August 5:
HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY ERIC!
We woke up and I went to breakfast while Eric showered and stayed in bed a little longer. Then we met in the lobby and made our way back to the gondola to head down into town.
First, a little bit about Telluride. Telluride is a small, but way larger than expected, old cowboy town. Very walkable, restaurants, shops, ski lifts, hikes, gondolas, etc. It’s adorable and not at all like the typical ski towns we are used to (AKA Beaver Creek and Vail because those are the only ones we go to so I just assume those are typical which is absurd). We stayed in the Mountain Village, which was just up the gondola from the town of Telluride. The mountain village felt more like Beaver Creek. Outside of Telluride there is absolutely nothing for about an hour, so as I mentioned in part 1, there is no need for a car once you’re there, although it’s basically impossible to get there without one.
Anyway we headed into town and went on a hike. It was beautiful. I think only a picture is necessary to describe the hike.
Next we made our way back down the mountain and got lunch at Taco Del Gnar. The tacos were beautiful and delicious and we shared five tacos -Korean short rib, chorizo, shrimp, veggie, and something else that I can’t remember – and a queso dip. It was glorious. (Again with no food pictures? WTF 2018 Arden.) And right outside the window there was a free side stage for the Jazz Festival (the main event and the reason for our 8 hour drive to Telluride), so some Jazz serenaded us during lunch, and we went out to watch for a few minutes afterwards.
At this point we had planned on heading over to the main stage of the Jazz Festival but it was supposed to rain. So we went back to the hotel for some massages instead, courtesy of Bettina and Brian. So, like Marissa, we also saved about 400 dollars on our vacation. Thanks for that parents. (I don’t remember what this was in reference to but my guess is that Marissa went on vacation around this time too and wrote about it right before I posted this and also somehow saved some money. BRB lemme go check.
Okay I checked and here’s what went down on her trip to San Francisco with Julie and Rachel. 1. Their $210 wine tour in Napa was comped because some creepy man on their tour was too interested in them and the guide felt bad. 2. Marissa fell off her bike in San Francisco and there was blood and bandages so they gave her 20% off. 3. They got $50 off a bottle of wine because they were out of something they ordered. You’re welcome for the memories Marissa.)
Finally, by late afternoon, we decided to get our moneys worth and actually go to the Jazz Festival. We made a list of the bands we (Eric) wanted to see based on a couple of YouTube videos, and we missed the first two. But it’s a good thing we showed up when we did because the band we did get to see was awesome. And I happen to know that they were called The Suffers and they are from Houston, because they made sure to let us know multiple times. They wanted to be remembered. They were. (I guess I should go look them up and see if they’re still a thing. BRB again. Yup they are and they have a special Patreon section of their website to watch them live virtually during Covid.)
We had Eric’s birthday dinner at another delicious restaurant in town, 221 Oak, where they had a large menu in addition to an equally large all vegetarian menu. Marissa heaven. We shared octopus and something else that I don’t remember, and then Eric got more Elk, because Colorado, and I got tofu with tomato and black harissa. Yum.
We went back to the Jazz Fest for the 8 pm band, which was supposed to be the best band and the main attraction. They were fine if not a little boring. I’m pretty sure their first song was about 45 minutes long. Too much of the same. We stayed until about 9:30, which was probably too long, and then we went back to the gondola and went to bed.
Gondola, birthday boy:
30th birthday success.
August 6:
We woke up early this morning to go Paragliding! It was absolutely amazing. We took the gondola to the top of the mountain and walked around a little to take in the sights since we were early. This was the first time we made it to the top when it wasn’t either dark or raining. It was beautiful. Just some panoramic action, with a bit of Eric in the middle taking his own panoramic shot.
Then we met our paragliding guide and walked down to the launch site, which was the top of a blue run on the ski slope. Before we flew, we watched another girl try and fail (twice) to take off, and lose a shoe, because she “wasn’t running fast enough.” I was sure this would be me. It was not, and it came out later that her guide was a much less experienced flyer who was just beginning to help out our guide, who owned the company. So it may not have totally been the girl’s fault. Glad we didn’t fly with that dude.
Eric went first because he couldn’t stand the thought of waiting on the mountain for me to get back because, well, snakes. It was fun to watch him run and then fly. I was super excited. I waited way too long for him to finish his flight, pack up the parachute, and come back up to gondola, all while getting eight hundred bug bites and seeing zero snakes. But it was worth the wait. My flight was about 15 minutes and so much fun. The mountains were beautiful, and we flew right over the town of telluride. We did some corkscrews and stuff, and landed really slowly because the wind was working against us. I was told this was a good thing because it made the flight longer and the landing smoother. I would highly recommend this sport, and I’d definitely do it again.
This is Eric:
And this is me, because Eric is a better photographer than me:
And this is courtesy of the gopro and the money we paid the guy:
The weather was beautiful so we decided to walk around Telluride a bit more and find a place to get lunch outside and listen to some more jazz. We had a 30 minute wait for our table, walked the town, sat down, and it started raining so we quickly moved inside the empty restaurant that we could’ve gotten a table at immediately. Oh well. My burger was good.
Then it was time to hit the road again for none other than Beaver Creek! We decided after our super long drive to Telluride, we were going to do this ride without any stops (minus the quick stop in Grand Junction to pee). The scenery on this drive was possibly even more amazing than the scenery on the way to Telluride. Once again, we got literally every landscape imaginable, and once again it was incredible.
We got to BC around 630, did some laundry, and went to Zino for dinner. Zino was, as usual, delicious. We got prosciutto to start (for those of you who have never been here, this is the worlds best prosciutto and you can watch them slice it off the animal), and then we shared two pasta dishes. As I said, the food was delicious. BUT. As we were sitting there eating the prosciutto, we remembered the whole fish at Hooked. We were tempted to leave, and actually discussed possibly canceling our meal in the middle of our meal, but we sucked it up and ate delicious pasta knowing that we’d be back in a few months.
And then bed.
TRAVELING WITH ARDEN 