Colorado, the Finale

We stayed at The Westin Riverfront Mountain Villas in Avon, CO. for three nights. It was a fabulous find of Jeff's on Hotwire.com. We had a condo with a kitchen so we saved money on meals and the room was a fourth of its original price!

The condo was very spacious with a dining table, sitting area and...

kitchen. We made our breakfast and lunches here and then ate out for dinner.

This is where we enjoyed breakfast each morning, enjoying the awesome view and cool weather from our balcony! I always brought out my rose from the waiter at The Blue Spruce Inn to add to the ambiance.

On Wednesday of our trip we spent the day in the Beaver Creek Resort looking at the shops. Here is a picture of the shops and the outdoor ice rink.

We especially loved looking in all the galleries at some of the $250,000 pieces of art! We're not quite sure who can actually afford to buy the art, but Jeff says most of it has been there every time he's come to visit each year, so maybe no one can!

Jeff's favorite is a big statue of a bear and a hunter. We will just have to settle for a picture of it and possibly another trip to visit it in the future!

It was a very relaxing day to say the least. Wednesday night we had a lovely meal at the Avondale Restaurant at our hotel. Jeff had lamb steak and this was our favorite meal of the entire trip! After dinner we sat out on the patio of the restaurant by one of the toasty fire pits.

On Thursday we woke up early and Jeff said "Let's take a short ride over to Aspen and come back the back way to see Independence pass and the one lane roads with big drop offs on the side of the road." It ended up taking five hours but the drive was well worth it. We saw some fantastic Aspen trees and beautiful mountain views.

Later that evening we returned to Vail and rode the Vista Bahn Gondola up to the top of the mountain.

Our self-portrait from inside the gondola.

At the top we saw the Mount of the Holy Cross, which is a huge crevice in the mountain that fills with snow and looks like a cross. Due to it being late in the summer most of the snow had melted and the cross was hard to see, but the views were incredible, and brought back many fond memories for Jeff.

Thursday night after the gondola ride, we happened upon a jazz concert occurring in the square of the shops. This added to our romantic evening as pleasant pre-dinner entertainment. We ate at the Lord Gore at Manor Vail - one of Jeff's favorite restaurants in Vail. Jeff had a wonderful prepared meal of salmon, and I had scrumptious duck.

On Friday morning, we visited Vail Village to look at the shops and had another yummy pizza lunch before heading back to Denver to spend the rest of our trip with Lisa and Jamie.

Here is a picture of another one of Jeff's favorite statues with some aspen trees.

We also captured a picture of Gore Creek that runs through Vail, CO.

On Friday night we went to a Colorado Rockies baseball game with Jeff's sister Lisa. The views were fantastic. The only downer was the Colorado Rockies lost against the San Francisco Giants 6-3. Check out the gorgeous sun set over the Rocky Mountains in the background!

On Saturday we spent the last day of our trip sleeping in and relaxing at Lisa and Jamie's house. We had lunch and dessert at a local fast food favorite, Good Times. They had awesome burgers, french fries with "wild sauce" dipping sauce, and frozen custard. Of course we had to try all three! We got one last picture with Lisa before our drive to the airport to catch our plane back to Houston. Thanks guys for all your hospitality and we'll see you in November!

It was a wonderful vacation that will not be forgotten. We were so excited to be back in town and visit our church home on Sunday morning - it was promotion Sunday so it was a big day in the life of the church. This was our last vacation as just the two of us - how great it was!!! It was the perfect mix of time with family and time just the two of us and offered the relaxation we desperately needed!