Great Sand Dunes

We were already here 3 years ago in September, but... Chris' mom sent us some pictures of when the three siblings were little and they went over there on a family trip and played... with the river.
So. We had to try it too and decided to get there now in June... since the Vail weather has been lately pretty crappy... we're gonna start growing gilts and becoming amphibians, if it's gonna continue like this. And the Summer Monsoons haven't yet started!!! Ouch!!!

Pretty windy out there this time...
was throwing me off the sign!

A local Beduin...

The Beduin playing in the water

And the Beduin trying to copy beavers

Sand over sand over sand over...

Local meat

The Beduin Couple hiked onto the High Dune
(they cut our feet - again!)

There IS vegetation on the dunes... in June!

Clouds playing on the dunes

What???
Where did all these people come from???!!!???
We just went on a hike and now...!!!

Is this Lignano Beach???

Aaah!
Zapata Falls!!!
But... where's the fall???

AAAUUUCCCHHH!!!
We had to wade through the water to the falls...
(you can imagine how "warm" the water was from everybody being up on rocks!)

Zapata Falls
...worth freezing our feet off!!!
But: been there - done that-seen that
we don't need to go back without some booties!!!

And after sooo much sand,
we went to visit a tipical... well...
Redneck Place!
(look at the cool helmet this little girls has!)

They had little and BIG turtles

Snakes
from all around the world and
of any colors you can imagine

And... yep!
That's right!
GATORS!!!
[ look at my brave hubby's face ;o) ]

Country-girl in the Down-Under-Ozzie-land?

Yankee thinking how if their meat is any good to bbq...

They told us they do not sell them,
they just have them to clean up the dead tilapias.
They started a tilapia fish farm years ago and were wondering what to do with the dead fish. Somebody came up with the idea of the alligators.
At the beginning they were laughed at.
You know. Alligators in Colorado!
But they were lucky in their silliness and got an alligator farm
thanks also to a year-round warm spring that keeps them around 80F also in the snow.

Well. I know two things for sure:
#1 I won't eat tilapia fish anymore, after seeing this farm;
#2 they're not very business prone... you can make sooo many cool things!

Belts and purses and shoes and luggages and...
ok-ok, I'm just joking
don't call PETA on me
it was already enough that my out-law up in MN
had to deal with them.
He-he! ;o)

Then, they had ostriches

And emus

And more turtles and more gators
Dado! Remember the little turtles we had home as kids?
Here they were big as tricycle wheel! Not kidding!

A yak

Ducks straddling around

And...
MORRISSS - the gator!!!
Morris! Nisem znala da si tku znan tude lete!!!

After this sight-seeing,
we actually wanted to go see also the "U.F.O." place, but we agreed that
one Redneck place at the time is more than enough.
Next time we'll go over there too and let you know about it.

Stay tuned for some more movies of this trip.
Right now... gotta go!
Ciaooo!!!