Free Apples and Lemon Water

Mr. Smith and I celebrated our 14th anniversary recently! We had been talking about the fact that we never get to take vacations alone together, and we never really take indulgent vacations - so we thought for our anniversary we would each take a day off work and go for a long weekend at a B and B in Asheville, NC. Well... I never really got around to planning it, and he never really got around to planning it... and when I whined to my friend, Deb Meservy (who helped me train for four marathons and rode her bike the last six miles of my first marathon with me and served on the Knoxville Nativity Pageant Board with me) she mentioned that she and her husband weren't using their condo membership in Aspen in August, but that she'd offered it up to her daughter already. If Jennifer didn't want to use it, Tommy and I could have it. 

I didn't think too much about it until... I got an email saying Jennifer didn't want to go since she'd already been once before this year. Deb said it was ours for a week if we wanted it - all we had to do was pay for the cleaning. I checked again this morning, and yup - less than 48 hours passed between the time she made the offer and the time I bought two tickets to Aspen, CO. So here, you have Mr. Smith and me:

on our first trip to colorado. yes, it's also 1 AM eastern and yes, i had to take a pill to get on the plane. i'm just like mr. t when it comes to flying. but i love to travel! damn you, catch 22....

This place was FAN-CEE. The staff was wonderful and had great suggestions on where to go and what to do, and went above and beyond to make sure we knew where we were and how to get there and back. But my goodness! Aspen is expensive! We had a kitchen in the Meservy's place and vowed to only eat out one meal a day - but even that was kind of a humdinger! One dress shop in Aspen was so fancy that I literally pressed my nose up against the glass for ten minutes and then told Tommy I couldn't go in because they for sure and certain would kick me out a la Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and I'm not even kidding.

That said - the health club in the resort had all sorts of amenities. I had forgotten a razor (no worries; there was a jar full of them available), lots of fluffy towels and bathrobes, hair dryers, soap, lotions, shampoos, etc., but most importantly... they had....

free apples and lemon water. i'd show up every morning and chunk two or three apples in my (borrowed from Deb - THANK YOU DEB) backpack and suck down a bunch of lemon water. every. day.

And they were good apples too. Not tough skins with mealy insides. Very yummy. I think I literally ate more apples last week than I have in the last year.

Most people put the fear of God in us about getting altitude sickness, so day one we took it really, really easy. We went to a farmers' market and grocery store to lay in supplies for the week. Along the way, I met a buffalo!

and i was too stunned by the revelation to take a photo, but i also ran into someone i knew from tennessee! asha ironwood from moonshadow! good to see a familiar face! 

here is the view from our balcony. we also had two king beds (which were both used, dipsey doodle, AHEM) and three toilets! count 'em, THREE! and two butts! i like them odds... it was bigger than our house - and little fairies came every day and did nice things like make my bed and clean out my tub. i got annoyed on day two when the fairies kept running the dishwasher with three things in it and making me put it all away when i got home in the evening... until i realized the fairies would not only a. unload the dishwasher, they would also b. LOAD the dishwasher with the crap i left in the sink and run it! and here i was the chump unloading the dishwasher every day. but in all seriousness by day four, i was a. scrubbing pans, and b. loading and c. unloading the dishwasher because i can't stand mess and i hated leaving my mess for someone else to clean up.  sigh... prima donna i'm not!

first night out - we went to a restaurant called junk. it was very colorful!

 Again - fear of doing too much too fast... our second day we took a Jeep ride up Aspen Mountain. We had a really fun guy named Jessie pick us up and tool us around for the day. He was tremendously knowledgeable, very fun and we had a great time (although Tommy did kick me when I told Jessie that Tommy got car sick easy and to take it easy... SO SORRY, I'm SUCH A BAD WIFE!!)

tommy, not car sick, on ride up mt. aspen

i include this photo so you will note - lemon water in hand... seriously - gallons of lemon water every day down my gullet!!

lemon water - and fancy skis blocking 70 foot drop off - so no one goes plunging over the side

atop mt. aspen! btw, this will come into play later - but i went scavenging the health club looking for a hair tie this morning because i foolishly made it to aspen without any pins or ties. there were no hair ties (ahem, snowmass club HOW DARE YOU) but a nice lady gave me one out of her gym bag. thanks gym lady! this is my karmic repayment for putting lotion on that naked lady's back years ago in the courtsouth locker room when she asked me too. 

photography courtesy of jessie

it pains me to say it ... and maybe because it's all so new... but the rockies poop on the smokies. I'M SORRY!!!!

yeah. jessie drove, not us...

that would be an aspen copse behind me, peeps... did you know that aspens grow like mint? out of runners in the roots? they do! and they shed their lower leaves as they grow so that the upper leaves get the most sun and keep the forest bed from too much litter so more stuff can grow down below in the sun. and the saplings are incredibly flexible and if an avalanche occurs the young ones bend while the old ones break but can lie dormant under the snow for months then pop right back up! and since there's no leaf cover to hide the trunks they grow their own sunscreen on their bark which indians realized and used as the first sunscreen! well, if you knew, i didn't. but i learned YES MAMA IT WAS LEARNEY. 

Next, we went to a REAL LIVE GHOST TOWN!!

Wait a minute... that's kind of a contradiction in terms.... BUT!!! WE DID.

tommy in the ghost town

whoot whoot raise the roof yo... oh wait....

the entire town - yeah, you know this place was bumpin' on friday night

i'd ask for my money back if that was my house

Next, we played again that night in Aspen!

local hangout (or so we are told, we are there as you can see) little annie's

On this night, having learned my hair-tie-less-lesson, we passed a pharmacy and I asked to go in to purchase additional hair pins for the rest of the journey. I walked in, found hair pins... found a staircase... went up stairs... and am HOOKED ON CARL'S PHARMACY. They had a KOI POND in there!!!!!

koi

Um, I'm a little embarrassed to say it... NO I'M NOT. I love me some Carl's. I went back three times. One trip I spent $40 on absolute junk. But I loved it. The owner once asked me if I was looking for something and I said no... I was just looking. And that it was like the Smithsonian and I could be there for a week and still not see it all. Here's the Carl's Pharmacy rundown:

outside - oh, btw, this skirt i bought our first day in aspen and wore it every day. tommy started referring to it (literally) as "that old thing" by the time we left.

But what can you NOT buy in Carl's?

Apparently, not much. On one trip, I challenged Tommy to come up with something that he thought would be reasonably unlikely would be in Carl's. He came up with "fake mustache."

foiled again, tommy smith....

But they also had:

a dr. bud greenleaf halloween costume

several bolts of fabric, zippers, buttons, thread, knitting needles and yarn galore...

bandaids of the pickle, mac and cheese, penguin, and mustache variety YES I OWN MUSTACHE BANDAIDS 

and key rings, in varying sizes.

I seriously Love with a capital L Carl's Pharmacy. It. Was. Awesome.

Moving on! Tommy Smith and I spent a lovely evening in the J Bar, housed in the Jerome Hotel (oldest building in Aspen). FREE POPCORN. Need I say more? Oh - and best burger I ever put in my MOUTH. Tommy ordered it. I got the turkey of focaccia. It was... nice...

boo-yah

tommy like (me too, thanks rotten turkey sandwich with your healthy goodness)

it was so old - they had this fancy thing robe around the door for cold weather to keep the cold outside during the winter months. very hand in my opinion!!

The next day, we went on a bike ride! Several people had recommended the same ride to us so I was kind of thinking "overrated," especially when the morning started off wet and cold. Our first stop was:

john denver memorial. this is for you, uncle r! there was no mention of a christmas gift HUMPH. jerks. 

In spite of the Uncle Ronny slight, we had a ball on the Rio Grande Trail. We were told that it would take about 40 minutes to get to where we had planned to have lunch... it took an hour and a half because we stopped so often to smell the roses. Dee-lite-ful.

me on rio grande trail duh

tommy on rio grand trail

Montage of shots on Rio Grande Trail, turning in a half circle from right to left:

from pond to rapids in one fell swoop! amazing...

just prettiness.... 

We had lunch at Woody Creek Tavern. Apparently S. Hunter Thompson hung here. I pretended like I knew who he was every time someone mentioned that fact. Ahem...

you had me at mardi gras beads, woody creek tavern....

We got to the restaurant early but decided to go ahead and eat (we were hungry, and still sort of on eastern time!) Good thing we did because when we were paying our check a group of 150 started showing up off the same bike trail. I asked, and yes - there was a birthday party of 150 arriving as we left. Now, I'm not one to intimidate easily... but I slowly... started noticing... that I wasn't the cutest girl in the room. By a long shot. Everyone looked GOOD, dadgumit! I started to regret the no makeup and shower plan I enacted that morning. We were heading out anyway, but I wanted to hit the restroom on the way out the door. I waited in line behind three knockout ladies and when the one in front of me noted that there were two toilets in the bathroom and would I like to come in, I noted to here that while there were two toilets, there were also NO STALL DOORS and I had eaten the enchiladas for lunch and she'd thank me for letting her go in there first.

Ahem.

She gracefully declined my company.

After a wonderful bike ride through 25 miles of Colorado, we caught a bus back to Aspen and loaded our bikes back into the shop. We got into a conversation with one of the clerks and he proceeded to tell us that the birthday group of 150 was for the 60th birthday of the owner of Hooter's and the hot chicks surrounding the 60 year old man were in fact, all Hooter's girls.

I told a Hooter's girl I was about to blow it up in the Woody Creek Tavern Bathroom. Sigh. I hope she's getting some mileage out of the other end of that story.... (literally, the other end GET IT? HA!)

Back on track, apologies:

i blew it up in here SORRY couldn't help myself

we passed this converted passenger car - it was turned into a house! just like my grandmommy grew up in!

i stood on this bridge and watched a fly fisherman hook him a trout - very cool

back in aspen - who's the prettiest flower in the garden?

 Next, we went hiking! We asked the Bell Stand at the resort to drop us off at the trailhead of the Rim Trail. They asked if we had a map. We said no. We got a map, and they noted a halfway point in the trail that they said they would come and get us at. We said no, we'd packed to do the whole thing. They said well.... see how you feel when you get there. We said, Ok! See ya!

 There are two directions on this trail: UP!!!!! dooooooowwwwnnnn...... Here is me after the first UPPPPP!!!!

dear god, make it stop....

But we pressed on.

at the top!

yes it was amazing

i am an aspen nymph

TOMMY. WHO is DANA???

for real. i'm RIGHT HERE!!!

a great big drop off

SAGE!! it grows; who knew?

us in sage field

is this a postcard? might as well be...

our lunch view

us at dinner in aspen that night - we persevered all 7.5 miles and wowed the bell stand staff. they said most everyone calls for a pickup at the half way point but NOT THE SMITHS. 

The next day, when we got here... it was so beautiful I cried. I did.

maroon bells

It is such a popular place you can't drive up the mountain; you have to take a bus. When we unloaded, there was a sign for a free tour from the Aspen Conservancy Society so - we hiked to Crater Lake with a professional YES IT WAS LEARNEY!!!!

i think his name was john. he was very smart and answered all my dumb questions.

crater lake

yeah. that's snow. in august. snow.

that's mike ahead - he was on the hike with us.

mr. smith and megan at crater lake

perhaps i mentioned the SNOW??

right on crater lake (there was no skiing; i asked)

our guide foolishly pointed out the edible berries on the trail and i ate my way back

mmmmmm raspberry-ey!

 That night in Aspen at dinner (in THE skirt) Tommy snapped me spinning on this playground thing (it was FUN!)

wheeeeee!!!!

The next day... we planned nothing. After about an hour we talked about riding horses (Mr. Smith wasn't into it, and I moderately was....) and after about another half hour we called about getting on a tour that morning. We were told that there was room on a guided trail ride, so we changed clothes lickety split and...

were getting saddled up before you knew it. this is tad getting tommy settled in. he is a BONA FIDE cowboy from wyoming! oh the stories he could tell - i was in love after about ten minutes. tommy's horse was "fancy" and yes more than one chorus of "here's you're one chance fancy don'tletmedowwwwwnnnn" was sung.

tad setting the pace

tommy and fancy - forgive me for what i do! cause if you want out, well it's up to you!

me self photo astride...

sunny!

giddy-up!

After the horse ride we went into town and rode the gondolas! 

i was stunned that it cost $20 per person

yaaaay.... gondola....

stunned that it cost that much... until it DIDN'T STOP!!!! people afraid of flying shouldn't ride gondolas....

yeah. it was high up.

here is tommy video taping me stammering how scared i was up on the gondola. nice. thanks, pal.

But up top! A rare find!

if ever i ski anything, it will be the dipsy doodle!!!

The Aspen Conservancy had another free hike up on this trail, and we went with Olivia (who also happened to be our waitress the same night!)  and she showed us the trash pile from the original ski lodge. Ordinally, trash makes me ill. This fascinated me - there were old cans there popped open by old timey can openers!

one man's trash is another man's treasure

us a gondola ride away from aspen

And oddly enough... there were an assortment of hula hoops availably for use up at the top. So I availed myself. Me likey hula hoops!

And just like that... the vacation was over. No worries. I drowned my post-vacation blues in a Labor Day weekend festival at the lake!

me, bb and jenny-poo

cutie pie bb and batty

me, keith and jenny-poo poolside

The Huddlestons were kind enough to convert their external garage at the lake into a bunkhouse so I was lucky enough to be invited for the weekend to the compound. I will have to say - after a week in Colorado and one night in my own bed (where I couldn't sleep and ended up on the couch) I ended up waking in the middle of the night at the bunkhouse and having the worst case of "where AM I?" that I have literally had in my whole life!!!

Meservys, thank you sincerely for this wonderful, wonderful vacation. We enjoyed it tremendously.
More good times are ahead, I just know it. Holla, holla, yo....