Presidents' Day Get Away

We had a nice weekend away in Grand Junction. It is amazing how quickly a weekend can pass when you are having fun. We decided to rent a vehicle instead of risking it with our truck. We've been left stranded a few too many times with the truck lately that we have lost all confidence in it. We ended up with a 2007 Dodge Caliber. We definitely would not go out and buy one for ourselves, but it was much nicer than our 1993 Toyota Pickup!

(The one we had was white)

Some of our friends in the area invited us to their Ward Elders Quorum Activity. We used to live in that ward so we thought it would be a good way to see people and be able to socialize with them. Plus, our friend is the Elders Quorum President. It was a small turnout, but we did have fun. It was game night, which for any of those who know me know I'm not a huge game fan, but I have to admit that I enjoyed myself. We played Mad Gab. I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. It was good for the soul. The video below is a tad bit on the long side (1:57), but it shows how much fun we were all having. It might be one of those things too that you had to be there for though???

While we were in Grand Junction we had to go see the sites we used to love to visit and eat the food that we've been craving that doesn't exist in Provo. My favorite place to eat in Grand Junction is Qdoba. It is a Mexican place with HUGE burritos, tacos, nachos, quesadillas, etc. We ate there twice in one weekend so I could get my fill.

One of our favorite sites in the area is the Colorado National Monument. As stated in the visitors brochure, "Colorado National Monument preserves one of the grand landscapes of the American West. Bold, big, and brilliantly colored, this plateau-and-canyon country, with its towering masses of naturally sculpted rock, embraces 32 square miles of rugged, up-and-down terrain. This is a special place, where you can contemplate glorious views that stretch to distant horizons; where you can discover solitude deep in a remote canyon; where you can delight in wild country where desert bighorns roam and golden eagles soar."

When we lived in Grand Junction we even decided to buy an annual national parks pass because we loved to just go on drives through the Monument and didn't want to pay $7 every time we did. As far as seeing wildlife while driving through the Monument, we typically only see mule deer, but this time we were able to see a small herd of desert bighorns. It was a neat experience (I, of course, didn't get any pictures of them though...they were fast)! If you are ever in Grand Junction it is definitely worth your time to drive through and see. Enjoy a few of our pictures we snapped along the way.

Cold Shivers Point

Taking a picture of ourselves

Dave out on a ledge

Artist's Point

Coke Ovens: a series of colorful rock domes created
by the natural sculpting forces of wind, water, and ice.

Ottos Trail: Gently sloping trail that leads to overlook
with dramatic view of the many monoliths.

At the overlook! It was freezing out there!

Independence Monument: once part of a massive rock wall that separated Monument and Wedding canyons. Slowly, as the forces of erosion enlarged these canyons, the dividing wall was narrowed and weakened. Weathering proceeded more rapidly in places where the rock was most vulnerable--along natural fractures. Eventually the wall was breached and parts of it collapsed. Today a remnant of the once solid rock wall survives as Independence Monument, a free-standing monolith. It too will eventually succumb to the ravages of time and weather.

Window Rock: a hole carved out of a crack in a stone wall by
thousands of years of relentless erosion.