A Trip to the Big City

For those of you who don't know, Durango can sometimes feel a bit remote. There's tons of stuff to do here, especially if you love the outdoors. There's world class skiing (At least I'm told there is. You won't catch me careening down a mountain at 4 billion miles per hour any time soon), there's AMAZING hiking, biking and all manner of river sports. 

As far as shopping goes... notsomuch. The locals are somewhat annoyed by this, but we deal with it because we LOOOOVVVE how it makes the tourists feel. The first week she moved here my mom was walking through the "mall" (seven stores and a Mrs. Fields) and overheard one lady say to another, "Is this there another mall in town somewhere?" Um, sadly no.

One of my favorite stories of tourist confusion occurred while I was pregnant. When you're pregnant, people believe that you're especially helpful and approachable. This seems to be more true the larger, moodier and more uncomfortable you are. That's a story for a different time. But anyway, I was in Wal-Mart late one evening. I was approximately 17 months pregnant and was purchasing some type of candy that I had been craving all day. I went to the self checkout for the express purpose of not talking to anyone about how enormous I was. The lady at the self checkout next to me looked extremely confused. The look on her face said something to the effect of, "I clearly do not belong in a Wal-Mart." I finished buying the now half empty bag of candy and turned to leave. As soon as she saw my uncomfortably round profile she smiled and said, "Excuse me. Could you tell me where the nearest Target is?" I did my darndest not to reveal my satisfaction in the answer I was about to give, smiled as sweetly as I possibly could and said, "The nearest Target is an hour away in the next state over." Then I tried my best to look apologetic and said, "Welcome to Durango." I walked out, finished off my bag of candy before I got to the car and thought, "That was possibly the most satisfying personal interaction I've had all week."

All that to say, we drove an hour away to the next state to go to Target today. We got a few items that we can't get at Wal-Mart and a few others that are, let's face it, just better at Target than they are at Wal-Mart. Mark also likes to pick up groceries at the Safeway out there since they have a few things there that we can't get at the grocery stores here. It was a good trip, a productive trip. Norah took a good long nap on the way there and on the way home. Thanks to the naps she was in a good mood pretty much all day. Not bad for a Saturday. We also got her a couple of cute little springtime dresses on sale at Target. More photos soon!