Brunch and Braving the Ride Home (Saturday, November 25th, 2017)

We were so lucky this morning to get a little more time with our youngest daughter and her boyfriend before we headed home. We picked them up at 9:30 to take them to brunch at a place that they chose.  It was called Maddie's and was a breakfast only restaurant.

When we got there, they said there would be a 35 minute wait, but it was a beautiful morning, so we went outside to wait.  On the patio they had corn hole and a really nice fire pit, so we played some corn hole while we waited.

The wait went really fast, and when we were seated they had some fun items on the menu, one of which was Latkes.  Latkes are potato pancakes that are a traditional Hanukkah food. They also had a lot of gluten free options which was great for our daughter.

Steve ordered poached eggs with humus and israeli salad and I ordered a latke sandwich, so we shared.

Both of the kids had eggs benedict.  They looked great!

We all really enjoyed our breakfast, but I have to say that the company was the best part!

The restaurant even had a play area for the kids, which was great!

After breakfast, Steve and I dropped off the kids and hit the road home.  We were afraid that if we waited till Sunday that the traffic heading west would be a lot heavier.  So off through the mountains we headed once more.  I have to say that this drive is always so beautiful, and never looks the same twice.

Copper Mountain Ski Resort

 I always enjoy seeing the snow blow from the mountain peaks.

Lake Dillon

If you look closely, you can see skiers at Vail Ski Resort.

 
Glenwood Canyon

The western slope of Colorado

Heading into Utah on I-70.

As we drive, we take advantage of our solar oven, also known as the dashboard, for heating up our burritos for lunch.

 

Before we knew it, the sun was starting to set, lighting up the rocks all around us.

Then the sunset started, and we got to see it from so many different angles as we continued down I-70.

As you can see, our drive was beautiful, but these pictures were all taken in the first five hours.  We still had seven hours to drive in the dark. 

As we turned south onto I-15, the traffic picked up.  We stopped at a gas station in Richfield, UT, and everywhere we looked were California license plates.  As we continued further west, we just kept seeing more and more California plates and the traffic continued to get heavier.  

As we drove south out of Las Vegas, we were in heavy traffic.  We finally made it home at about 1:00 am and crawled into our own bed for the night.

We talked to friends who had driven from Las Vegas to Havasu on Sunday instead of Saturday, and they sat in traffic for 2 hours, trying to make their way south.  They said we were really smart to make the trip on Saturday instead of Sunday.  We'll have to keep this in mind for future years.