I’m a bit behind in my blog activities, so my apologies for the delay in posting about my trip to Colorado.
A month ago, my great friend, Anna and I took a weekend trip to Colorado to stay at her condo, located in Silverthorne, CO (15 miles from Breckenridge, 30 or so miles from Vail). We planned this trip a few months prior thinking it would be a great get-away for me before the baby arrives and we envisioned a fun filled weekend of hiking, outdoor activities, good food, drink and conversation. Anna’s sister lives in Denver so she planned to meet up with us, along with some of Anna’s college pals.
A week prior to our trip, I was very excited to see that weather in the area was in the 80s… sunny and beautiful. Alas, as they say in Colorado, “if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes for it to change”… sure enough as I checked weather.com days before our trip, it was forecast to be cold, chance of rain and even thunderstorms! Oh NO!
What could we do? Our flights were booked… gotta grin and bear it.
Adding salt to the wound, it was slated to be a toasty warm weekend in the Bay Area. I packed up my winter clothing and decided to make the most of the weekend.
Hearing just the facts, one would think our trip was a complete disaster! First, our flight from SFO was delayed. Once we got to Denver, the plane had to circle for a while before landing and once we landed, we could not depart the plane right away due to thunder and lightning! At long last, we departed the plane, took the shuttle to the rental car place, got our car (we were upgraded thank goodness!) and drove 1 1/2 hours to the condo, it was 4am!! I am usually waking up at that time. Needless to say, I was a zombie and we went right to bed.
Of course since my body clock is set to wake up before the crack of dawn, I was wide awake at 7am. Given Anna was still sleeping, I decided to go for a little walk to explore the area. It was just beautiful! We had a view of a big valley with some of the Rocky mountains out in the distance.
It was slightly overcast but surprisingly not too cold. I found that because of the high-altitude and dry heat, the lower temperatures don’t feel as cold as the same temps in California. Go figure!
I returned to the cabin where Anna was preparing breakfast. Soon after, Anna’s sister Diana arrived and we enjoyed a tasty breakfast and great conversation. Next Anna’s college friend, Stacey arrived. We spent most of the morning chit-chatting, laughing.
Finally, we decided to try for a walk around the nearby Dillon Lake, however once we got to the Lake, we found it to be unbearably windy.
What to do instead? Ah! Let’s go to The Dam Brewery for lunch and drinks. The US vs. England first round World Cup game was going on so the place was packed with a great vibe. We spent the next couple of hours engaging in more conversation, sharing appetizers and enjoying a relaxing day.
After lunch we decided to hit the Outlet shops for some retail therapy. By this time it was raining pretty hard so it was perfect to stay indoors.
After a bit of chill time back at the condo, we decided to head to Breckenridge for dinner. I only wish we could have spent more time in Breckenridge, as it seems like such a charming, old-time town. We found a fabulous, fun little restaurant called the South Ridge Seafood Grill and enjoyed a tasty, pleasant meal. Here is my Yelp! review.
After such a long day, I crashed early. I awoke with a start at 6am, took a look out the window and what do I see? It’s snowing! It was just gorgeous! It’s June, what’s going on? It felt like the dead of winter… however so peaceful. I wanted to go outside to take pictures, but decided to sleep a bit longer. I finally woke up at around 8am, went out for another walk and to take pictures of the snow. Unfortunately, it was no longer snowing and the snow on the ground was already starting to melt – bummer! I did get in a nice long walk and took a few pictures.
We had plans to meet up with a few more of Anna’s college friends who live in Denver, so we spent the morning eating breakfast, cleaning the condo and packing. We said goodbye to Diana and Stacey and hit the road to Denver to meet up with Anna’s friends. We spent a couple of hours with three of Anna’s college friends and a very darling baby. Of course all of Anna’s friends are super nice, friendly, and professional… as if I’d expect anything less! It was a fun afternoon but we had to rush off to the airport to catch our flight. Luckily we left when we did, because we sure cut it close! In fact, the Frontier Airlines baggage claim clerk made me sign a waiver that they would not be responsible in the event my bag did not make it onto the plane — yikes!
Luckily all worked out, we got on the plane, it was an easy flight home and there was my bag at Baggage Claim!
So, regardless of the fact that we experienced rain, hail, snow, thunder and lightning, it was an enjoyable weekend after all.
That next week Anna apologized to me multiple times about the “disastrous weekend”… silly girl! I had fun and it’s not like she has control over the weather. We decided to take a trip next year and hopefully the weather will cooperate!
