Telluride

Off. The. Hook.

Telluride was freaking crazy. The drive there through the mountains was gorgeous. We stayed at the Mountain Village Resort which is actually a resort so big, it's considered a small town. We drove into the gated "community", past the golf course, fire station, post office, etc. and checked into the lodge. Keeper had found some ridiculous deal on Travelocity.com and we certainly lucked out. For less than we paid for a crappy room in a Boulder hotel, we got a one bedroom suite at this amazing resort. We had a living room, dining room, full kitchen with stainless steel appliances, deck, and a king size bed and full bath. The resort had all sorts of different condos and lodges but the "marketplace" was equipped with a full gourmet grocery store (and liquor store).

We parked our car and rode the gondolas all over the rest of the time we were there. There were gondola stops at other places within our resort that consisted of not only lodges and condos but restaurants, retail stores, coffee shops, bars, you-name-it. There were ponds and playgrounds and rock climbing walls for kids. Everything you could ever want to do on vacation was located within this resort. Which isn't technically considered Telluride.

Then we rode the gondola further into the actual town of Telluride. It was a Friday afternoon so there was a weekly farmer's market going on. The town looks like any other Colorado mountain town except everything is upscale. Spas, salons, stores, restaurants, bars were all riduculously priced. Everyone was riding bikes or the gondola (and putting there dogs on the gondolas too) so there weren't many cars driving around town. We gave ourselves a walking tour, found a brewery/bar, and claimed Telluride to be completely ridiculous and can't even imagine how crazy it gets during ski season!

We loved the night we spent here. We tasted some great beer, rode the gondolas (met some nice southerners in the gondola), and cooked steak in our suite for dinner that night. I have never stayed at a nicer place than the Mountain Lodge. We would have loved to stay in Telluride for a week to really hike and explore the area...but we were content with our one night of luxury :)

Unfortunately due to our crappy disposable cameras I have 2 pictures that actually turned out from Telluride. This one is a black and white taken while riding the gondola...and it's crappy. But Keeper looks good in the top picture at the brewery/bar that had booths fashioned from old ski lifts :)