Babs' Life Journey - New Challenges and Adventures: Highlights of our Fall Vacation

Part 1: Colorado

After visiting friends in El Paso, we drove up to Dillon, Colorado where we stayed a week. We had friends from Redmond, Washington stay with us in the large two floor condo. I also visited a friend who had been a classmate of mine in Orleans American High School in France. Sue lives in Silverthorne which is right next to Dillon - both towns share Lake Dillon, the beautiful, pristine lake depicted in the above photograph. Sue was kind enough to host some of our sightseeing, but I am getting ahead of myself.

We spent four days together with our friends from Washington as unfortunately they were badly affected by the high altitude and decided to return home earlier in the week than they had originally planned. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the time visiting with them as we had not seen them in a couple of years. One noteworthy outing we all shared was a train ride on the Georgetown Loop Railroad. Here are a few photos from that fun trip!

Our second major outing was to FairPlay - a trip we took with my friend, Sue who was our tour guide, both during the drive to FairPlay and visit to South Park City, a 1880's Mining Town Museum. Here are some photos of the drive to FairPlay:

And, finally, here are photos from our visit to FairPlay/ South Park City Mining Town, a Mining Town from the 1880's created with authentic buildings and memorabilia from all over Colorado. Truly a fascinating place to visit!

Inside the tiny church

The Laundry Room

The One Room School House

Inside the Mercantile Shop

More of the goods inside the Mercantile Shop

A Diorama depicting how the Pastor traveled to various churches

Part 2: Driving Through Utah

The gorgeous rock formations we viewed in Utah at Zion National Park and along the road were unsurpassed! Here are a few examples:

Part 3: Las Vegas Sights - and A Very Special Reunion

We ended our vacation by spending several days in Las Vegas. On the first days, we just chilled in our condo. On the second day, we went to South Point Casino, had lunch, and then watched the 75th Anniversary edition of "Gone With the Wind" which we both thoroughly enjoyed! On the third day, we went to a Las Vegas show - entitled appropriately "Las Vegas - The Show"! It was a musical production which covered the history of Vegas between the '50's all the way to the early '70's. We enjoyed the variety of performers and the level of talent of the performers.

Here are a several photos taken at the Bellagio - in its full array of Fall Decor!

Ralph and I standing on The Strip:

Our last evening in Las Vegas was a wonderful reunion with two of my former students from Turkey, Alpay Kirdar and Vildan Chase. We had a delicious Turkish dinner prepared by Vildan at her home. She has lived in Vegas for the last twenty years with her American husband whom she met while she was in college when he became her pen-pal! We had a lovely evening of laughter and great conversation re-living memories from the years I taught in Karadeniz Eregli which was more than 35 years ago!

Here are photos of that very memorable evening: