A Little Trip to the Mountains

So, Marcus was in Denver the week before Memorial Day for work and since he was done on Friday of a 3-day weekend which just happened to be his birthday, we decided to make a little vacation out of it! We hadn't been to the Vail area in a few years and never in the Spring. So, we booked a flight, redeemed some hotel points and left most of the schedule open. Rare for me :)

We stayed at the Westin in Beaver Creek/Avon. It was beautiful. 

We were upgraded to a beautiful condo for our stay! It makes it hard to only sleep in your room when your room is so wonderful. It beats the heck out of our first apartment :) 

The high on Wednesday when I was packing was to be mid-60s each day. It ended up being well over 80 degrees with lots of sunshine!

Saturday morning we had a big breakfast and set out just before lunchtime to Glenwood Springs, home of a local amusement park with open gondolas, a must on our list. 

 The gondola was a little scary for Marcus! He takes Zanax to help him fly, so he popped an extra pill and all was good. The gondola is the little orange boxes you see among the trees on the mountain below. 

It provided some beautiful scenery!

Glenwood Springs was fun- lots of kiddies rides and thrill rides for the big kids. We wanted to zip line while there, but it was too windy and after waiting in line for over 30 minutes, it was shut down due to the wind. So, we took a few pictures and rode the gondola back down.

We decided to take the scenic route home and drive to Aspen. I loved this little town and was impressed by the number of high end shops found there. Who knew Prada, LV, and Gucci had stores in little ol' Aspen? 

We took in the sights in the village and then stopped on a patio for a drink and to map out the rest of our day.  

There was a whole row of these pink trees, cherry blossom I presume. Loved the pink trees among the bright blue sky!

Marcus ran through the fountains on the way out- he wasn't fast enough to stay dry :)

So, rather than going back north and heading east in I-70, we took a back road known as Independence Pass. This is a screen shot of the route.... it was insane. I would have been much less nervous if we had filled up with gas prior to the 2 hour journey.

But, now that I know we survived, I can recommend it. On the drive, the temperature dropped almost 30 degrees and we found snow!

Is this not amazing! We were on the side of a mountain with snow/ice scattered her and there and then suddenly it felt like we were in the clouds and surrounded by snow!

We arrived in Vail in time for a yummy dinner at Blue Moose Pizza. It was recommended by multiple Facebook friends and was wonderful. 

Sunday morning, we had a big breakfast and drove back into Denver. Details on that super cool adventure up next!