Colorado Colors

Okay. As a person living in Farmington, NM, there is one thing that you MUST have. No, it is not a snow shovel although after last winter that was not a bad idea. No, it is not a pair of shades eventhough it tends to be very sunny. No, it is not a hazmat suit regardless of the nuclear waste stored underground in many places here. What you MUST have periodically are trips. So, as usual, a couple of weeks ago we took our trip, which turned out to be very, very pretty.

In typical Jakino fashion, we headed north to the ski area just outside of Purgatory...not the real hell but the name of the mountain! : )

It was very, very pretty since it was the end of September and leading into October. Generally the colors start chaning in October, but we got a big

treat...the trees were already starting their metamorphosis! It was gorgeous and now that we have an operational camera, we were able to takes lots and lots of pics. Here are a few of them:

Now, one thing to notice is the pic with all the clouds.

Hmm... wonder what that means?? Yes, you got it!! We went and stayed a night in the lodge and were there for the first snow of the season!! Obviously it was not enough snow to grab poles and skis out of storage, but it was the first nonetheless and too cool!!

Anyway, the unfortunate thing was that in less than four days, all of the leaves had already dropped. :( When they start to make changes, it does not take long for the changes to become absolute until next spring!! Bye-bye colorful leaves...and hello lots of snow!!

Here are a few more pretty pics from our driving around the area:

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The Summer Trip

Well, way, way, way back prior to the days of learning, we took a little family vacation. We decided to drive to ABQ, then fly to Love Field. From Love we flew to New Orleans, a city I had never visited before, and then we rented a car for our journey across the southern coast of the US over to the Florida panhandle. Our destination was Destin.

We went to Destin several years ago with Mike, Robin, and Summer back when I took my year off from Lowery. At that time, we rented a monster huge house. This time we went condo, and the condo was great. It was way up high and we had a great view of the ocean. We went for little dips in the ocean waters as well as did a little swimming in the condo pools. The funny part was looking for crabs at night...they were creepy!! Very, very little crabs and the exact same color as the sandy beaches. Yes, that means without even knowing it, we were walking on the little guys every time we were on the sand. Yuck!!

After several days in Destin, we went back to N.O. The plan was to spend the night there for our flight back early the next morning. I had never been in the party city, so we took a trip down Bourbon Street...yes, with the kids! Not the wisest choice of my life, but Joshua most certainly found it...educational! Actually, he said he like the pics on the walls of the girls without shirts on!! Yep, that is Brandon's boy alright!!

Anyway, I tried my first N.O. hurricane...and traded it in for a mango something or other. Hurricane was a bit too overwhelming for me, so Bjak had to drink it all and this was not a little hurricane!!

Overall it was a cultural experience. We went from the middle of nowhere, to sin city #2, to the redneck riviera and back again!!

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Next up is Colorado Colors