For spring break this year, we decided to stay in Fort Collins and cross off some of our Colorado bucket list items. Oh, and have some relaxing days in between. It's been great!
Our first little trip, which I'll call a mini-cation, was to Vail, CO about 2.5 hours away.
Scenery pictures from our drive there
It was just me, Brod and Salomon and we had a blast. Brody and I had a great time just being together, had some great conversations, laughed so hard our sides ached and we both had tears streaming down our face, enjoyed some delicious food and beautiful scenery. It really was a perfect little getaway. We decided there's no place like Vail, CO to remind you how poor you are. Here's a look at the cheapest things we could find to do :)
When we first got there, we spent a few hours walking around the little downtown area of Vail. There were tons of little restaurants and shops located literally feet away from the ski lift. I thought that was pretty cool.
We found the cheapest place we could possibly find to eat lunch so that we could splurge a little on dinner. Even this little food wagon we ate at cost $13 for a hot dog and a hamburger.
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| Can you see the ski lift on the hill right behind the shops? |
Just so you get a better idea about what I'm talking about, a day pass to ski at Vail resort is $140 per person . . . yeah, even if I wasn't pregnant I don't think we would have skied there. Maybe in our next life. It was cool to check out the lift area anyway.
Our little family...
After that, we drove the 10 minutes to our hotel in Avon, checked in and got all settled. (As you probably guessed, it was far too expensive to actually STAY in Vail. Avon was close enough though and was a pretty cool town itself)
We went for a walk around a lake nearby (we lucked out with amazing weather! -- 45 degrees and sunny)
Then we took a gondola ride up to Beaver Creek resort (the ski resort in Avon).
After that, we headed to dinner at the most amazing Italian restaurant. Definitely worth the big bucks we saved up to spend on dinner. For the rest of the night, we just hung out at the hotel watching shows on the laptop and playing yahtzee.
The room we got came with two beds, so naturally, we let Sal have his own bed . . . I think he quite enjoyed it. What a spoiled dog he is! (This was a pet friendly hotel, don't worry)
Alright, I can't help it. I have to include the hilarious quotes of the trip. First up, Brody.
Me: Why is it cheaper to book a hotel through priceline than through the hotel's website?
Brody: Because a room for 100 bucks is better than a room for none bucks. (No joke, that's the exact wording he used. I'm laughing out loud right now as I type this. He was trying to say that the hotel would rather rent out a room for cheaper than the usual cost than not rent it out at all)
Now my turn... I called Brody into the bathroom to help me figure out the dumb blow dryer on the wall because "I've tried every single button on this thing and it's still not working!" He walked in, saw the cord hanging down, plugged it in and it worked. That was a whoopsie on my part.
Then later on, Brody called the headboard of the bed a baseboard and I called the yahtzee dice cup a bucket. Maybe we were already too giggly at this point, but we both thought those statements were hilarious and went into another laughing fit.
Now you have a small glimpse into our weird and funny ways. We sure like each other and have a fun time together.
The next morning we ate our free continental breakfast (my favorite!) and then went swimming at the rec center across the street (check out this awesome coincidence -- I was bummed to discover a few days prior to the trip that the hotel we booked only had an outdoor pool and hot tub. I was really looking forward to going swimming and since I can't hot tub while pregnant and it's far too cold to swim outside, that piece of news pretty much dashed all my hopes and dreams. I even looked into other places to swim in the area, but the only thing I found was the city rec center and passes were $14 per person. Boo! But . . . lucky for me, when we checked in at the hotel they told us the hot tub was broken, so they offered us each a free pass to the rec center! Woohoo!! It was my lucky day!
Swimming was heavenly. I felt weightless and I think we spent a full 30 minutes just going round and round in the lazy river.
After swimming, we showered, packed up, checked out and headed home. Here are a few more amazing views on the drive home. . .
But WAIT! Don't go yet. That's not the end of our trip and this is one of the best parts of the whole thing! While we were in Vail, I had the memory pop into my head about an ice castle in CO that I had read about a while back. I didn't even know if it was still going on or how close to us it actually was, but after a quick search I discovered that it is indeed still open and was located just 15 minutes off the freeway on our way home!! I was so excited to go and I'm glad it worked out. It was definitely worth the 15 minute detour. Nature is truly amazing, even if it is man-made.
We had so much fun and I hope to never forget the memories we made on this trip (by including so much detail in this blog, maybe I never will :) Stay tuned for mini-cation #2!
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