Mesa Verde National Park

Have you seen The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Ken Burns? We've been watching it on Netflix. It is very interesting with lots of great cinematography of the parks. In one of the episodes they talk about Mesa Verde National Park. We went there at the beginning of July while we were in Durango.

View from the deck of the visitor's center

The park is in southwestern Colorado. Located within the park are about 600 cliff dwellings.

Spruce Tree House

The Spruce Tree House is the most easily accessible ruin to get down to. There is a paved path down to it. The path is pretty steep and windy, but it's worth the hike.

Many of the dwellings are not open to the public to wander around in anymore.

And some are only accessible on a ranger guided tour.

I have a very good zoom on my camera. The above two photos are of the same dwelling. Both were taken across the canyon from the dwelling. Mesa Verde was a very interesting place to visit. I took lots of photos that day but I won't bore you with them all.

As in all National Parks, kids can become a Junior Ranger by picking up a booklet and completing a list of tasks while touring the park. My son was very excited to do this. When you complete the booklet you have to take it to a Park Ranger. So we stopped back by the Visitor's Center before leaving. There is an oath the kids have to take and then they get a Junior Ranger badge.

Taking the oath

Now look at this fabric I found at work yesterday.

How cool is that! I bought all we had left, just a little over a yard. I'm not sure what I will do with it, but I have a few ideas.

Flowers

I showed you my painted flowers back in June.

You can read my previous post here.

My original plan had been to machine quilt this. After Goldie died I needed a hand project and this was already basted and ready to go. I love how it turned out!

Flowers, 12" by 12"

close-up of hand stitching

Does anybody else use hand work as a distraction from grief, worry or stress?

The finished size is 12" by 12". I used a variety of variegated YLI threads for the stitching. Since my machine doesn't like the YLI, I now only use it for hand work. My hand sewing needle isn't as picky as  my machine and didn't complain at all.

Modern Monday Quilt Along

Blocks 42 & 43:

I'm a bit behind. Rather than try to get caught up all at once, I plan to just do two blocks a week (the currents week's block and a make-up) until I get caught up. However, if I have time and want to do more than one extra block I will.

Go visit Caroll at Attic Window Quilt Shop to see her block for last week (the top block). Then take a peek at what we will be making this week at 42 Quilts.

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

On July 4th we had a special treat - we rode the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad from Durango to Silverton and back. It was an all day event and very scenic. It was also sooty and chilly at times. I took LOTS of pictures that day. The whole trip was beautiful, even when it rained.

The train goes past a small resort that is accessible only by the train, Soaring Tree Top Adventures. They have a "trail" of zip lines for their guests. This guy zipped along side the train with an American flag, because it was the 4th of July I guess.

An old mine just outside of Silverton

The train had to stop several times for water since it was using a steam engine.

The train ran along side the Animas river most of the way. Notice the black cloud coming from the engine stack. We rode in a gondola car. It was excellent for photography, but quite sooty. We all needed showers when we got back.

The drop off along side the tracks was a bit scary in places, but what a view!

The train museum in Durango is also impressive. It is located at the depot. We've been there before years ago, when my son was 4 years old and Thomas the Tank Engine came to Durango.

He wasn't too sure about Sir Topham Hatt. My goodness he was small (and cute)!

This engine was a big hit then too. Guests are allowed to climb up into the engine and sit in the driver's seat. I didn't get a good picture of the inside of the engine this time but this is what it looked like in 2006.

There is also a very large model train set up in the middle of the museum with several trains running all the time. Little boys (and big boys too) can stand for quite a while and watch them go around. It is pretty detailed so there is lots to look at. There is no admission charge to the museum, although donations are welcome, so it is an economical way to entertain the family for a few hours.

Yippee Yi Yo House

We spent the first week of July in Durango with my family at what has become known in our family as the "Yippee Yi Yo" house. This is not a single house but is the name we give to the vacation home my parents rent where our family (my parents, my family and my sister's family) meet for a week roughly every other summer. The first house was in Taos, NM and our son was 4 or 5 years old. He was trying to figure out who's house we were living in for the week since he knew it wasn't ours. He didn't understand the concept of renting a house for a week. I think it was my son, but it could have been one of his cousins, who first called it the "Yippee Yi Yo" house. The adults just said yes because we were all tired of the conversation and this name seemed to resolve his confusion of the situation. And the name stuck.

This years Yippee Yi Yo house was at Durango Mountain Resort.

It was dubbed the luxury Yippee Yi Yo house by my son. He had a bedroom and bathroom to himself. His bathroom had a tub that seemed very large to him. He announced that he was taking a bath every night in his luxury tub because it was like paradise. LOL! He didn't take a bath every night, but did take one more than he would have at home and with less whining.


Durango, CO is a fun place to visit with lots of things to do. Durango Mountain Resort is a ski resort located about 23 miles north of Durango, but they have lots going on in the summer too. One day we purchased Total Adventure tickets to ride the Alpine slide, play mini golf, ride the bull, and do the bungee tramp.

Mini Golf

Mechanical Bull

Bungee Tramp

Alpine Slide

We only purchased the Adventure Ticket for our son, but I bought a single ride Alpine Slide ticket for myself so I could do it once. It was really fun! It was also fun to sit at the bottom and watch the people come down. One couple rode down each with a young child in front of them. They reached the bottom at about the same time and both kids jumped up and exclaimed, "that was AWESOME! Can we do it again?"

AWESOME!

There was also a pool at the resort that we were allowed to use for free since we were resort guests.

Pool with fountain on

Pool Slide

It was a very nice hotel size pool and just right for burning off some energy in the afternoon.

Besides shopping at quilt stores, we also went to a science museum, the train museum, the indoor community center pool (twice) and rode the train to Silverton and back. I'll show photos of some of those things in my next post.

New Mac Book is here!

My new computer arrived this afternoon! I've been a PC user for years but am trying a Mac Book this time. So far I like it, but things are done differently on a Mac. I have figured out how to get my pictures off of my camera and am playing with the editing options already installed. I've edited one photo so far.

This is what I bought at the two quilt stores I visited in Durango. I went to the Durango Quilt Company and the Durango Sewing Center. Both were very nice stores. I bought the dots (upper left in the photo) and the buttons at the Durango Quilt Company. They had a huge selection of batiks and a pool talbe in the "man room"! Everything else came from the Durango Sewing Center. Oh my! I could have been in real trouble at the Durango Sewing Center. I wanted some of pretty much every fabric they had. If you ever visit Durango, Colorado, I highly recommend both shops.

It sure feels good to be online again. It is going to take me a few days to figure out my new computer. I've been busy in my sewing room and have been taking pictures even though I haven't had any way to show you what I'm doing until now.

Technical Difficulties Update

I am still computerless! Thank goodness for my iPad. The fixes we tried on my laptop were unsuccessful. A new one was ordered today. This time I am getting a Mac Book. I hope to be back here with photos of what I have been doing lately soon after it arrives. Lynn