A Vacation for All

First, let me apologize for all the typos and errors in my last blog. It was a miscommunication between myself and my editor (my wife).  I will try harder to look smarter. Also, I would like to apologize for this long blog. I should have blogged during the trip but as you can see, I had no time.

Family Vacations… What can I say, they are a chaotic mix between what you want, what your kids want, and if you were traveling with close friends, what they want also. What I look for in a vacation is to try some new places to eat, be able to sit down and relax, and take a few days off from my busy home and work life to unwind and collect myself. My wife and friends however, they like to make sure they can jam pack awesomeness in every waking minute of the day until you fall asleep tired, dragging, and sore.

With that being said, here is my vacation in a nutshell. There are a ton of photos so this blog just looks a lot longer than really is. I hope you enjoy. Also, these details may be jumbled up and turned around some since so much was done and my mind never really got a chance to settle down.

Our first day in Farmington, NM, where my lovely wife is from, started off really early having our 4 year old boy come running into our room waking us up at 6:45 in the morning. And of course he was hungry… We ate breakfast and took the day easy trying to recover from our 17 hour roadtrip from the night before.

Monday:  Another early start to the day, eating at TJ’s in the downtown area. It was just a small quaint breakfast/lunch diner that serves up a descent breakfast for a fair price. After that, we all headed out to the Salmon Indian Ruins. Kids just ran amuck while Michelle was educating the grownups about the old Indian ways. Quick note, Indians used urine to help build their walls. That’s one of the few things I learned on this vacation.

We later went to Bar D Chuckwagon and ate a nice family dinner with my very nice father-in-law, step-mother-in-law and aunt-in-law, and listened to some oldtimers singing and joking around.

Father and Mother in Law with the hard to photo Aunt.

Michelle, the Rugrat and my father in law

A little bit of crazy must have mixed into our family gene pool.

Yeah the steak was really well done but it was a steak and I likes meat so I ate it all.

Tuesday:

We all headed up to Durango, CO where Michelle’s Mom was gracious and kind enough to watch the youngest child from our gypsy crew, a little over a year old, so that the rest of us could get our river rafting on. I didn’t take any photos of that trip since I didn’t want to get my camera wet but it was sure fun.  There was a stop during the middle of the trip for people to get out. With the 50  degree snow runoff water that filled the river, there were not many takers. Michelle actually jumped in and I pushed my 8 year old into the river too. They both got out pretty quick. The 4 year old also wanted swimming time and was adamant about it so I tossed him in there and you would have thought he was being electrocuted with all his flailing about but I pulled him right back in and he was just happy to be out of the water.

We then walked around Durango and did some shopping and goofing off.

We ran across this place. Didn't eat there but thought it was awesome nonetheless. 

We ate at a neat little brewery place while there in Durango called Steamworks. I had a plate of buffalo wings which were pretty good and a bowl of New England styled clam chowder which wouldn’t win any awards but was satisfying.

After lunch, Michelle’s Mom headed on home and our gypsy group figured since we had a  4 wheeled drive rental and some time on our hands, we might as well make use of it. We headed up the La Plata Mountains and the road I thought got pretty hairy and we made it up 11,500 feet or so and got out to take the trail to a lake Michelle knew of. Only she had us taking the wrong trail and we just wasted that time… It was pretty out there though.

That evening we went to watch a Connie Mack baseball game. I’m not going to explain to you what Connie Mack is or anything. It’s baseball, and no one really cares too much about baseball right?

At the game with Michelle's Mom.

Wednesday:

The family and friends wanted to take the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway up to Silverton so I took them to the train station and dropped them off. Since it was a 3 ½ hour train ride to Silverton and only an hour car trip, I took my time.  I stopped and ate a delicious shrimp, crab and avocado crepe and had one of the best views for eating breakfast that I’ve had in a while. That crepe man can pour himself a mean crepe!

The View

I then made a stop at Honeyville and picked up some fresh and whipped honey jars from them. Neat little store with a great product.

A few more stops along the way and some amazing views.

Finally, I was in Silverton. Small, quaint little tourist town that had a lot of really neat shops. There was a restaurant called the Pitts that Guy (host of Diner, Drive-Ins and Dives) visited and a few other neat stops. I stopped in at a few locations, and bought a shirt, bag of wicked spicy beef jerky and probably some of the best wings I have ever eaten at a place called Mother Kluckers. Raspberry Habenero wings are pretty dang amazing. That with the Silverton Brewery’s Brown Beer makes for a tasty combo.

After enjoying some alone time, the family arrived and we decided to stop in at Grumpy’s. The Piano lady that greeted us up front had a warm smile and friendly disposition.

The wait staff was attentive and friendly too. The food was good but not great. Still, for a tourist place, it was just about right.

Here's some more Silverton shots:

We left Silverton and took the 4 wheel drive up to Animas Forks, a little ghost town up in the mountains. Now, if you plan on going there, make sure you bring bug repellent because they grow mosquitoes the size of darts there and they like the taste of human flesh. It was a really neat little location for sure.

After the ghost town we went up Cinnamon Pass… well we tried to at least. We made it up a ¼ of a mile and that was it. I high centered the big rig on a large rock there and there wasn’t a safe way to proceed so my buddy jumped into the cockpit and had to back down a very narrow, one lane, rocky trail all while a jeep was heading back down the pass.  It was about as nerve racking as it gets but we made it out safely.

We decided to enjoy some time on low, safe ground.

Thursday:

My buddy and I woke up at the crack of dawn with a huge grin on our faces because it was finally fly fishing trout day! Michelle’s Dad picked my buddy and I up at 5:45 and we stopped in at Burrito Y Mas to fill our bellies. I will spare you the gory photo of the 1 pound carne adovada burrito I consumed but it was mighty tasty for sure. They had other less awesome burritos that my buddy and father in law had too.

I wouldn't say it was fine Mexican food since it was part of a gas station but tasty for sure.

First off, I want to thank my great father in law for treating me and my buddy to a fishing trip of a lifetime. Now, I won’t bore you with the fishing details much like the baseball stuff because I know it ain’t for everyone but I will say I caught this:

Using this:

I know it doesn’t seem right at all that I used such a small fly but that’s what they wanted.

We got back and after a shower and a nap we met up for dinner at Si Seniors and I consumed shredded beef stuff sopahillas topped Christmas style and my wife had the always necessary green chile chicken enchiladas.

Christmas style is both green and red chile.

Michelle's hometown meal.

No meal is ever complete without the sopes.

Then another baseball game…

Yeah guy in the blue shirt and white hat. I know it's boring.

Friday:

I got up early and made my own crepes for everyone to enjoy. I forgot to photo my crepes because I was tired, and hungry and they didn’t last long on my plate. We then packed up the car and headed out of town. We stopped in at Blake’s Lotaburger, New Mexico’s version of Whataburger but a lot tastier. I got a green chile burger and a BBQ sandwich. Service was really poor there but the food was spot on. Driving through the small town of Cuba, I noticed a Navajo Fry Bread Gas station and we had to stop so Michelle could enjoy herself some more hometown foods.

That's about 1/4 the original size of that fry bread, and yes, she ate most of it.

We stopped next in Albuquerque at Trader Joe’s since we still don’t have one yet in my neck of the woods. I bought a case of my long missed friend Chuck and some of his lager buddies.

I sure have missed you my old friends.

It was then off to Tucumcari for dinner. We just ate at a small placed called Del’s. If you are looking for it, just look for the cow. After all the unhealthy meals, I just had a chicken breast and baked potato which was ho hum but not too bad.  Service was excellent.

Michelle ventured into the green chile beef stuffed chimichanga since she obviously wasn’t watching her calories. (She tells me it was baked but the mounds of sauce and cheese still doesn't make for healthy fare.)

At least it was baked...

We stayed the night in Amarillo, TX at a very nice Holiday Inn Express.

Saturday and the end of the trip finally:

We left after the Holiday Inn breakfast and headed to Quanah to eat at one of my favorite stops on the way home from west Texas, The Medicine Mound Depot… only to find this:

When I read the for sale sign, my heart just died a little.

Heartbroke and lacking interest in food, we backtracked some to eat at Dutch’s. It was once again some really good service and ok food. It was a buffet and a country one at that so the food wasn’t top notch nor healthy but it was fillin’ and served with a smile. The cook even came out to give all the kids a dollar each. He said it was just what he does.

After that, I made it home, laid down, and on Sunday, I rested.

I would also like to say a special thanks to Kathy and Steve, my mother and um… step father-in-law?, for their great hospitality.  We are all very grateful that you both let us invade your home and more importantly your refrigerator and putting up with our crazy munchkin crew of lunatics.  We hope to see everyone again soon.