Okay, after the couple nights at the campsite, the rain all Tuesday night and everything else, we were happy to head over to the hotel and take good showers, sleep in comfortable beds and have a little shelter. We got there and checked in and the kids wanted to go directly to the pool, which was okay with everyone else. They had it checked out before we got our room keys. We parked right by the room and got unpacked while the kids rode their bikes and waited to hit the pool. It was nice that the cars were right there and we didn’t have to lug everything upstairs and down halls. The doors were outside and opened right to the doors, it was sweet.
All the rooms were connected. There was one kitchen that had a hide-a-bed that Tim and Shelbie slept in. Adjoining to that room is where we slept that had two queen beds. Koby and Spencer slept in one and Cami and I shared the other. Jonny and Cara slept on an air mattress at the foot of our bed. The room right next to us was where Jonn and Judy slept. It had a huge king bed in it. Then the next room is where Kim and John slept with there family. It was quite the little set up. It was a great layout.
Jonn, being the tour director that he is, had a lot of activities planned out for us, so after we got the cars unloaded and dinner out of the way we headed out to the Colorado river trail that goes for a few miles along the river. It is paved so the kids could ride in the trailer and ride their bikes, which made it fun for everyone. We went a few miles and had a good time. It was really hot out and the kids had a hard time being out too much without being in the water.
The next day we went to the Colorado National Monument to go hiking on a couple trails. We went on one called "Serpents Trail" that went back and forth up a road that used to be the highway back in the early 1900′s. It was really neat and had some very cool views. Koby and Spencer did pretty good, but of course were not as fast as the rest of us so we stayed back and took our time while the older kids like Jonny and Cara went ahead and did the whole trip. We tried to do the hike early in the morning before it got too hot, but it got hot early. After the hike we went to the pavilion and had lunch before heading back to the hotel for some time in the pool. Cami and Kim went to the shops downtown while we stayed back with the boys.
Later that night we went to the farmers market to check out the sites and sounds of Grand Junction. There were a lot of weirdos out dancing and singing, but it was pretty fun.
Friday, we got up early (well, at 7:30) and got ready to go because our tour guide had a river run trip planned for 9:00 in the morning. We went towards Fruita to a company called Rim Rock Adventures. We did the Blue Heron route that lasted for 3 hours. It was awesome. We had time to swim in the river, splash each other and just have a good time. There were two boats and we just had fun. The kids said that this was one of their favorite things about the trip. We got some good pictures and I will put them up as soon as Cami gets them on the computer.
That afternoon, the Hansen’s and the Jonas’ went over to Fruita to the Dinosaur museum. It was interesting and the kids really liked it. There were things for them to do that were related to dinosaurs, obviously. They had a dino dig that was like a big sandbox with bones in there and it was filled with crushed walnuts, which was cool. They had a few other things that they liked and we spent a couple hours there before heading home.
We all went to dinner at Red Robin that night, then to a park in the evening. It was a pretty good day, full of adventure.
The next day was Saturday. It was just getting up and packing the car, leaving for home. We got the car packed and had a couple hours before we had to go, so Jonn, John, Jonny and I went to the Colorado National Monument again to do another hike. We did the "Devils Kitchen" hike that was pretty cool. A lot of it was right a long the cliff that looked over a big valley. It was pretty interesting, and very beautiful.
We headed home after that and got to drive along I70, which is a great drive. We went through all the great mountain towns that I dream about owning a home in one day. Poor Cami had to listen to me talk about it again.
