Colorado Honeymoon Days 0 and 1
The honeymoon! I could go on and on for weeks about the amazingness of our time in Colorado, but I promise not to. Can’t guarantee how long I will go, but I promise not to make it weeks. :) Now, what is more perfect for a geology major than the mountains for a honeymoon? I was excited to get there, though, for some reason, was still able to sleep the night before. Couldn’t have anything to do with the long day of wedding festivities, oh no ;)
Day 0
Sunday morning we woke up for a leisurely morning of breakfast and goodbyes with my family that had to drive back that day, followed by opening of our wedding gifts and packing up those last few items that we were bound to forget until right before walking out the door. We were so ready to head out for the honeymoon, but it was a very relaxed rushed, which I was grateful for. After dropping my dress off with my mom for looking after, we were on our way... to the airport. I know, I know, that’s the obvious next step, but I just wanted mountains! Immediately! Thankfully, we didn’t wait too long before we settled in for our peaceful flight. I really like flights, but I was BEYOND antsy on this one! The mountains were calling, after all.
Now, we had planned on enjoying this trip to its fullest. Thankfully, I banked a large amount of points through Enterprise for car rentals through work. You know what that means? Free upgrades! Let’s be modest though, no need to go for the Camaro convertible. I mean, a Mustang is just fine... and we will take silver instead of red. Perfect!
With that, it was time to enjoy our first cabin! Well, ok, after about a 90 minute drive, THEN it was time to enjoy the cabin. But it was a very pretty thirty minutes of daylight/one hour of darkness drive! The entire time, we were looking for a place to stop for dinner. We don’t like to go to chain restaurants, so we were in a pick and choose situation; however, that’s not so easy in a state that you don’t know much about. So, we ended up stopping at Walmart to pick up some premade sandwiches and wraps. Our first full day as a married couple and we had a dinner of prepackaged sandwiches near the top of a mountain at a cabin. It was glorious! And you should have seen this cabin! So beautiful and cozy. There was a clawfoot bathtub perfect for an indulging bath, a spiral staircase to an upstairs bedroom, a huge comfy bed, board games and puzzles, full service kitchen, hot tub, and it was situated just steps from a rushing river. Such soothing sounds!
Day 1
We took even more of it in during the full daylight of the next morning. The river was just beautiful. I could have sat there for hours just enjoying the sights and sounds.
After pulling ourselves away from the lovely cabin, we headed down the mountain to find breakfast. There was a cute little nook that was calling our names as we drove by it, so we stopped at Notchtop Café for some eggs and omelets and such. YUM! Our next stop on the honeymoon itinerary was Estes Park for a tour of the Stanley Hotel, which inspired Stephen King’s novel, The Shining. It was just beautiful! The tour guides had the best stories, some historical, some phantasmical. And yes, I just made up that word, but it works. Stephen King was only one part of the puzzle at this place!
After the tour, we headed into the business district of Estes Park and found Poppy’s Pizza for lunch. Ever had trout on a pizza? Now I have... and I probably won’t ever again. It was good, but just a tad weird for me. When we left the restaurant, it had started to snow... in HUGE FLAKES! Not an hour before, it had been sunny and a good 10 degrees warmer. We made the best of it by stopping in practically every single shop to browse. On the bright side, we found some really cute (good-looking for Bryan) sweatshirts that were probably our favorite souvenirs. When I found out where we were going next, though, I was very glad to have that sweatshirt! Can you guess? If you’ve seen our photos online, then you probably already know, but: HORSES!!!!
That’s right, Bryan and I took a horseback ride up the mountain! I know I’ve used this word so many times already and I will apologize for it later, but it was BEAUTIFUL! With snow on the ground and patches of stone and grass peeking out, the trees making patchy patterns across the hillside, and our lead horseman singing old country tunes to pass the time. I would jump on that horse again in a heartbeat! And I would make sure I was always in front of Bryan’s horse because that dude was gassy! (Ed. The horse was gassy, not the rider -B)
When we got to the top of the mountain, there was a grill set up for us to all have dinner together. The steaks were hot, the potatoes and beans steaming, and the garlic bread toasty; all of which I am super grateful for because it was COLD!
And you know the best part of dinner? We got to get right back on those horses and ride down the mountainside afterwards!! When we got back to the cabin that night, it was still snowing huge flakes of snow, so we took advantage of another feature of the cabin: the hot tub! We grabbed the champagne we brought from the wedding and our swim suits and jumped in the hot tub to enjoy that amazing river, the pretty snowfall, and some bubbly! In hindsight, I don’t know if the run back into the cabin from the hot tub was worth it, but I’ve blocked that part out. I can guarantee I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, for sure!
With that, I’ll leave you to ponder what our next couple days had in store. Later all!
