My Week In Aspen

One of the nicer mailboxes

(That title reminds me of that wonderful TV show out of England with Judi Dench (As Times Goes By) where her friend/husband was on book tour for a book he'd written titled "My Life In Kenya".)

The Husband's conference in Aspen, a place we'd never been, prompted a road trip.  Discovered later on that we could have flown into Aspen itself (who knew!) but our drive in the Charger was so nice.  It was a different - but enjoyable - kind of trip for me.  A few observations:

I know where all the books are!

• You can't trust the weather predictions in Aspen any more than here in Utah.  And the weather patterns seem to be the same:  if you don't like the weather, wait a half hour (or 10 minutes), and the weather will be different.  May is a particularly changeable time of year.

• Morning walks are wonderful no matter where I am.  The trail closest to the hotel was the Rio Grande trail which followed the Roaring Forks river, no matter which direction; it was my delight to traverse this trail most mornings.

• I've parsed things out and finally settled on the reason I don't like to hike.  Sounds too much like work.  I love to walk and can do that hours at a time.  That is fun.  Hike somehow = work.  Walk = fun.

Chocolate Cereal?

• I loved all the houses in the town.  Reminiscent of Park City, though perhaps a bit more spread out.  Lovely varied styles of architecture, colors, lot sizes - no developments there - lending a fun character.  The odd thing that struck me was the yard art.  No matter how upscale the house (even the multi-million dollar ones along the river) there was yard art.  Much of it quite kitschy. As if the houses themselves weren't quite enough at expressing the owners' individuality.

• May is also a month when half the eateries are closed for the season.  Thus our pool of places to eat was smaller than expected.  Even smaller when I dug in my heels and refused to pay $15 for a hamburger. (Rumor had it the one McDonald's in town - the only fast food chain - has $3 items on its dollar menu. Couldn't say for sure, we never went there.)  I was so daunted by the food prices (and gas was $5 / gallon) that I daren't set foot in even one of the other stores (save the grocery and the drugstore - and even they were outrageous!) A simple bowl of soup was $10.

Just loved this sky!

Clearly we're not the right demographic for the area:  trendy / label wearing / private bank clientele / rich / famous / powerful / you name it, we're not it.  And I'm so very grateful.  It must be exhausting.

Our view the first morning.

• Decided they must have different birds at that lofty altitude.  Their songs seemed so different from the ones I normally hear.  It was lovely in a way to have left my iPod at home and only had the songs of the birds, the rushing of the river to fill my ears as I walked mile after mile in that beautiful setting.

On the way to the river trail.

Roaring Forks River.

• I still love to see the wildlife, particularly the deer.  One leapt the trail just in front of me one morning.  And  late one evening on the way back to the room after a meeting The Husband saw 5 of them nesting down for the night in the brush field between buildings.  Somehow they represent hope to me.

• The Husband spent every day at classes, I spent the mornings walking and exploring, and the afternoons in the room - resting my feet, avoiding impending rain, stitching, reading.  It's hard to relax day after day.

• My very first destination was the public library.  What a lovely library, even though I inadvertently tried to walk out the door with a book.  It's second nature to me to pick up whatever book is at hand, I seem to always have to leave the library with one.  And apparently it happens a lot - the staff didn't even look up when I set off the alarm.  (And it wasn't even a book I'd looked at or would check out - it was simply there on the table when I walked off!)  Decided that I'm a compulsive reader.  I even read all the literature in the hotel room including the information cards hanging on hooks everywhere.  I'm likely the only one who does.

Stunning vista in Utah on the way home.

• I tried to take note during the week of things I wanted to mention here.  I've forgotten most of them.  But the bottom line is:  it's lovely to take a trip, to get away from the every-day / mundane.  And best of all, it's even lovelier to return home to my own bed whose sheets stay tucked in on the sides,  our soft water, my blooming orchids (just as pretty as the wildflowers!), non-restaurant food (we got so weary of eating out) and yes, even the laundry.  There is absolutely no place like home.  My favorite place to be.