The Broadmoor

Finally, the grand ending to our Colorado Vacation. The famous Broadmoor Resort! We drove up and were just astonished. It is truly beautiful!!

See how happy we are to be there!

Our "standard" room with the "pathetic" mountain view was amazing!! I said "pathetic" because as we were walking to the room, the bellman actually apologized to us that we had a mountain view. I guess the more popular view is to the inner courts of the resort. But we liked the mountains just fine! Oh and my favorite part of the room was the personal reading lamp incorporated into the beautiful bedding. I used it.

Even the bathrooms are posh. (is that a word? Or just a Spice Girl? whatever. The bathrooms were wonderful.)

I loved the frilly everything... shower curtains, regular curtains, bedding. Even Ty didn't mind it. I am influencing him :)

the lake in the middle. So basically the Broadmoor is 2 main buildings to stay in. Plus a TON of shops, 3 golf courses, lots of restaurants, and a huge pool, all surrounding this pretty lake.

There's the pool. We're standing on the walkway in the middle of the lake that connects the 2 sides. You can walk all the way around the lake or straight through the middle. We did both. We had eaten a lot on vacation. We needed to walk.

There's a view of the East building. The one we stayed in. Inside there is this long hallway filled with rows of photos of famous people who have stayed here. There were tons of people, actors and actresses, singers, sports players, presidents, rich people, lots of people. I just sent them my head shot, so if you go, let me know how it looks on the wall.

Dinner. We did not bring fancy dresses or sport jackets, so we "had" to eat at the grill on the golf course. I don't remember the name. I could look it up on the website, but I'm lazy. And hungry. So here's what we had. Even the "grill" was fancy food.

Steve's salad came out looking like sushi- wrapped up in a slice of cucumber. so fancy!

My vegetable soup was amazing!! (sorry about the bad lighting. the flash made the photos look bad, but no flash didn't help. oh well.) I like the fancy bowl.

My California Roll. (I had no idea it was only 4 pieces, I would have ordered more food. But then again, fancy restaurants do always serve small portions). The crab was definitely real, not that imitation stuff or salad mixture that most places use.

Tessie's crab cakes. Again, very small, but she said they were delicious.

Ty and Luke both got pizza- "Chicago style". But I've been to Chicago and eaten pizza, and this is NOT thick enough. But on the right path. And very tasty.

Steve got salmon, I forgot a picture. We had a blueberry anise cobbler for dessert. I forgot a picture. But I didn't really like it. I don't think I like anise- I don't even know what it is, but I'm guessing it was the strange taste that I didn't care for.

Here we are a the pool. It's an infinity pool that looks like it runs straight into the lake. It does not. but it looks cool.

The cabanas. I wish I had a spare week just to lay in one of those.

Aww... aren't we precious. Don't we just look like Broadmoor type people? We're not. Not normally. But I could get used to it! Oh and you can see the paddle boats that you can take out on the lake.

The pool had these awesome slides. Wish I had brought a swimsuit!

The entire grounds was filled with amazing flowers. I mean it was absolutely stunning. We liked this planter full of mini petunias.

Here's some cool grasses we liked. I should have taken more pictures of the flowers. But I only took the ones we were interested in using in our garden. Speaking of our garden, last week it rained for 4 days and now our flowers have grown and bloomed out of control! I need to take some pics and give you an update.

Here we are again- with the main buliding behind us. It was serious luxurious at every turn.

When we returned to our room there was a box of chocolates and a note to "welcome" us to the Broadmoor. Wow.

Of course the night was completed with a turn down service and chocolates left on the pillows.

Sadly, we had to leave the next morning and drive 12 hours home. It was exhausting.

So we ate breakfast at the Broadmoor hotel. And then we had lunch at Sonic and dinner at Dairy Queen with a whole bunch of flies. It was a sad ending.

Colorado in Review

The trip begins!! lots of driving! lots of pretty scenery! and for me, lots of car sickness, followed by lots of dramamine, followed by lots of sleepiness. And that pretty much sums up the ride up!

On the way we stopped at the Royal Gorge. It was really pretty. You can walk across the bridge (or drive or take a trolley)

We walked. Did you notice on the sign above that it is 1053 feet high?? that's high! and the bridge SWAYS with the wind!! Oh my. It was a bit scary.

Here's the view down. Oh no, I couldn't actually look down. I simply held my camera out over the edge and snapped away, no looking involved. Apparently that's some good white water rafting below.

The worst part, maybe worse than the swaying, was the magnificent gaps in the planks of the bridge. I mean look at that!

Here's another shot where the river is in focus. I'm talking scary! I was worried about tripping. i was worried about losing a flip flop. I was walking VERY carefully, placing each foot on a FULL plank. I looked like an idiot.

So we finally made it into Summit County. My college roommate (who now lives in Denver) drove in for Friday night. That was awesome! I love seeing her, feels so good to catch up with a dear friend. And my little brother Joey flew in from LA. SO I was in hog-heaven, surrounded with friends and family!

Saturday morning, we drove to historic Georgetown. It was super cute. My brother took over my camera.

Joey tooks some portraits of us all... here's little Lukey (Ty's little brother)

Dear Sweet Tyler. (I'm glad to know that he hates having his picture taken by everyone, not just me. Makes me feel better somehow.)

Me and Lauren. How come I always look ridiculous? Can I not be normal for one moment?

I found a candy shop. This began a long trip filled with more sweets and sugar than I've eaten all year. I"m suffering for it now. I feel gross. I look gross. But man was it good!

Ty's typical routine while traveling. Find a rare and antique book store. Spend our life savings. Just kidding. He does not spend our life savings. Only half. But he looks good doing it!

We went over to Keystone for lunch and had to wait in line, behind a DOG!

Okay, I was just kidding about that. The dog did look like he was ordering, which was funny. But we really sat at a table and ordered. At a different restaurant. I'm not good at lying. Not even for the sake of humor.

here is downtown Frisco! We actually stayed in a house in Frisco. Somehow I never got a single picture of the house or at the house. I'll have to fix that next time. Anyways, I love downtown Frisco. Super cute. close enough to bike to. Full of yummy restaurants and adorable shops. OH and we hiked that mountain the background on the last day.

There was an antique and art festival in Frisco. I purchased this tiny stool. Cute huh?

Okay, this next picture is from the top of the mountain we hiked. It's out of order. But I want you to notice all of the sad dying trees. There is a beetle infestation. They burrow into the trees and eat them and kill them. But you can't see them because they go inside the trees. So all of a sudden a tree is dead and you have no idea that it was happening. It's been going on for about 2 years now, and it looks very very sad. You can see lots of dead trees in the background.

I'm showing you that because look at this...
Only in Colorado!! So they are having a "Beetle Fest" - the small print says "A festival to ward off the evil beetle" Funny huh?

off of sad stuff to happy stuff... apparently they had a spring with LOTS of rain. Which meant AMAZING flowers for us! Look at these poppies. I took this picture. Joey immediately said, "let me do it."

And he took this one. It is cooler. I know. I have so much to learn from him.

Guess who this is? Better question, guess what we're doing?

We went golfing. Well, Ty and Luke golfed. Father-in-law and I rode in the carts and watched. But it rained REALLY hard for a bit, then it got REALLY cold. So he made his own ear muffs. Creative.

One day we went to the Alpine Slides at Breckenridge. You can kind of see the white slides up on the mountain in this picture. So basically, you ride the ski lift up to the top. Then get off, grab a little sled and jump on this concrete slide. It is AWESOME! we had a blast! But watch out for roadkill, sometimes a chipmunk gets in the slide, and the brakes just dont' work that fast.

We also went white water rafting (couldn't take my camera because of the water), biking, played sand volleyball, went shopping, and watched an entire season of 30 Rock. But I didn't photo-document those events. I promise they happened.

Look at this amazing restaurant. We didn't eat here, but isn't it adorable with all the flowers??

We walked around Breckenridge a bit. Then found this stream that kids play in. Joey and Steve sat and talked. This was pretty much a constant scene throughout the trip. They had fun. Steve told stories, Joey listened and laughed. And probably wrote some ideas down to use in an upcoming screen play.

The HIKE begins!! Look at us... real mountain people!

Brother and sister. Yes I AM older.

We finally made it to the top! Joey went barefoot.

Ty did push ups on the edge. I couldn't watch. Joey took this picture.

Ty and Joey talked. They strategically placed themselves at the edge so I wouldn't sit down with them. I just know it.

Last night. We ate at The Mint. Was first made as a brothel. Now it's a yummy steak house.

You go up to the butcher and pick out your meat. He then hands it to you. Raw.

You season it and place it on a huge grill.

Here's my men manning the grill.

We dropped Joey off at the airport the next day and drove to Colorado Springs. Visited the Air Force Academy.

Then went to the Broadmoor. This very fancy and famous hotel resort place. It was fabulous.

But my rear end is numb from typing this long, and you are probably bored to death. So that will be for another post. Here's a teaser of the place.