This was certainly an atypical day for us. For the first time in 19 days we heard familiar voices and saw familiar faces. We stopped outside of Montrose and were graciously invited to brunch at the Berry’s. Ahh, the Berrys. I have rewritten this sentence a dozen times trying to express how special they are. Mary is one of my moms bffs from grade school. (Before “bff” was a thing.) I grew up very close to her, she’s actually my godmother. I have countless memories from my childhood of hanging out with Mary, her husband, Roger, and their two kids, Peter and Sarah. They have spent the last decade(?) building their dream home in the mountains in Colorado and moved in last February. We were greeted with open arms, a tour of the most fantastic home I have ever step foot in, and a delicious brunch with homemade quiche and an Asian inspired fruit salad. Our visit was too short, but we left knowing we’ll accept an invitation for coffee and wine every time we’re in the area. We also left with full bellies and hearts.
Our drive today was fairly long, about two and a half hours to the Berrys and three and a half after. It should be noted that we drove by Ralph Lauren’s ranch, so that’s pretty cool, as odd as the fact that copyrighted fences surround his property. We also made a very quick stop in Telluride, a town the superintendent of my school district came from. I almost emailed him asking for a letter of recommendation, since I can totally picture us living there. Too bad we can’t afford any living space there. The rest of the day’s driving was fairly mundane. We did stop at a very sketchy 7-11 to use the facilities and witnessed a unsuspected burglary. The bathrooms were too gross to actually use there too.
We finished the drive by pulling into the Sky Hotel, a Kimpton. We were treated so remarkably from the moment we stepped foot on the property. The most amazing array of amenities greeted us as we opened the door to our room. The girls were tickled by the pool toys, car activities, and cheesecakes in a jar. Zak and I were blown away by the chilled cocktails that awaited us. But I think the thing that most blew my mind was a detailed map of downtown Aspen with handpicked activities by each member of the staff.
We enjoyed a wine hour chatting with our new Aspen BFF, Bruce. He told us we could drip is name at any establishment in town and good things would happen. Zak and the girls are wading the evening away and I’m sipping a local rosé (the grapes were imported.)
