As we rolled into Grand Junction, we stopped first in Palisade, CO at Canyon Wind Cellars for some wine tasting, and bought some of their 47-Ten and Rose.

We then headed into a HOT HOT HOT Grand Junction (94 degrees when we arrived!) to stay with Alicia’s Grandma Lugy for the night. Lugy is 87 years old, and one of her daughters, aunt Alice, lives with her. Alicia used to own a restaurant in Flagstaff, AZ, called Jalapeño Lou’s. It was named after my Father-in-law, who died in Pure in a plane crash in 1996.

Alice makes some of the best new Mexican cuisine around! We had a great visit, and the most awesome feast both for dinner that night, and breakfast the next morning. The dinner menu was:

• Red Chile Enchiladas
• Flautas
• Taquitos
• Rice & Beans
• Sopapillas

And for breakfast:

• Green Chile
• Fried Eggs
• Bacon
• Tortillas

Everything was made from scratch, even the sopapillas and rottillas were hand made. The green chile was some of the hottest I’ve had. My wife imports her chile from new Mexico, but her dishes are still not quite as hot as the chile we had at breakfast.

After a great visit, we headed south out of town, where it prompted cooled down past Montrose. We stopped in the town of Ridgeway, CO for lunch, at a restaurant called True Grit, a restaurant that serves “cowboy cuisine” and has John Wayne memorabilia everywhere. We sat on the balcony and had a great view of the San Juans.

After lunch, we headed into Ouray Colorado, and checked into the Ouray Chalet Inn. If you’ve never been to Ouray, it’s one of the great mountain towns. The entire town is at best a half-mile long and five city blocks wide. There’s very little, if any, commercial or “chain” businesses there.

We took a hike up to Cascade Falls with the girls, and they had a blast getting into the mist of the fall, although Kenna didn’t like the noise too much. After throwing rocks into the creek that comes down off the fall, we headed to the hot spring pool. It was already 6pm, and yet the warm water felt great with the cool mountain air.

There were two water slides, and I tried to get Olivia to go on the slide with me, but she wouldn’t. Kenna said she wanted to go, so I took her, and she thought it was fun! She even held her breathe and went under water. Having seen her sister do it, then Olivia got brave and went as well.

After the hot spring, we had dinner, then put the girls to bed. Alicia and I then sat outside and stared at the star while drinking our Canyon Wind wine.

The next morning we would head over the Red Mountain Pass on the Million Dollar Highway into Silverton and eventually into Durango, where we would spend the evening with Alicia’s sister and her husband, Shirena and Clay.