Day 2: Aspen Mountain and Devil's Punchbowl

By Gaby -
On Sunday morning we drove into town to start our hike up Aspen mountain via the Ute/Ajax trail.  Initially, I was pumped as I naively thought I was prepared from the previous day's hike at Hanging Lake.  Wrong.  Aspen mountain was 20 times harder.  I'd say the first half was harder simply b/c of the narrow dirt trail that had me slipping and nearly tumbling down the mountain several times.  Ryan kept pushing me so we passed a lot of locals who were taking their time on the trail.  I still thought we were slow, but when we got close to the top and started a conversation w/ an older couple who were experienced hikers, they seemed impressed that we finished the hike in under 2 hours.  I'm not sure if that's average or not.  At any rate, it did feel great to reach the top!  We took some pictures outdoors and then went inside the restaurant to check out the bluegrass band that was playing and just rest for a bit:





Taking the gondola back down!
Once we got back down, it was lunch time and Ryan was dying to try the J Bar.  He had read somewhere that Emeril Lagasse recommended the J Bar for their burgers.  We also tried their Jim Bean milkshakes along w/ the burger and fries.  The burger was PERFECT and the fries were good, too!


Afterwards, we drove to Devil's Punchbowl b/c Ryan wanted to jump in.  It really wasn't that hot out, so I had no interest in jumping in myself, but I still wanted to see it.  When we got there, there were a few other people who were getting ready to jump, too.

There he goes!

water was around 38 degress F!!

Ryan jumped 3 times! Had to make it worth his while, I guess...
We went back to our room to take showers and change and then decided to head back into town for dinner.  We went to New York Pizza where they have HUGE slices and are relatively inexpensive (for Aspen).  We also visited Paradise Bakery where Ryan got gelato.  I was too stuffed to get my own, but I tried his cone and it was pretty good.  We visited that bakery quite often throughout the week.

Oh, I miss walking through the town of Aspen and seeing those gorgeous mountains!!  My roommate from college is getting married next summer in Boulder, so at least I'll get to go again! Can't wait.

Day 3: Maroon Bells, next!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life lately

By Gaby -
Image
There are good days and there are bad days.  The good days are when I'm distracted from all things concerning my mom, or the times I see her in person or over Skype and catch her smiling or talking normally and it calms my soul;  the bad days catch me by surprise and kind of piss me off, quite frankly.  Like yesterday-- I was doing just fine, as I think I'd been for the past week, until I sat down last evening and opened a book I picked up from the library that I'd seen on someone's recent book list:   When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi.  I am not sure what I was thinking, reading a book written by a man around my age who died of terminal lung cancer shortly after writing it, especially in the midst of my own mother's terminal cancer diagnosis. I guess I thought it would help me come to terms with the concept of death and dying.  And it IS a good book--Kalinithi was a good writer, a neurosurgeon by training, but writer and philosopher at heart (he also had de
Read more

Just popping in to say...

By Gaby -
Image
Hello, world! Our little prince, Elliott Ryan, was born Friday morning, June 29th, at 10:13 am after a very quick labor and delivery (thank God!). Weight: 6 lbs, 0 oz. 18.9 inches We love him so much! While his entrance wasn't expected until the end of July, I had this strong feeling for a week that he'd be arriving soon:) We are adjusting to life with two kiddos, and sleep deprivation all over again:( but we are happy and healthy and I am INCREDIBLY grateful to be able to nurse this time. I'm looking forward to writing about Elliott's birth story soon. In the meantime, the past few days have been filled with endless diaper changes, a baby attached to my boob and lots and lots of snuggles and kisses:) Happy Fourth of July!
Read more

Graeters, skin problems and a 100th birthday (somehow these all seem related, but they're not)

By Gaby -
Image
As is typical of living in the Midwest, the weather around here has been unpredictable.  A few days ago I was able to go out without a jacket; two days later it's snowing and I have to break out the heavy winter jacket again. :/ I've been having problems with my skin for almost a year now.  At first, I attributed it to postpartum hormones (why not? that seems to be the case with almost everything else that's wreaking havoc on my body!) but also experimented with diet changes to see if maybe I had developed a new allergy.  I stopped dairy, coffee, soda and exercised more.  Welll, of course doing most of those things would be good for anyone, so it was hard to say if that's the reason my skin made improvements or not.  And then I wondered if the weather had anything to do with it.  Sigh, well, recently it had gotten even worse, so I started drinking twice as much water and cut out caffeine altogether.  After 3 or 4 days of that, my skin started clearing up. I suppose gi
Read more