Colorado!

 Leena and I are back from her 13 Trip to Colorado! 

When our kids turn 13, we celebrate with a trip of their choice, just them and Mom or Dad.  They can go anywhere in the continental US, and it's special time to be together, do fun stuff , and talk about growing up.

Leena picked Colorado because she loves mountains, and she loves my sister.  It was her first airplane ride- she loved it!

 Manty MaryAnn (yes, we do call our relatives strange things) took us to the Great Dunes National Park.

I should explain that she doesn't just live in Colorado, she lives in her "Little Convent on the Llano."  The Llano is like a prairie, except, in this case, it's a high altitude (2 mile elevation) valley nestled in the Rocky mountains.
 I should also explain that the valley is a dried up lake that's thousands of  (flat) square miles - it's unlike anything I've ever seen!

One of the sand bearing streams

And, strangely enough, this is where you will find the largest sand dune in North America.

Very windy!

Streams erode and carry sand down from the mountains, and in one special spot, all the winds (coming from 3 separate mountain passes) blow the sand into a pile at the foot of the mountains. 






Millions of years later, it's a really big pile of sand!

We mean really big!

Enormously big!!

All I can tell you is that it is much much bigger than it looks!

And it was amazingly fun!!