Scott and I originally had a difficult time determining where we would take our summer vacation this year. We had wanted to do a beach resort, but then we changed our mind. We thought we'd much rather escape the Texas heat during the summer, so we set our sights on Colorado. I've been to Colorado many times, mostly on ski trips, so it was very different going in the summer time. I thought Vail would be a great place to visit. Thank goodness we did!
We stayed at the
Tivoli Lodge,
which is family owned and the most charming lodge. It is located right
in Vail Village, so it was super nice to be able to walk to the village
for shopping and eating.
It was amazing to wake up to the beautiful view of the mountain every
morning. The weather was great! It was anywhere between 60-80 degrees
during the day and of course in the 50s at night. I even had to buy a
sweatshirt!
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| The first night we got to Vail we just walked through the village to shop and eat. |
Our second day there we had bike riding, a massage, and a movie on the schedule. We rented bikes and set off riding through the valley along the creek. It was a gorgeous day and best thing was that Scott and I didn't get injured!
I was surprised to find out later that Scott's favorite thing we did during our trip was the bike riding! I never would have guessed he would enjoy it as much as he did. No worries about the picture below, he was just pretending.
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| Scott goofing off for the camera |
After bike riding, it was off to a massage to ease our sore muscles. Then later that night we found this great movie theater in the village, which is similar to Alamo Drafthouse, but much nicer. The
Cinebistro served dinner with nice, luxurious leather rocking chairs with foot ottomans. The food was so good and of course the movie was okay, too.
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| After our rafting trip |
The next day was our adventurous day. Our plan was to go white water rafting and zip-lining. We got in the car ready to go and a few minutes down the road Scott realized that he had forgotten the map to our rafting destination. We were supposed to be there at 8:00 and it was supposed to be only 15 miles from Vail. We tried looking up the map on our Smartphones and had no luck finding the map. Needless to say the website for this rafting company was not very helpful, not to mention trying to search the web in the middle of the mountains doesn't work so well either. Well, we finally decided to just head to the resort that sounded familiar to Scott, which was actually an extra 45 minutes away. I was worried that we wouldn't make it on time. Thank goodness we got there in time and made it onto the trip.
The water was really low this summer, so the rafting experience was great for the first 20 minutes where the rapids were and then the rest of the time was very slow. So, Scott didn't have the best first experience on his rafting trip. I'd like to take him again to show him how much fun it can really be. After we were finished we headed over to lunch and then zip-lining. The same company has ziplines going across the Colorado River, which was pretty cool. I wish that we could have done that a couple more times, but we were exhausted from the trip.
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| Aren't you jealous of my awesome zip-lining outfit? |
Our last day in Colorado was spent taking a day trip to Breckenridge before heading to the airport. Our flight didn't go out until later that night. I'd been skiing a few times before in Breckenridge, but never been in the summer and Scott really wanted to check it out and go to the top of the mountain. We were so excited to get to Breckenridge and realize how much cheaper it was than Vail. The parking was free (wow!) and the gondola was free (it was $30 in Vail). So we happily took the gondola up to the top of the mountain.
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| On the gondola |
They have some sort of
Fun Park at the peak that has all sorts of family activities, from an alpine slide, putt-putt, rock climbing, and the coaster that we rode on. You can ride the coaster by yourself or with one other person. Scott and I of course chose to ride separately. You can choose your speed by accelerating or braking with a handle. You also are not supposed to get within 80 feet of the person in front of you. I rode in front of Scott, which normally wouldn't have been such a bad thing. I am definitely the faster driver of the two of us. In fact, I call him "grandpa" when he drives. But he was so not "grandpa" on this coaster. He almost ran into me because my short arms could hardly reach the handles to accelerate. It was so much fun and I wish we could have gone again. Then it was lunch down the mountain and off to the airport.
This was by far our favorite vacation as a couple and we are already planning to go back next year and bring Bailey with us. I would highly recommend escaping the Texas heat to head to a cute Colorado town, such as Vail or Breckenridge.
