The drive to Winslow was uneventful except for an intermittent “check battery” light.  Will check that when I get home.  Standing on the Corner in Winslow AZ

We stayed at La Posada – a restored Fred Harvey hotel designed by Mary Colter.  The restoration is much more finished and the hotel more attractive than it was at our last visit some years ago.  We were in the Edward Ruscha room.

We ate at the Turquoise Room – food well worth travelling for!  Waitresses dressed like the old time Harvey Girls.  Menu report below.

Pictures for the day (click to enlarge):

DINNER REPORT

For appetizers Elaine had:

Our Famous Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Stuffed with sweet corn tamale and Oaxaca cheese, beer batter dipped and crispy fried. Served on a bed of salsa verde with a grilled squash and roasted corn salsa.

I had a special, lamb meatballs with a delicious chili mint dipping sauce

For the main we both had the:

Churro Lamb Sampler – Three ways

Lamb shoulder simmered with tomatillos and green chile, pulled off the bone and served over our sweet corn tamale, bowl of red corn posolé with house-made lamb and pork chorizo. Grilled lamb rib chop with a mint and garlic au jus, served with a fresh vegetable medley.

For desert we both had delicious gelato.  It was all YUM!

End of blog until I head for Saratoga on July 24th.

Dinner at the Glacier Club last night was excellent.  I had a beef fillet.  No one had the elk medallions.  After dinner back at the “cabin” we played charades (less Bill & Cindy who crapped out and went to bed).  The boys killed the girls.

July 4th broke clear and sunny.  Bill Stehle, the honorary Master Sergeant, insisted we do an “honor the flag” ceremony.  Boys only.  The girls mostly laughed at us and took pictures.

Cookout

Preparing for the cookout we had a crisis in the kitchen.  The oven caught on fire, apparently due to a faulty element.  Disaster was averted, but there will be no cooking in the oven until it is repaired.

The cookout was traditional Fourth of July stuff (franks, brats, and burgers with the usual accouterments – chips, warm & cold potato salad, beer, soda,etc.)  The whole crew was present along with a few guests from the area.

The beautiful morning unfortunately degraded into an overcast afternoon with a constant threat of showers.  Not to be denied, a good time was had by all.

Fireworks

Fireworks were in downtown Durango (a fifteen minute ride).   RAINY!  We skipped them.

 

Caroline was the breakfast chef – eggs to order, potatoes, and bacon. Delicious.

Ann did a load of laundry and managed to include a roll of toilet paper in the machine. The result wasn’t pretty.

Caroline couldn’t find her plastic bag of dirty underwear and blamed Gary. Gary finally found the bag where Caroline had put it.

Then Bill drove everyone but me to the Mild to Wild rafting site on the Animas River. I had opted out as had Bill. Blissful quiet at the house while Bill was driving them to the rafting site. Rafting was reportedly good – wild, wet, and cold!

The Day in Pictures (click to enlarge)

Dinner tonight is at the Glacier Club. Reports tomorrow.

Bill, Russ, and Gary left at 7:30 for their golf date at Ann & Russ’s club, the Glacier Club.  At 10:00 or so, Greg (driving), me, Elaine, Ann, & Cindy hopped in Ann’s SUV for an Ann-led quick tour of Durango.  We stopped at Durango Mountain Resort (Purgatory) for a walk about.

Then we drove into downtown Durango, the old historic section, after a drive through Durango’s Fort Lewis College.  We parked and walked around, finally stopping at the Diamond Belle Saloon at the historic Strater Hotel.  Neat place.  I had the Diamond Burger.  This deserves a page of its own on the menu (click the link – do it!).  And I had pints of Durango Summer Wheat Beer – delicious.

Then it was back to the condo for much deserved and needed naps – well for me and a couple of the golfers at least.

Dinner tonight will be Cindy’s grilled pork tenderloin with barbeque peach sauce accompanied by Dijon mustard grilled potatoes and a spinach and kale blueberry feta cheese salad with lemon vinaigrette.

Click on pics for larger views in new window/tab

For the July 4th weekend we are off on a road trip to Durango, Colorado for a reunion with Elaine’s brother and sisters. We left Scottsdale at 6:15 am on Wednesday, and after losing an hour when crossing into NM/CO, we were at Ann’s place in Durango by 3:00 pm.

We briefly stopped along the way to see Four Corners, the only place in the USA when the borders of four states (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado) meet. We came here about six or seven years ago on another long road trip, and it was closed for renovations. The site is on the Navajo Reservation and is administered by the Navajo Tribe. It isn’t quite clear what renovations they might have done. There is a cement patch with plaques of the four states, and you get to stand in a line to actually stand on the spot. The site is surrounded by stalls where various Navajo (and perhaps Hopi) tribe members sell hand made jewelry and trinkets (and, of course, tee shirts). The rest rooms are pit toilets and not very well maintained. On a ten point scale this place gets a one as a place to stop. $5 per person to enter. Well worth missing. We also passed very close to Monument Valley and Mesa Verde National Park, but stops were not in the plan. Maybe another road trip in the future.

At Ann’s, we settled in and the reunion commenced. No shortage of wine, beer, and other sundry alcohols (including Absolut gimlets). Elaine had prepared dinner in Scottsdale and transported it here: delicious chicken casserole, salad, and bread. After dinner we sat on the porch/patio in the back and played music trivia using my Surface Pro music collection. Caroline guessed “Frankie Avalon” for every song. We over served ourselves on alcohol and hit the sack around 10 pm.

More family pictures will be forthcoming over the following days.