Spring Break

After weeks of anticipation, Spring Break finally arrived! While most people were hitting up the slopes or shores, I decided to take a nature break and spend the week in Glenwood Springs with Ryan. Our agenda included Hanging Lake, several trails in New Castle, and moseying around Basalt/Carbondale/Glenwood Springs. The weather was beautiful before we left, and as luck would have it, this is what we woke up to on the first morning:
it snowed every day that we were in the mountains! Seeing that I packed absolutely no winter clothes aside from my jacket, hiking was out of the question. We didn't really have a plan B, so we spent the morning trying to think of one. Finally, the decision was the hot springs pool. It was my first time there, and it was really cool, especially since it was snowing!

It's difficult to see, but part of that blur is steam from the pool, another part is the falling snow, and another part is fog.


Day two was spent in downtown Carbondale and Basalt. Brunch was at The Village Smithy, which has the best french toast I have ever had in my life! For us Boulderites, the restaurant is very reminiscent of Lucille's. Downtown Basalt was your typical, small mountain town.
The last day of the trip, we were completely pampered! Ryan's mom, Jackie, is a manager at the Yampah Spa, which is home to the only natural vapor caves in the nation. I spent the morning soaking in a mineral bath, getting a massage, and relaxing in the vapor caves. The caves are really cool; they're under ground caverns that have water from the hot springs running through them, which turns the area into a natural steam room of sorts.

When we weren't running around all day, I spent my time playing with Molly and Kesha, the two resident golden retrievers at Jackie's. They are super cute and playful, and very good dogs! Molly had her first birthday the week we were there, and she definitely acts like she's still a puppy.

Molly

Kesha

The drive home took longer than usual, due to even more snow...after about half an hour of creepingly slow traffic, we see this sign flash in front of us:


Not that the sign would have been much help even if it were shown before the heavy traffic actually happened, but I thought it was pretty funny. We also saw a few signs that warned of us "heavy snow ahead" when it was blizzarding right where we were.

Great trip overall, and only five weeks until the semester is over! :)