Weekend Photos

We had an absolutely wonderful weekend up in Steamboat Springs. I have some catching up to do on my photos, since I didn't turn my computer on ONCE while we were there! This little trip was kind of spur-of-the-moment, but seeing as most of our weekend trips are spent back in Kansas, (or at least outside the state of Colorado) it was great to get to explore a little bit more of the state we live in.

I believe that the last time I was in Steamboat was when I was 7 or 8. I used to take vacations there with my Grandparents and Aunt Alice in the summer. I didn't remember much about the town when we got there, but perhaps that was partly due to the fact that it was covered in a couple feet of accumulated snow.

We stayed in a fantastic condo above downtown Steamboat, which brings me to my first photo:

January 14:

Our unit was on the third floor. Everything was pristine...it was like no one had stayed there before! In fact, we could have purchased the unit ourselves for a mere $780,000 or so! Very tempting... :) Ok, so the purchase price may be a little unrealistic, but the "last minute" deal we got on renting was reasonable, especially since we were able to split it with Ted and Susie.

January 15:

While the guys skiied, Susie and I wandered around downtown. We found the cutest little kitchen gadget store, and had lunch in a wonderful little coffee/gelato/sandwich shop. We even drove around town a little and managed to not get lost!

This is the street view of the ski slopes from downtown Steamboat. The top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds the entire weekend! Matt and Ted said that one of the sides of the mountain was a white-out while they were up there, so they had to ski on the other side. Crazy! Later that evening, after the guys got back from skiing, we headed up to the Strawberry Park natural hot springs. This place was pretty amazing. First of all, 4 wheel drive is strongly recommended to get to the facility during the winter season, so that should tell you a lot right there. It was about 10 miles from our condo, and most of that was uphill mountain driving. It was dark when we got there, and so we had to kind of feel our way along the path to the pools. Luckily, there was quite a bit of moon light. One pool was uncomfortably hot. Another was FREEZING cold. Thankfully, there was one that was right in the middle. Matt did jump in the cold pool for a brief moment, crazy guy!

After all of that activity, we were very hungry so we showered and changed and had dinner across from our condo at Beau Jo's pizza. This pizza chain is all over Colorado and it's WONDERFUL. Funny that it took a trip to Steamboat to get us in there. :)

When we ventured out to dinner, the most beautiful snow was gently falling. This photo made us all laugh because my camera caught one of the snowflakes, leaving a white dot in the middle of Susie's face.

January 16:

We got home around 3:15 today. The puppies were so happy to see us when we picked them up from the kennel. They are really tired after playing all day for the past 3 days.

I am ready to back up to Steamboat already! It was nice to have some time to get away and have absolutely no responsibilities to worry about for a couple days. This week is going to be crazy though. I need to ramp up on running, get a bunch of things done for school, and clean the house really well. No wonder I miss the weekend so much already! :)