That's it, we're moving to CO...

Don't get me wrong, we loved Moab and the surrounding National Parks, but returning to CO was almost better than coming home!

We traveled some beautiful country between Moab and Ouray (pronounced your-a) today. Upon hitting the outskirts of Ouray our jaws dropped. It reminds me somewhat of Crested Butte. This is one of the most breath-taking places that I've ever been. They don't call it "Little Switzerland" for nothing. The surrounding mountains are severe, and have beautiful waterfalls flowing from them. The town is an old mining town and most of the old buildings still exist. The best part? Park your car at the hotel and walk anywhere that you need to go. I can get used to this. Catherine and I just walked up to the old grocery store, picked up some milk, and walked back. And... we never felt like we were going to be hit by some crazed driver trying to get home from work while talking on the cell phone. Whatever happened to that small town sense of community? Again, I could get used to this. There is a house for sale a block from town. Anybody want a nice home in a nice established neighborhood in Greenville? It is fully furnished:-). Family, I guarantee that you wouldn't mind coming to visit us on the Holidays:-).

The area is surrounded by natural hot springs. Our hotel, the Box Canyon Inn and Suites has many wooden hot tubs that are fed by these mineral rich hot springs (pictured). The water never has to be treated, and they actually let it cool a bit (101 to 108 degrees, as it comes from the ground at 138 degrees) before pumping it into the tubs. It is an absolutely incredible feeling being in the water, and you could swear that you feel healthier. There are many that argue that they have healing powers. I don't care what the truth is, they are definitely relaxing.

This is definitely a town that will be on our "have to visit again" list for next year's trip.

Today when we arrived at check in I sat in the car with the kids while Jenny went in. While the kids and I stared at the surrounding beauty, I happened to comment about the name given to Ouray, "Little Switzerland". Maddie chimed right in and said, "It's close Daddy, but Switzerland has no cars". I said, "really Maddie, how do you figure"? She responded, "Switzerland doesn't have roads, it would be kind of silly to have cars". I'm pretty sure she isn't 100% correct on that, but it sounds good to me:-). The Swiss are probably better without the cars anyways...

We are going to have a hard time leaving this beautiful place tomorrow, but on to Durango to hit the Narrow Gauge railroad up to Silverton, as well as take a trip out to Mesa Verde and visit the Indian Ruins. We'll be camping three nights, so I expect rain and lots of it:-).

Oh, and we've been playing the license plate game the whole trip. All we have left are Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. We saw Hawaii twice today, so beat that:-).

Since we've crossed the paths of so many Germans on this trip, Guten Tag!....