There and Back Again - A Mountain Story

This trip was so long in coming, I can't believe it's actually over. 

Back in February, before life ground to a screeching halt, I planned to visit Colorado the second week of May. Every year I talk about getting out of town right after session (which was supposed to be the first week of May, but ended up being mid-August) and I'd finally planned ahead and made it happen...well, kind of. Once the Legislature went on hiatus in March, I rescheduled my flight for the first weekend in October, hoping we'd have this whole pandemic thing figured out by then. Ha...silly me. In my defense, seven months sounded like a sufficient amount of time for life to get back to normal. 

In the meantime, the trip morphed - the dates were moved two more times and it grew to become a group vacation, a portion of the book club (Melanie, Katie, Jordan and Sam) joining in my Colorado adventure. Since I wasn't flying solo, we decided to head for the mountains and rent an AirBnB in Breckenridge. Thank goodness we didn't end up in Estes Park or by Grand Lake, which had been on our short list. We lucked out and were only affected by a little smokiness while in Denver itself and didn't experience any once we were in Breckenridge. 

A week ago yesterday (gah, that's so weird), the five of us flew to Denver, grabbed dinner at the Denver Tech Maggiano's (thanks for indulging me, friends!), then played Sleep in a Bucket at the hotel until way too late. Saturday morning some people ran errands, others slept in a bit (guess which group I was in 😁😴), then we all went out to brunch at The Original Pancake House. We started out at the Denver Tech location, but because I forgot to call ahead while we were still at the hotel, there was a 45 minute wait. Fortunately the online waitlist tells you how many parties are in front of you, which convinced us to switch to the Cherry Hills location, since we were 28th in line there instead of 45th. After a delicious brunch (our waiter gave us a free Apple Pancake because they somehow ended up with an extra one!), we walked through the Denver Zoo before doing a boat load of grocery shopping and heading up to Breck! 

Lion cub climbing a giant cat tower. 🦁

Hyenas

Giraffe selfie!

This hyena was fascinated by the kid in the giraffe costume! 

Pretty sure he was trying to figure out how to make him dinner! 🦒🍽

This is an Okapi...I think? It looks so soft! 

Driving toward Breckenridge Saturday evening.

After dropping our bags off at Breck Beauty, we drove back down to Breckenridge and had dinner at The Canteen. Dinner was good...and the drinks were better. I got "Sex on the Slopes" (pardon the name, lol), which was vodka, peach schnapps, orange and cranberry juice. With my lower alcohol tolerance from doing Whole30, it was the perfect amount of booze to make everything freakin' hilarious...I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time. 😂🍹 Some called it an early night, while others ended up in the hot tub, admiring the beautiful night sky while slightly inebriated. 😁

Front - Sex on the Slopes 
Back - The Big Ladrewski: muddled mint and lime with gin, ginger beer and a splash of St. Germain. 

Sunday we went to Mass at St. Mary's, grateful it hadn't snowed as much during the night as had been forecast. After lunch, Katie, Jordan and I drove up to the Blue Lake Trail, admiring the view until the storm finally started rolling in on top of us. 

The storm is rolling toward us over the dam!

^ This is when we decided it was time to leeeeeave. 

We made it back to the house safely, with the storm letting up by the time we got there. Later in the evening Katie, Jordan, Sam and I drove into Breckenridge to wander the shops and seek out Isak Hearthstone, the Breckenridge Troll. 

(L to R) Sam, Katie, Jordan, me! 
Have a little snow! 

Katie taking a pic of Jordan to show their kids. 
Me taking my obligatory picture of a picture. 😁

It's snowing! Run to the car!

The drive back to the house was rather precarious, since the snow had really picked up. Poor Melanie was texting us, wondering where we were and suggesting we should head back...now! 😊 I think that was the night we started rewatching season one of The Mandalorian (first time for Melanie!) and I learned to play Hive, which I only succeeded in beating Sam at once (Well, one and a half times, but details)! 😣 I think this was the night Katie made her famous Change Your Life Chicken Thighs for dinner. 🐔

Monday we were basically snowed in. I mean, we could have gone out if we really needed something, but why risk sliding off a mountain? It ended up being a pretty chill day (I never changed out of my pjs, lol). After watching episodes of New Girl, we played a Monster of the Week campaign (mystery? I think they're called mysteries) DM'd by Sam that was inspired by "Shia LaBeouf." I played a Vampire, styled ala Drucilla from Angel, that ended up biting Cannibal Shia LaBeouf (if you're confused, click here). Melanie played an angelic character names Seraphina, Katie was a young punk named Steve, who had an animal companion which she decided was an otter, also named Steve. Both had a crush on Seraphina.  😂 Jordan was a sharp shooter (assassin?) named Charlie, who contributed a Comcast van and bright red Tesla to the group. Welcome to Colorado, land of all the Teslas. 😊

While it would have been nice to have warmer weather, the snow-flocked trees were quite lovely. 

View from the dining room on to the front deck (yay hot tub). 

Side yard out the dining room window.

View toward the back of the house.

Cozy living room 

Tuesday was warmer, which meant we could go for an official hike! A Facebook friend had recently posted pics from her family trip to Breckenridge, so I messaged her to ask if she had any suggestions for places to hike, eat, etc. She recommended the Sallie Barber Mine Trail, a scenic trek 2.8 mile out and back. 

Le creek! 

Sallie Barber Mine

Mountain Selfie

Katie braving the outcrop.

Wait...where's Sam?
(looks with concern over the side of the mountain)

Jordan and I clambered down the hill to check out these old, abandoned cars.

We then decided to be stupid and continue up the "Nightmare on Baldy" Trail. 😳 Actually, the stupid part was we followed tracks STRAIGHT UP THE MOUNTAIN and missed the trail zig zagging its way up, which makes so much more sense! Why we thought following a sign that contained the word "nightmare" on it was a good idea, I'll never know. 😆😬

So steep! I'm having trouble breathing just looking at it! 

Katie and Jordan back down by the mine.

On our way back down the Sallie Barber Trail. Katie's so photogenic, it's just rude! 😊😎

After not dying on the side of a mountain, we headed back to the house, where I made asparagus and lemon risotto for dinner (my culinary contribution of the trip, lol). Then there was more hot tubbing, star gazin' and Baby Yoda watching (we finished season 1 of The Mandalorian). 

Wednesday morning Sam made an amazing breakfast hash (Jordan did too another morning, though I can't remember which one), we played Skull King, packed up and wandered around Breckenridge before heading back to Denver. We grabbed a quick lunch at Marco's Coal-Fire Pizza, bid Denver a sad farewell and flew home to Omaha. 

It's crazy that we left for Denver a week ago...and that it was the first time I've traveled in 2020. With all the tough things that have happened this year, the inability to travel has been one of the hardest for me (I know, I know...#firstworldproblems). 

While different from the trip I'd originally planned, this hit all the right notes - a quiet break from life which found me in the mountains, instead of just gazing at them from afar. 

The mountains were calling, and so off I went! 😎

~ Katie Q. 🐧

UPDATE 11/5: I scheduled a rapid Covid test at my doctor's office for the day after I got home, which came back negative. I also signed up thru TestNebraska to take another one a few days later, in case I caught something on the trip home. I took it on Tuesday (11/3) and got the results yesterday evening. Thankfully I am still Covid-free. So yay. 😊