Vacation day 8: Durango.

Whenever we said we were visiting Durango, folks invariably mentioned the Durango-Silverton Railroad, so we knew it was something we wanted to do while we were there.

We had reserved tickets on the last of the three departures, but then a traffic jam had delayed us. PANIC ON THE ROAD! Of course, we still arrived at the train station with time to spare, but not before I had multiple nightmares of how bad it'd be if we missed our train.

We had our jackets and our shades; we were ready to travel in style.

As expected, the view from our vintage coach was gorgeous.


We couldn't get enough of the changing scenery.

Well, SOME of us couldn't get enough. Others of us had to be reminded to look out the window!



Yes, it was a long train ride. Good thing we had an iPhone to look at since there was nothing to see, you know, outside the window!




During the three-hour trip to Silverton, we had lots of good family time. We paid a few visits to the snack car and tried various seating arrangements.
We managed to keep ourselves entertained!

Once in Silverton, we checked out the quaint town:

Then we found Handlebars Restaurant and Saloon for lunch:
Gayle and her family had recommended it, and boy, was it good!
After lunch we wandered around town until it was time to go back to Durango.
After our two-hour layover, it was time to board our bus to head back. We had reserved the bus to save time since the train ride takes so long, but when the conductor mentioned that there was plenty of room on the train for the return trip, Brett and Katie gave Ryan and me the puppy dog eyes. They REALLY wanted to take the train back, so we consented. I called Gayle to let her know we'd be getting back to her place later than planned, and back on the train we went.

I'm glad we did that because even though we were on the same track (duh), we were seeing everything from a different perspective.
And it's just so beautiful! It was nice to have more time to take it all in.





The kids enjoyed having more time to take in the view from the open-air gondola,
AND to visit the snack car, too! Katie sure got her money's worth out of her all-you-can-drink mug!

And yes, the train was stopped when I took this picture, but the other family in our car was not afraid to stick their heads out the windows while the train was moving. Scary! (It was nice that there were only eight of us in our car. Plenty of elbow room on the ride home!)





Back at Gayle's that night, we had another fantastic meal (fajitas this time), and then Brett and the kids played Trouble. I got some more time to chat with Gayle, and we all got some good rest before taking off in the morning.

Another wonderful day...