Pagosa, day 2

Alas... no photos again today. Hopefully I paint an adequate picture with words.



We slept in the Elk Room at Ron and Lynne’s house. It’s a beautiful room with a queen bed, sitting area, private bathroom, walk-in closet, and balcony with unbelievable views. The kids slept in the office area just outside our room in the fold-out bed. They could have stayed in the room with us, but they wanted their own place… of course sometime during the night both of them ended up in our bed. I have a feeling the coyotes outside woke them up and they may have been a little scared. We shooed them back into bed where they slept in until about 6 am.

Ron and his son Noah went out fishing at that time – Riley wanted to go with them but Ron told Riley he couldn’t go because he wasn’t dressed yet. Lynne made Riley and Violet some Lucky Charms cereal (must be vacation! Yesterday was fruit loops and today is lucky charms!), which made them forget all about fishing for a few minutes.

The kids woke us up just before 7 am… the sun, filtered by the aspens and pine trees, was streaming in the window and I was once again awestruck by the incredible scene that God painted outside just for me. My nose was greeted by the scent of brewing coffee and I came downstairs and poured myself a cup of the Seattle’s Best Crème Brulee coffee that Lynne had made. No sweetener needed – it was brewed perfectly with just a hint of sweetness in the beans. I toasted a bagel and drank in the view along with my coffee. An elk mama and baby were drinking from one of the little ponds in the meadow down below, and in another open glen horses grazed lazily. Birds sang softly from the trees surrounding the house and only the occasional howl of a coyote sounded out of place in the wilderness. I was totally at peace here, my eyes following the tree lines as they wound their way up and around the surrounding hills. I am just not used to trees… especially ones like these. Aspens with trunks a foot in diameter, that seemed to touch the clouds with their tops… Majestic pines in shades of green and blue-grey and silvery sage… Flowers of all kinds growing wild around me – yellow sunflowers, daisies, lavender…and lush, green meadows that looked like waves rippling in the breeze. And the sky…. the sky that is bluer than I could have imagined – a deep, rich blue that lightened to almost a porcelain color at the horizon… dotted with the occasional billowy white cloud – clouds that have the potential for creating some good thunderstorms later in the day. I hope so!

After getting dressed, we headed into town for a bit – Rick and the kids went to the park by the riverside while Lynne and I went to a couple of shops so she could return a table she had bought. Ron had a meeting in town, so it was a perfect time to go for a quick little trip. The shops are so cute (and sooo Pagosa). I can’t wait to go back when we have more time for browsing.

Lynne and I met the kids and Rick at the park – Riley was making himself busy by the river, squatting next to the bank and making a mud pile with some rocks and sticks. Violet emerged barefoot from the trees by the river, her jeans soaked almost to her knees. She had been trying to skip rocks across the water. Across the playground of the park, a local church was having Vacation Bible School with kids in three age groups – 5 and 6, 7 and 8, and 9 and 10 years old. It just started today and one of the counselors said that if Violet and Riley wanted to come for the rest of the week they totally could. The best part? It’s free! The theme was perfect, too… “God’s Great Big Backyard” – I love it!

After the park we all headed to the Malt Shoppe – an old fashioned place with the best shakes and malts around. Rick and Violet had chocolate, Riley had strawberry, and I had black raspberry. They were a perfect late morning treat.

We drove back to the house after that for a little chill time – Rick and I played scrabble while the kids played and read quietly. Then we noticed the clouds were really darkening in the western sky, so we decided to head down to the little picnic area on the property and get it cleaned out before the storm hit. Rick, Ron, the kids, and I drove down with shovels, rakes, and brooms and set to work clearing out the little three-sided log cabin. We had to pull out the picnic tables and tarps, the chairs and the trash, and we swept out the leaves and the dirt and the mess. The kids were great helpers, bagging the trash and gathering firewood while Ron used his Magic Lighter Fluid to start a fire in the fireplace. Perfect timing too – within a minute of lighting the fire, the wind kicked up something fierce and we watched the storm roll in around us. First it was just wind, then we heard thunder, and then finally the rain started to fall. At first it was just a light drizzle – and we got to see a deer crossing the meadow on her way to the forest – and then the rain picked up and started pounding pretty hard.

When there was a little break in the weather, we got in the car and came back to the house to wait out the storm. Rick and I finished our Scrabble game (yes, I won) and Violet read a book. Then Riley and Rick took a nap and I tried to get online. No luck yet getting the Internet to work for posting photos, but hopefully tonight I will at least be able to post this blog I have been writing. We’ll see…

After naps we headed down to Noah’s lake to go fishing. We took the kids’ fishing poles we bought a couple years ago as well as some live worms Ron had picked up in town earlier. We had forgotten our bobbers so the first half hour of fishing didn’t work so well… but then Ron showed up and brought bobbers and some really cool floating bait. Rick took the kids one at a time out in the little rowboat while I stayed on shore with the other one, fishing from the side. Ron had a couple of bites with his lure but the fish kept breaking free. Finally, though, when Violet was out on the boat with Ron she got a bite! And it was a BIG ONE! So big, in fact, that the $10 pole from Target couldn’t actually handle it and they had to reel it in by hand. It was a beautiful rainbow trout – and they brought it ashore so we could look at it (and take pictures!) and then we let the big guy go back home to his family.

As we drove back from our fishing fun, we spotted EIGHT BUCKS right on the side of the road – we drove right past them! They had velvety horns and they looked so majestic! It was incredible…and I can’t believe how close we were!

We had a wonderful dinner of grilled brats and burgers and fruit salad, and then spent the rest of the evening in the hot tub outside looking at the stars. It was awesome. We saw a bunch of satellites and pointed out some constellations to the kids. I couldn’t believe how many stars we saw. One more thing that makes this place utterly incredible.

The kids are asleep and Rick is reading his book next to me. Time for me to get to bed too… after I convince the Internet service her to love me long enough to publish this blog…