Ava: Bite bite bite bite bite... a shark just bited me... oww!
Max: I got my cool cars hat on.
Max: Hey, are we still in Colorado? Was the motel in Colorado?
Max: Look at that mountain! Look at how tall that mountain is!
Ava: The clouds are moving!
Max: The mountains are moving!
Max: Look at those baby waves!
We drove through some mountains today and stopped at a huge waterfall (Treasure Falls) on the side of the road. We decided to make the 1/4 mile hike uphill (a 200 ft vertical climb). I think it was more than a 1/4 mile, but it was a beautiful view once we got up there. After that, we kept driving into Pagosa Springs. We decided to get a hotel and stay here and head to Durango tomorrow. I've read about the mineral springs and their supposed curative properties. I told Josh before we left that the one thing I wanted to do was go to the hot springs. We checked out some of the resorts only to find out that they are ridiculously expensive (I should've known that much).
While we were deciding where to stay, we backed out of our parking spot, and some guy in a big truck with his tailgate down backed out of a parking lot across the street and rammed into the back of our van, ripping off our license plate (bolts and all) and putting a nice dent in the back door. I'm pretty mad because his insurance company already called and said they are considering it to be both of our faults so we'll have to pay for our damage. Of course there was no damage to his vehicle. Hopefully our insurance company will fight harder, because it definitely was not our fault.
Anyhow, after we recovered from that drama, we found a nice hotel and put all the kids down for a nap. Then we had dinner at the Malt Shoppe... they had great burgers and waffle fries (a little expensive, but really good). After dinner, we got the biggest ice cream cone ever (no we didn't eat it all). At the Malt Shoppe they had a row of quarter machines and one of them had fake mustaches and such. We got a goatie and a mustache and took some fun pictures (see Josh's blog). Then we went swimming at the hotel.
After the kids went to bed, I headed over to one of the spa hotels to soak in the hot springs (if you don't stay in their hotel, you can still get a one time pass to the hot springs for $10... seemed like a great deal to me). The water was super hot and the mineral smell was really strong. I felt all tingly, but I think I'm magically cured of all my ailments :)
Don't forget to check Josh's blog.
I loved the way the clouds looked over the landscape.
We saw a lot of streams running through the mountains.
We pulled off on the side of the road, trekked through mud, and climbed up on the edge of a little cliff to get a sweet shot of this valley.
I told Ava she had to eat four more bites of her hot dog before she could have any ice cream. It takes her about 5 minutes per bite, so she ended up only eating one more bite. Maybe someday I'll win this battle...
