Cool Colorado

I am not sure if you understand how awful it is to drive home at 8:00 at night and see this reading on your car thermostat:

This was what it was like for 16 straight days in Fort Worth! The heat has been stifling, so we took it as a sign that we needed to visit Colorado. David and I love Colorado. David visits Colorado several times every summer to climb Colorado’s Fourteeners (he’s climbed 27 out of 54 so far). I, on the other hand, don’t get to make it quite so often (as so many people have noted, someone has to stay behind and work to support David’s climbing habit). In fact, I have never been to Denver except for a stop at the airport. A long weekend in Colorado was a great way to celebrate our anniversary, escape the heat and get some R&R.

First stop – Denver. We met our friends Sandy and Genevieve who live in Denver. Well, I had actually never met either of them in person before our trip (I just followed their blog), but now I consider them “our” friends. Thursday night, we visited the first of four breweries on our trip, the Wynkoop Brewing Company, for some drinks and dinner. We got a good night’s sleep at the hotel, went for a swim (yes, I swam – that’s a story for later), and toured the city while we were waiting for Sandy and Genevieve to pick us up for our trip to Breckenridge. We walked around the 16th Street Mall, and did some shopping at REI, one of our favorite places. Sandy recommended Biker Jim’s Gourmet Hot Dog Stand for lunch, and it didn’t disappoint. I had a Southwest Buffalo hot dog and David got the Elk Jalapeno Cheddar. Unique and delicious!

Next stop – Breckenridge and 65-degree high temperatures. We stayed at The Lodge in Breckenridge, which we all agreed was a little run-down. However, it had a good view, free continental breakfast, and a great hot tub on the back deck with a great view of the mountains.

We managed to visit three different breweries in the Breckenridge area in one day – the Dam Brewery in Dillon, CO, the Breckenridge Brewery, and the Backcountry Brewery in Frisco, CO. One of our favorite meals was from Crepes-a-la-Cart, and the Funky French Monkey crepe (banana, peanut butter & chocolate) was so good that we shared one on both Friday and Saturday. We had one disappointing meal at a Mexican restaurant called Fiesta Jalisco. I ordered what was touted as “The Best Enchilada North of the Border,” which is a pretty bold claim, considering both Texas and New Mexico are between Colorado and the Mexican border. David said this means "north of the Summit County, CO border", so that clarifies things a bit. The "enchilada" happened to look exactly like Sandy’s burrito. The service as lacking, and I can’t do a better job of describing it than Sandy and Genevieve do here.

To make for (some) of the calories we took in, we took a great hike on the Spruce Creek Trail to the lower and upper Mohawk Lakes (Sandy gets all the credit for this choice).

Here are photos of the lower and upper lakes:

We got to see several different lakes and waterfalls, and beautiful fields filled with wildflowers. Here's a good view of all of the flowers:

Here's David checking out the lower lake:

Here's one of the group:

Words cannot describe how pretty the views were, so I will let the photos speak for themselves (you can see all the photos we took on our Shutterfly share site). We got on the trail around 8:15 a.m., and we were lucky enough to miss most of the crowds and enjoy the lakes in peace.