Durango

Hillbilly picnic on the side of the road

Next stop on our boondoggle was Durango, Colorado where we did a few epic boondoggles to look at houses, hike and eat yummy food.

Looking out at the view

Frozen waterfall

We stopped at this hot spring which looked like a pile of poop.  It had warm water flowing out of it like crazy.  The kids got wet and muddy and LOVED it!

Our new house?

We went to a town called Vallecito and looked at the house above which had an amazing view of a lake.  When we drove up to check it out, the neighbor was just leaving his house and offered to let us in to take a look.  Then he told us all about the house and the town.  We were pretty lucky to get the inside skinny.  He also told us about the food at the little restaurant/general store below -- so we met them again there and did some more chatting.  Turned out he was a conservative Republican and I am pretty sure I don't want to be his neighbor!

The boys ate these deep fried hamburgers covered with green chile sauce.  The food was delicious.

After lunch we continued with the hillbilly behavior and had beers in the parking lot while talking to the Republican neighbor!

After lunch we went an explored a frozen lake.  Jim and Mari both fell through!  Luckily they were not in deep water.  Oakley loved fetching on the ice!

Next up was the ski resort, Purgatory.   We hung out in the snow while the kids played.

Kyle taught us this new game - Marbles and Jokers

When not boondoggling we played games and played with the kids.   The boys spent a lot of time in the backyard playing Frisbeer.  YEP - Frisbee and beer drinking!  And we celebrated William's 4th birthday twice!  We even met up with one of my former coworkers who just moved to Durango and went on a hike.  Oh - and we took repeated trips to the bakery!

William got suspenders for his 4th birthday.

After 4 days we had to head out.  So we packed up and make the 7 hour drive back to Phoenix via New Mexico.  It was super interesting to see the little towns in New Mexico and the mountains of Arizona on the drive to the airport.

All in all it was a wonderful trip!  I got to cross some things off my bucket list (Sedona and Durango), look at potential towns to retire in, visit with Mari, Kyle and the kids and best of all, I got to spend a vacation with Drew!

Thanks to Mari and Kyle for the hospitality.  We plan to be back and move into your basement for an extended period of time!