Adventures in Breckenridge

On the day before I was to leave Colorado, Ian and I set out on a quest to visit the quaint town of Breckenridge. Armed with my luggage and the COLORADO magazine and address of our hotel we set off on hwy 70 towards Frisco, Silverthorn and Breckenridge. We stopped and ate pizza in Silverthorn before visiting the gigantic outlet mall... then headed back into Breckenridge. Mind you I had read the comments on the hotel itself the day before and THOUGHT (key word is that I THOUGHT) I had even called the hotel to confirm our reservations... I knew that the hotel was "a little outside of town" and that is was even "somewhat difficult to find." But, we are young and invincible...we can find it... besides, my boyfriend will google the directions before we leave right??? WRONG!!!

So picture this... Ian driving and me in the passenger seat (been there most of the day) looking at the Breckenridge map saying, "Honey, it says that the hotel is in quadrant H-1. See... over here... in this corner... just go through town and we will see it..." This led us to end up in Blue River City, the OTHER SIDE of Breck before we knew it. Now rather giggly, I call the hotel (or what I THINK is our hotel). Here is how that conversation went...

Lady: Well where are you at?

Me: Somewhere outside of Breckenridge... (giggle giggle giggle)
Lady: What road are you on?
Me: I dunno... Main street??? (More giggling)

Lady: Are you still on Main Street?

Me: We never turned off of it so I would hope so!!! (Continuation of uncontrollable giggling)

Lady: Ok, come back to "downtown" Breck, when you see South Park off of Main street you are

going to turn left and... (I didn't hear the rest I was too busy laughing about there being a

SOUTHPARK street in Breckenridge... too much time in a car for sure!!!)

So about 15 minutes later, Ian and I are still driving in circles, finding all sorts of other hotels but not ours... so HE calls back... shockingly enough, he got the same directions I got (hahaha! To think he was threatening me with not being the navigator again!!!) So after driving around for a little longer, I looked (yet again) in the Breckenridge magazine for some miraculous guidance... it was then that I realized that I had called the WRONG hotel... no wonder the lady's directions kept taking us to the GREAT DIVIDE LODGE and not the LODGE AT BRECKENRIDGE!!! Once I composed myself and could talk, I called the REAL hotel to get directions. Here I am laughing so hard I can't sit up and am crying while Ian is in the front seat about to kill me... Ian got the directions to the hotel, which lo-an-behold we had driven past the intersection for the hotel a few times...

After an extended drive through Breckenridge and back, we find the hotel and it is amazing!!! Looks like a huge log cabin!!! We go check in and go up to our room... Which was adorable as well... we changed clothes and headed out to adventure in the town of Breckenridge. We had dinner at the Kenosha Steakhouse which was fantabulous! We could have split either of our meals, which he chose a grilled chicken dinner and I had the pulled pork bbq sandwich! After eating we hit the streets. Most of the shops were closing by this time so we went into the ones we could and decided to come back again!!!

The view from our porch/deck/balcony...

The view of the front of the hotel, the lighting stinks but what can a girl do when she only has one chance to take the picture lighting or not...

Colorado in July

My trip to Colorado has been all kinds of exciting and busy!! I arrived on the 1st with enough time to relax briefly before we ran over to the cousin's house for birthday dessert for Sheridan. The dessert and conversation were amazing and I really like Ian's cousins!

While we were relaxing on the patio before leaving for Berkley and Russell's for Sheridan's birthday party. It was warm enough to shed my jacket for a while!

Fourth of July found us in Aspen in the morning watching the parade down main street. The parade was amazing. There were motorcycles galore... a massive herd of children on decorated bicycles, firetrucks covered with kids and family members... then the most impressive part for me was when the veterans passed by. There were vets from WWII, Vietnam, Korea, Normandy Beach, Okinawa, Iraq, Afghanistan, Gulf War, and any war in between... There were HUNDREDS of veterans, in uniform, with signs denoting their particular theater/tour of duty. It was amazing the support that these men (and some women) received from the crowd that day. Having friends in the military, and that have served in the Middle East in the last 6 years of this ongoing war, it brought tears to my eyes and a chill down my skin to see all the vets. After we painted an office for a while, we came home, took a brief nap then headed to Glenwood Springs for fireworks. Above is a picture of me waiting for the fireworks to start while enjoying the Glenwood Springs Symphony.

Some of the fireworks that we were blessed with watching! I love fireworks!!! I also enjoy the amazing freedom that is signified by them on the 4th of July...

Sunday we drove to Crested Butte... we made a brief pitstop in Redstone on our way. We checked out the old coal coke pits and then attempted to drive through Marble to Crested Butte... the Marble idea went out the window when the road became muddy, bumpy, rocky and incredibl narrow. I was enjoying our offroad adventure, however, Ian was not so we turned around and decided to take the OTHER route through the Paona Reserve. That drive is amazing!!!

After walking around in Crested Butte on our way home we stopped to admire the various wildflowers that are on the side of the road. Ian got some amazing shots of the flowers and a few pictures of me in the process.

Here is one of pictures that I took while standing/sitting outside the sunroof while driving home. Ian is completely rubbing off on me... I typically don't take pictures of the sky, clouds, and scenary... but now...

And last night... he brought me flowers... He had been working in Aspen and I decided to stay home to relax... when he came home he told me to close my eyes as he walked in the door... so I closed my eyes and attempted to cover them, but he took my hands down from my eyes and put this beautiful bouquet of flowers in my hands!!!!

Just in case I haven't mentioned it lately, I love my boyfriend!!!!