it was nice to enjoy one of Salida's good restaurants!

We stopped in Salida because they boys wanted to go rafting on the river.  They camped at the place they were going to raft at the next morning, which doesn't allow dogs.  So we HAD to find someplace else!  I found this great little bed and breakfast down the road.  It was perfect!  I could have stayed here for a year!  Here's the back patio.

The chicken coop!  The girls were in heaven!

And llamas.  The owner bought them with a neighbor who was going to use them for pack animals.  For some reason that didn't work out, so now they just have these llamas hanging around.  It is very interesting for the guests.  Junior was very intrigued by them.

They let us gather some eggs that they used for our breakfast the next morning.  It was so cool!

The view from this place was amazing.  Big mountains on every side!

We enjoyed a leisurely morning with a yummy egg breakfast and just hanging out in this beautiful place.  The guys got on the river in the morning, and we took the girls to a little horse riding place to kill time until they were finished.  It was hot, but the girls had lots of fun and we enjoyed the view while we walked around with their ponies.

We met up with the boys at the rafting place, Noah's Ark.  It's actually a Christian adventure camp/rafting company somewhat similar to the one I worked with.  Anton wants to work there next summer, which I think would be AWESOME!  We only got one picture - of the parking lot.  It looks like Emma is about to go potty by that rock, but I'm pretty sure she was just standing up from sitting under the tree. :)

After the boys finished, we started the trek up to Nederland, near Boulder, where the cabin was.  Breckenridge was on the way so we stopped there for lunch and play.  It's another favorite Colorado city.  Those are the ski slopes in the background.

The boys went down a trail that ended at a dog park.  There's John.

And Anton.  He recorded almost everything they did on his go pro.  He wants to put some of it on Youtube at some point, so I'll put a link for that if he manages to get it done before he has to leave for college.

Junior had fun playing at the dog park.  The girls had fun throwing a ball to some of the other dogs.  Junior actually has it in his mouth in this picture, but he's just not interested in running after a ball and fetching it. 

He's always proud of his battle wounds.

On the way up to Nederland, we passed through this little town called Center City.  It's a little gambling place in the middle of nowhere in the mountains.  I had never heard of it, but it was very cute.  I'm not interested in gambling, but it was fun to drive through.

One more post and I'll move on to my current life!