then we went to Durango

Now for more trip updates. Let's see, Monday morning Josh and I had breakfast at the Chocolate Maven, then went downtown. He bought himself a knife made out of dinosaur fossil, which is pretty awesome, and we looked at art on Canyon Road. We also ate green chili burgers for lunch.

Monday afternoon we all drove to Durango, Colorado. That included my parents, Ryan, Josh, and me. It took about 4.5 hours, so we got there in time to check into our hotel and then head downtown for dinner. After dinner we walked around a little bit and got dessert at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Then Josh and I hit the swimming pool back at the hotel for a few minutes before it closed.

Tuesday everyone but Mom rode the narrow gauge train to Silverton. It took 3.5 hours to travel about 45 miles, but it was a lot of fun. Here we are waiting to leave from the station.


And here is the cute station.


There were lots of great views from the train, including steep drops into a canyon with a roaring river.


The train takes you up to Silverton, an old mining town that is now just a tourist stop for people riding the train.


Mom drove up to meet us there, and we all had lunch. Then I bought some shoes.


Instead of taking another 3.5 hours to get back to Durango, we just rode back with Mom. It took about an hour. We stopped on the way at Honeyville and bought some honey. Ryan even got a bag with 100 flavored honey sticks. When we got to Durango we had a little bit of time to kill, so we walked around downtown again and made sure to drink caffeine. Because next up was the chuckwagon!


Josh and I wore our boots for the occasion.


At the chuckwagon you eat outside off of tin plates and listen to a western stage show. My favorite song was "Old Matt Palmer had a misfit farm."


The next day we headed to Durango Mountain Resort to ride the alpine slide. Here we are at the top.


And here Dad is at the bottom.


After that we went back to downtown Durango for lunch, and then Ryan, Josh, and I hit the road for Arizona while Mom and Dad stayed another night in Durango before going back home. It was a 6 hour drive from Durango to Flagstaff, and we made sure to stop at the Four Corners Monument.


Josh wanted to run around the four states, so we did that, too.


As we continued on the drive we saw this ominous western rock formation. Pretty cool.


Stay tuned for the Arizona portion of the trip!