The Tradition Continues!

Happy (late) Tuesday, friends! This past weekend, Nick and I wrapped up the end of another busy week and headed out to Crested Butte, what’s now become Memorial Weekend Tradition.

Instead of three recap installments, I’ve pared things down to two, so get ready for photo overload.

But first, tacos

Friday night, Nick and I went to a party for his social studies department, and the host had taco stations and brownies, galore. I was in heaven and ate far too much, excited to kick off “vacation mode” in a food coma.

I also accosted all of her animals: three cats and a dog. I was in heaven!

Road Trip

With bellies full of tacos and tequila, we went to bed early Friday night to rest up for our travel day. We still took it easy Saturday morning, getting on the road at about 9 am.

I read The Art of Raising a Puppy while Nick drove, and I gave him the gist of what I learned (when I wasn’t reading aloud). We also think we’ve settled on pup names (girl or boy)… but I’m not sharing them just yet!

The route between Gunnison and Crested Butte is the absolute most beautiful stretch of road I’ve ever seen. I took a thousand pictures and videos of the scenery. These photos don’t do it justice. Cows!

Horses!

Forest!

We’re baaaaaack!

Four hours after our departure, we arrived at the Old Town Inn and got to check in early.

This is Barley, the sweet golden retriever behind the front desk. He was so sweet and friendly! We met about 3 other pups at the hotel that weekend.

To keep tradition alive, we went back to Teocalli Tamale to split another Gourmet Veggie burrito (with their green salsa verde, which was OUTSTANDING). It was better than we remembered!

Walk it off

After our burrito, we walked around town to move our legs after the car ride. The weather was a little chilly.

Coal Creek was raging! We found a nice photo opp on this bridge… something we never discovered last time. 🙂

I am sneaky and like to take photos of Nick when he’s not aware. Whoops!

This is the opposite view from the bridge… you can see that the weather was starting to turn….

We toured more of the neighborhood this time and saw some gorgeous houses that we fantasized about buying.

I tried to will myself into a running mood, but I just couldn’t do it. I was still tired and strung out from the workweek. We ended up taking a rest in the hotel room, which was quite serendipitous. It started to rain and hail! Just when it cleared up, we decided to get some more walking in.

Cocktail Cabin

Next it was time to get vacation mode up and running! We returned to The Dogwood for some delicious drinks and appetizers. This place is just so, so cool. The atmosphere, the service, the drinks, the food. Everything is on point.

I couldn’t resist ordering the Vanilla Bean again, and Nick got an Old Fashioned. Yum!

We ordered the soft pretzel, which comes with beer cheese and the best mustard I’ve ever tasted. It was so good I could barely control myself to snap a (blurry, frantic) photo.

After another round of drinks, we decided we needed another appetizer. Vacation!

Enter these crostini, the most beautiful you’ve ever seen. Brie, strawberry, basil, and a balsamic reduction. They were gone in 3.5 seconds.

The Stash

After our decadent appetizers, we headed down Elk Avenue to Secret Stash pizza. Somehow we were still hungry and ready to devour some pizza.

Last time, we played it safe by ordering the regular buffalo wings. This time, we went with the famous Stash Wings, and they were freakin’ amazing. Also, their ranch is probably the best we’ve ever tasted (minus Cosmo’s Spicy Ranch, which is in its own category).

We then kept tradition alive with the Where’s the Beef? pizza. Just, yes. And we dipped it in ranch, too. Everything single bite was gone.

Then… we walked across the street to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for two scoops of ice cream to split.

Don’t look at me like that! No judgment. Plus, we needed to fuel up for our big long trail run the following morning. We definitely put those calories to work!

See last year’s recaps:

CRESTED BUTTE: PART 1

CRESTED BUTTE: PART 2

CRESTED BUTTE: PART 3