Our Motel 6 in Grand Junction was right next to a military base, so Maria took this shot of Kai and I underneath a retired Blue Angles jet. We wanted to see the Colorado National Monument, which required heading back west a bit. The Dinosaur Journey Museum that we overshot the day before was also west, so we decided to go see the dinos first.

Kai was excited, but once we got inside, he was scared. There were several life-size, full-color, roaring animatronic dinosaurs in this place. Maria and I were impressed, but poor Kai just wanted to get out! There was a simulated dig site, which was away from all the big noisy dinosaurs, so Kai was ok with spending some time in there. But it ended up being a short visit.

From there we headed to the Colorado National Monument. "Deep canyons, alive with piñon pines and cottonwood trees, nestle at the foot of sheer rock walls, at the top of which you get panoramic views over miles and miles of the Colorado Plateau." The drive is a 23 mile stretch that loops west-east on the south side of Grand Junction (so we exited Route 50 on the west side of the city, and then got back on 50 on the east side). Kai watched Thunderbirds on his DVD player while Maria and I soaked in the scenery (pictures below).

At this point, I-70 and route 50 split: I-70 heads northeast to Denver, and route 50 heads southeast to Pueblo. Our destination was Maria's folks' place in Denver, so we said goodbye to 50 for a short time. Kai conked out and we made good time until we were just west of Vail, where the highway was closed! Apparently there was some massive sinkhole in the middle of the road. So we had to take a two and half hour detour which first sent us southeast, down a windy mountain road to the town of Leadville, and then back northeast to meet up with 70 again. While the mountains were pretty, we were anxious to get to Denver, so it was major annoyance.

We arrived in Denver late in the afternoon, and Kai was very happy to see his grandparents! (Michiko is "Ba Ba" and Tony is "Gi Gi" - those are the Japanese equivalents of grandma and grandpa). This was the first time he had seen them since they moved from our house in CA about 5 weeks earlier. They moved into a newly built apartment building - their place was small but very comfortable. Kai had a hard time sleeping that night though. Since we left CA, he had really latched on to me and wanted to sleep next to me every night, but tonight he wanted Ba Ba, ...and then me, and then Ba Ba, and so on throughout the night. So none of us got much sleep.