Pit Stops in Vail

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The drive from our house (outside of Denver) to Aspen is about 3.5 hours. Vail is close to the halfway point, so we stopped there on the way in and out. The town is cute--very European. We window shopped and checked out the statues and skipped along the cobblestone streets. On our trip out, we stopped and ate the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I'd packed on the edge of an empty fountain. I assume they'd emptied the fountain in preparation for winter. I might be a bad parent, but I let Oliver climb in there. Why not?

On our way back home, we stopped again in Vail. We grabbed a cup of coffee at the Starbucks next to a stream, and then we let Oliver play on the edge of the stream. He enjoyed throwing rocks in and climbing on small boulders. Jo enjoyed the leaves, as always!

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Photos

Oliver in Vail
Here's Oliver climbing on the same rock, first in 2010 and again in 2012.

Oliver and Jo and a Bear
On the left is Oliver back in 2010 when he was 9 months old. He's sitting on a bronze bear statue in Vail, Colorado. On the right is Jo on that same statue in 2012. She's 10 months old.

Andrew and the Kids
We're overlooking Vail, Colorado from the top of the parking garage.

A Bird
I don't know my birds well at all, but I saw this pretty one in Vail.

Stretching at Starbucks
We let the kids get out and stretch in Vail on the way home from Aspen.

Andrew, Mark Twain, and the Kids
Both kids were only brave enough to check out the Mark Twain statue when their dad was holding them. I still don't know why there was a Mark Twain statue in Vail, but it was pretty neat! There was also a statue of Einstein and a statue of a Greek, which we thought might have been Socrates. They weren't labeled, so we'll just assume we were right.

Another Statue in Vail
An elderly woman walked by and saw Oliver playing with the statue of the kids feeding geese. She took his picture because she thought it was cute!

Leaving Vail
That sign explains they're doing a controlled burn near Vail. That's really a good idea. There were a few areas we saw that were filled with dead, dry pine trees (pine beetle damage).