Telluride area: Part 1

Our friend invited us to her cabin in Ridgway, Colorado, which is about 20 minutes from Telluride.  We drove up with them Friday night after work - what a weekend!  We hit some rush hour traffic on Friday on C470, which was to be expected at 5:00.  We took 285 to get there since 70 was backed up (there is ALWAYS traffic on 70 in the mountains).  It was a beautiful drive, but we spent memorial day weekend in Buena Vista (halfway point to Telluride), so I was familiar with the scenery.  Shortly after Buena Vista it got dark, so I couldn't see much.  After several hours of the celebrity game, we arrive at the cabin around 10:45.  We unloaded the car and had a few drinks on the porch.  The sky was so clear and the moon was so bright that we didn't need any lights and we could see each other just fine.

Saturday morning Matt and I were the first to wake up around 8:00. I'm really grumpy and tired when I'm running on 6 hours of sleep, but the fresh mountain air got me going.  We took the jeep down into town (Ridgway is 10 minutes down the mountain) and stopped at the coffee shop.  Such a cute, quaint mountain town!

View at 8 am from the main room in the house

After breakfast, we decided to take the jeep over to Ouray to go to Yankee Boy Basin.  We went through town and stopped to get sandwiches to go at Timberline Deli of Ouray.  Great sandwiches and it was convenient to stop and town and grab something for the road.

Side note: we picked up the jeep in town on Friday night.  There were carburetor issues and it was getting worked on,  but was supposed to be fixed.

We drove up the dirt road through the mountains and it was beautiful.  All of a sudden the car stalled a few times, but we got it running right away.  We has just passed a ledge that dropped at least 500 feet down (no guard rail - just a dirt road and a cliff!!) and the car stalled.  We couldn't get it to start, so the guys got out and tried to push it to a flatter surface.  After trying for a bit, we decided to put the car in neutral and go back down the mountain that way.  The ride down was fine, except when we were right next to the cliff!! I only have one picture of the guys pushing the jeep to a flatter area.

The car started when we got to lower elevation so we drove it back the 30 minutes to the cabin.  We ate our sandwiches and decided to go floating down the river in town.  Of course at this time we could see a storm rolling in from many directions, but we decided to do it.  In the middle of our lunch, we were greeted  by a cow.  The property next to the cabin has a barbed wire fence and there must have been a hole in it because once the herd of cows saw one cow on the other side of the fence, a few were curious.  All of a sudden we had two cows in the front yard!

It took about 75 minutes to go down 3 miles on the river. It was so fun; we were all slap happy since the water was freezing, it was 65 degrees and it was raining!

That night we we went to Colorado Boy, a brewery in Ridgway.  The only food on their menu is pizza, but wow is it good! I loved the pilsner and blonde beers.  We got the pizza to go and ate dinner at home and hung out the rest of the night.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Eric and Orchid's Wedding Celebration in Wisconsin

Back in May we went to NYC for Eric and Orchid's wedding ceremony at city hall.  Their ceremony was Friday followed by a small dinner with 12 family members.  Saturday night they had their local friends come to a bar and we had a little celebration.

Two weeks ago we went to Wisconsin to celebrate with a bigger party.  My parents hosted 90 people at our family lake house, or as we call it, "the farm".  My great-great grandfather built the house in 1903.  So I guess it was a mini 100 year party?! It was such a beautiful, casual event.  All of our extended family came and some close friends.  

I flew in Thursday night and Matt flew in Friday night.  He missed out on the Friday activities, but was able to meet up with us at the end. Friday afternoon we headed towards Milwaukee and tailgated before the Brewer's game. There were about 30 people, a mixture of friends and family, and we had brats, hot dogs, chips and beer.  We had plenty of beer but somehow forgot all napkins, silverware and plates!  Oops. It was SO hot!! It was the last day of a serious heat wave - it was 95 degrees while we were tailgating.  After the game, we checked into the Double Tree, where all of the young ones were staying.

Matt met me there around 11:00 and we took a cab to meet up with the group who had moved on to an Irish bar.  By that time everybody was having a good time and decided to eat some late night chili.  Matt and I were definitely not craving chili at 1am so we decided to snap a pic then head back to the hotel!

Saturday morning we headed back towards Oconomowoc to do the final preparations. My mom and her friends prepped all of the appetizers the night before so that really helped out!  We had servers pass around appetizers and then barbecue was catered.  The food was AMAZING! The ribs were falling off the bone and the mac n cheese was to die for (cheese + bacon, yes please!).

They did a great job of transforming the lawn and included a ton of activities.  There was croquet, cornhole, pontoon boat rides around the lake, campfire, etc.  The buses took the guests to and from the hotel, so most of the crowd was there from 3:30 - 11:30.  It was a long amount of time, but it definitely went by so quickly!

Sunday morning Matt was able to sneak in 2 laps of slalom skiing around the lake before we had an open brunch for the guests.  Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and it poured the whole afternoon!  Definitely didn't spend as much time as we would have liked at Pauly Farms; we're already looking forward to next 

Fourth of July in Denver

Two of my college friends made a trip out to Denver for the 4th of July. They got in the night of the 3rd and stayed through Sunday the 7th.  We headed to the civic center fireworks right after they got in. We rode our bikes last year and got there about an hour before it started.  This year we decided to have a drink before we called a cab (we don't have enough bikes for out of town guests) and got there at 9:20.  We nearly missed the fireworks! Thankfully we caught the last 5 minutes or so, but we were surprised how early they started.

We spent the 4th hanging out in our backyard while the guys smoked ribs, the girls made some drinks and we all played some games. It was a beautiful day!

Friday night we went to Linger for drinks on the roof followed by dinner.  I love the view from the roof and they finally finished the renovations.  It was my first time sitting down there for dinner and it was SO good! They have a ton of small plates, which is great for a group.  We got the goat tacos, duck bun (both very good and unique), Devils on Horseback (delicious but probably easy to make yourself), Chicken B'stilla (very odd flavors, not sure I would get it again) and the Beef Tenderloin. The beef was AMAZING. We probably could have ordered 3 of those!

Saturday we went to Lucile's for brunch, which was the same place we went with Matt's parents when they were in town last fall. We then finished the day off at Carmine's on Penn with our favorite Chicken Montana dish.

I totally failed and barely have pictures of anything other than the 4th, so next time we go to these restaurants, I will have to take a pic since they are our favorite places in Denver!