Main Street, Buena Vista
After leaving Chicago early in the morning on Sunday, we arrived in Denver after an uneventful non-stop flight. After a short ride to the rental car complex we rented our car. The Enterprise rep who served us, Melinda, was friendly and helpful. She gave us her card and told us to contact her if we had any issues with our rental. We were soon on our way to the Collegiate Mountain Range and the lovely little small town of Buena Vista. During our drive we enjoyed the scenery and tuning into various satellite radio stations.
After the 2 1/2 hour drive we arrived to the hugs and kisses of our oldest, Andrew, and his bride, Patricia. We were last here when they were married at Spring Canyon, where they now live and work. Andrew, especially enjoyed showing us all their favorite places at camp. We also enjoyed meeting their 7 month old Shiba Inu puppy, Kuma. He’s a fuzzy ball of energy.
We relaxed and did a little laundry while visiting with and getting to know Tricia’s family better. We (mostly Scotte) worked on a jigsaw puzzle with the family. Their combined efforts finally got the puzzle put together.
Monday was second Thanksgiving for all of us. We were joined at camp by Tricia’s brother and his girlfriend from Colorado Springs. It was all so good. Andrew roasted the turkey in their apartment sized oven and Patricia and her mom, Sue prepared all the side dishes. And there were more pies than I think I’ve seen since I was a little girl and my grandma spread her baked pies all over the washer/dryer in the mud room.
Historic Salida
Tuesday we enjoyed a day of exploring in the small towns of Buena Vista and Salida. They are both great little towns with tons of character. We had fantastically light and airy donuts at Lobacks Bakery. Lobacks is everything you want to see in a small town, local coffee shop. If I lived in BV I’m sure I’d make Lobacks my regular breakfast hangout.
After exploring the few shops BV has we drove down the road to Salida. It’s a little bigger than BV, but no less quaint. We had great wood-fired pizza and house-brewed rootbeer at Amica’s It was delicious. We enjoyed walking around the small town, shopping in a wonderful toy store, Kaleidoscope Toys.
We were also able to find a Christmas gift for our daughter in a friendly little antique shop. I got some fun pictures of an old theater that’s being demolished. The building began its life as a Masonic Temple. We finished out day in Salida with dessert at the historic First St. Cafe. We enjoyed reading about its history and the berry cobbler I had was yummy. We learned from the back of the menu that the Monte Cristo sandwich was originally developed at a hotel that used to sit just across the railroad tracks from there.
The next morning, Wednesday, we said goodbye to Tricia’s family and headed to Denver with Andrew and Tricia. Our plan was to do a little shopping, have some lunch and see the Muppet Movie before our evening flight home. We enjoyed spending a few more hours with the kids and seeing the long-awaited Muppet Movie with them before heading to the airport for our flight.
Lobacks
The final flight on our leg turned out to be the most eventful, but more on that later. We had a whirlwind of a trip with loads of fun, family and food. Scotte and I always like traveling together. Seeing our kids and grandchildren made the trip very special.
First St. Cafe
