My brother's visit and a day spent in Vail

I haven't posted much the last week or so.

That's simply because on July 5, my brother surprised us with a visit.
He usually can only keep the secret from one or two family members at a time, and only up until his flight arrives at the airport. This time he managed to keep it a secret from everyone up until he was halfway to our house. He took the airport van this time, and it was a great surprise to everyone, which made his visit a blast from beginning to end.

Saturday all five of us got into the rental car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, and headed to Vail. On the way, we encountered some beautiful scenery that seems to just get more and more beautiful each time I see it. We stopped in Clear Creek for a few photo ops, and Georgetown, as well.

In Vail, we walked around taking pictures and looking around at the new additions, which were a lot since the last time we were up there.

As a funny note, we kept seeing people with Starbucks cups and bags, but couldn't figure out where an actual Starbucks store was located in town. Of course, we didn't see the place until we were headed back to the car to leave, long after we'd eaten and were completely full. Nice.

We had dinner at an italian restaurant called Vendetta's. The food was awight, but certainly not worth the price-- $15-$17 per person. Perhaps I just picked a dull dish for my dinner, Fetuccini Alfredo w/ chicken (chicken is an extra charge, by the way) and found it to be mediocre.

Finally, here are some scenic pics we snapped...

Clear Creek. "A river runs through it."

Clear Creek as we're leaving.

Georgetown, a quaint little mountain town.

Can you imagine having this to look at while sipping lemonade on your porch? This is how Vail residents do scenery.

This is a pedestrian only section of Vail. Absolutely no cars can go through here, and the place is full of restaurants, gift shops and art galleries. There is a rich artistic community in Vail.

For those unfamiliar with Vail... it is basically a skiing town where the rich own multi-million dollar homes that I presume they use only part of the year. Vail also houses one of the nation's, and maybe even the world's best sports medicine clinics where the likes of Italy's soccer idol Alessandro Del Pierro are treated. The name of the clinic escapes right now, but you get the picture. Vail is worth visiting if you ever come to Colorado, and it's only about an hour and a half away from Denver, not considering traffic, of course.