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September 17-30, 2014  Days 143-156  Chesapeake Bay

Maryland Yacht Club
Pasadena, MD

What a wonderful ten days of vacation! We flew to Denver on September 17 and spent a day and a half at our son’s house in Littleton, enjoying our son and daughter-in-law, and our two grandchildren, Will, 3; and Abby, 7 months!  On Thursday, we took Will to the Colorado RR Museum in Golden, CO for a fun visit.

On Friday we all drove to Breckenridge, CO and met our daughter and son-in-law and four grandchildren (Ashley, 12; Nate, 10; David, 8, Rocky 6) for three days. They had driven from Texas to be with us!  We had two condos and spent wonderful family time, hiking, walking around shops, eating, and playing together. So all total, there were twelve of us! The aspen trees were in full color and we never tired of seeing them in the mountains. We all drove back to Littleton on Monday and spent more time visiting until it was time for Kari and Robert to drive back to Texas.

On Tuesday we rented a car and departed for Salt Lake City. We took a lesser traveled toad (US 40); stopped for lunch in Steamboat Springs and toured this scenic ski town.  We spent the night in Craig, CO which we thought was only appropriate!  Then Wednesday morning we stopped at the Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and in Utah – fascinating stop!  The scenery on this drive was spectacular both days!!

We arrived in the Salt Lake area in time to have dinner with Joyce’s 97 year old aunt, and her cousin, Melanie visiting from MN. We had a delightful reunion with them! We picked them up again Thursday morning and went to breakfast in the mountains, did some shopping, visited more family, and then drove to the Great Salt Lake onto Antelope State Park, an island on the lake. We saw hundreds of bison, many antelope, deer, and various birds.  It is a protected site for wildlife and we enjoyed the beauty of the island. The Great Salt lake is the largest lake west of the Mississippi. We completed the evening with dinner at one of Joyce’s aunt’s favorite restaurants.

On Friday, we made the long drive back to Denver in one day, taking I-80 through Wyoming. We arrived at our son’s house just before dinner, exhausted but happy to have made the trip to Utah!  More play time with the grandchildren and then we packed for our return trip!

Our son, Bill and grandson took us to the airport, but first we went to downtown Denver and toured the newly restored Union Station, and showed Will the California Zephyr that was leaving later that day.  We had breakfast at Snooze, and then then made the final leg to the airport!  We got back to Baltimore after 9pm and took the shuttle back to our boat at the Maryland Yacht Club. Since then, we have been busy with chores (cleaning, laundry, changing engine zincs, etc.) and making plans for travel.

We will depart here on Friday morning and begin to head south. We have decided not to go to Washington, DC this year as we thought we might.  We expect to be back in Poquoson October 8th or 9th and will stay for three weeks. We have Dr. appointments scheduled already and look forward to seeing family and friends!