Go West- Day 9

On Saturday, we ventured out on a 4x4 off road tour with Randy's uncle. During the Summer months, he works as a mountain tour guide.  He knows the surrounding mountains like the back of his hand and truly loves his job. Although, admittedly, there were times during our tour I thought we were going off the side of the mountain as he negotiated the switchbacks in the 4x4 suburban, all in all, it was a very interesting and at time, exhilarating trip!

As I mentioned earlier, Randy's parents flew out to Colorado and met us during this portion of our vacation. It was nice having them there and visiting with all of Randy's family.  (Uncle Steve is my MIL's brother.)

On the tour, Uncle Steve brought us to Velocity Basin, where Shaun White has his own "private" snowboarding pipe to practice on.  The girls are standing directly in front of Velocity Basin in the photo below.

The mountain tour was a lot of fun and we went very high into the mountains.  The girls loved the open top suburban and stood during most of the ride up and down the mountain roads.

And yes... it was cold.  (Well, it was in the mid-50's, which for this Texas girl... that was cold!)

After the mountain trek, we brought the girls to the Silverton Old Hundred Mine Tour.  This was neat to see how the original miners worked.  I would have to say that being an original miner was probably one of the most excruciating jobs ever... both physically and mentally.  I cannot imagine how they worked in a mining environment day in and day out.  Makes you think how "easy" we have it now.

Later that afternoon, my mother in law and aunt took the girls into the town and explored the shops.  The shops are in walking distance from Randy's uncle's house.  They literally live in the heart of town... as do most of the residents in Silverton.

Aunt Karla paints porcelain for a living and does incredible work.  The girls were very intrigued by her studio and artistic designs.  Karla has literally painted everything in her home... from the porcelain cabinet knobs, to the tile cabinet inserts in her kitchen to the bathroom sink!  She had these pieces ready for us before we left on Sunday.

Here's her website to check out more of her work. 

 The remainder of the evening was spent visiting with family.  This stop on our trip nice and relaxing!  The next morning, we headed out to Santa Fe, NM... the last stop on our trip.