Sea level visitors at 7980 ft

July has been a very busy month and last weekend we had the pleasure of having Mark and Susan in town. They arrived Thursday night and we were very quickly off to Aspen. We stopped at Reiver’s for dinner, our Gaylord St. fav, and then made our way up the mountain.

The drive is beautiful, which of course they only had the opportunity to see a fraction since we had about an hour of sunlight. We arrived late and took it easy since we had a packed three days of events. Friday morning we headed to Aspen Mountain (Ajax) gondola for a summer time trip to the top. The top of the mountain isn’t visible from town and the 3000 ft vertical climb has breath taking views! We walked around, hiked and had a few beers at 11,212ft. We landed back in town, thankfully, and headed to Zanes, our bar. We devoured delicious wings and various other “bad for you” food and ice cold beer. Our next stop: The Cantina, we never miss it. I had warned those sea-level folks about the effects of high altitude. Three beers in and some of us felt the love, so when we arrived for our pitcher of margs…..it only got worse! Home again, it was time for cigars and cocktails under the Aspen trees watching the sunset. We all had plenty to eat and drink and I called it an early night. ;)

The top of Aspen Mountain

Zanes

Saturday was another beautiful day in Aspen. I made a little egg bake before our trip to Maroon Bells. It is open for about 4 months of the year to motorized vehicles. Outside of these four months, it is by foot, or some other mode….cross country ski, snow mobile, snow shoe, etc. This time of year is gorgeous, the snow hasn’t completely melted, but it is very green from all the run-off. We caught the bus back to town and headed to Bad Billy’s. This was a long standing dive called Cooper Street Bar and Grill that closed last and has since re-opened as Bad Billy’s. Kyle and Mark competed in the bar Olympics which consisted of Golden Tee, Mark won. We waited out an absolute down pour, made a stop at home and then to Double Dog. This place is one of my favorite strictly due to the shuffle board table. We ate dinner and played a few rounds….Mark and Susan won.

We had tickets to the 1:10pm Rockies game, so we were up early and ready to go Sunday morning. Ah, Rockies games……they are so much fun. We had great seats, row 5 on the fist base line. Pitchers of beer, more bar games and food concluded the night. I had to work on Monday, so Mark Susan and Kyle went to Coors Brewery and Casa Bonita. I was sad to work with they were still in town, but happy I didn’t have to endure Casa Bonita…

Miss you guys already!