Some place warm . . . I'm talking about a little place called Aspen

In trying to check places to visit in Colorado, we visited beautiful Aspen over Memorial Day Weekend.  This was in part a celebrate school being over part need to get out of town part anniversary celebration.  My Facebook memory feed reminded me that five years ago we went up to Steamboat Springs for Memorial Day weekend so we kept with tradition of visiting Colorado ski towns in the summer since we don't really ski.

We took the girls out of their last half day of school, Rachel didn't have school since she was a "graduated/continued" 5th grader, and headed out on the road.  Independence Pass just opened the day before and it was beautiful to see the Continental Divide.

 It was a bit snowy still at the observation point.

For lunch we stopped off for a picnic at Grottos Trail. I must say we had some very scenic picnics on the trip.

 These are the ice caves and it looked like there were ice climbing places further down.  We didn't go in because it was too icy.

 Enjoying the cascades

 I don't know how this was relaxing but I think Elizabeth was tired 

Once in Aspen we saw a lot of . . .aspens, how aptly named.  I bet it would be a great place to visit in the fall and see some great color.  We went to ACES--Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and saw a hawk and more nature.

 The joke went, what's the national bird of Japan--a crane.  Well we saw one, only it wasn't a fowl :)  Some billionaire is probably building a house.

We wrapped Friday up by checking into our condo in Snowmass and enjoying the hot pool and hot tub before settling in for the night. Saturday (Happy official 17th Anniversary) I went for a morning run on an nature trail close to our condo and had some great views without seeing a single person.  Maybe no one else was up at 6am but also maybe the rain that started kept people away.

We tried to figure out what to do indoors with the rain in Aspen/Snowmass and realized the reason why it was so easy to get a decently priced condo as it was truly the shoulder season and a lot was closed. We went downtown to Aspen and got some yummy treats at a bakery but not much else.  We tried killing time before a museum opened so I opened up my Zillow app and we drove around looking at the $6 million + homes in Aspen.  The weather cleared for a little bit so we walked around the John Denver Sanctuary and I must say they know how to make a beautiful public garden.

A macaron from the bakery, thankfully the owner didn't give me the macaroon I think I was pointing at.

 I think this will be our official 17th anniversary picture

 Any guesses what this cool building made of rocks, or at least decorated with all rocks on the outside is used for?  It's an Aspen fancy shmancy restroom.

 We ate lunch at beautiful picnic spot #2 in the garden but it was quickly interrupted by rain so we went to take a tour of the historical society museum.  It was interesting learning the history of Aspen how it was a silver mining town in the late 1800s, pretty much died when the government stopped buying silver in the early 1900s and then was revived after WWII as a place of cultural utopia.  Skiing came to town and then more recently the billionaires started displacing the millionaires.  We found it interesting that in the late 1970s the city purposely curbed development to keep growth down for their "utopia".  Aspen has a few condo developments but it's nearby Snowmass that has more of that.

 Saturday afternoon we relaxed and then went swimming again as the rain had cleared before going out for pizza, how romantic I know but it was surprisingly good.

Sunday the sun was shining, the weather was beautiful, so we headed up to arguable the most photographed nature spots in North America--Maroon Bells.  Parking was at a premium but we got a spot and walked to Maroon Lake before going up a little nature trail.  As always, pictures just do not do this place justice and I'd love to see it in all the seasons.

This is not my picture but one put out by the government, how beautiful is fall?

Our pictures

 Google Photos helped edit this one, the aspens just need to green up a bit!

On our nature walk

We love mountain reflections in glacier lakes!

We turned back when the trail started getting snowy and Evelyn was done walking so Eric went back to Maroon Lake with her and Elizabeth, Rachel and I hiked to Crater Lake, around 3.5 miles RT. The last third was through nicely packed snow so our tennis shoes and jeans were fine.

 Beautiful Picnic spot #3 was after our little jaunt and we sat admiring beautiful Maroon Lake.  On the way back, we stopped off to feed some goats at a ranch off the road.

The view from the ranch, just thought it was cool with the road, aspens, and Maroon Bells peaking through.

Guess what we did when we got back to our condo?  Swam in the hot pool and enjoyed the hot tub.  Monday I went for a run/brisk walk up the ski lift trail (Eric had come up twice already) and enjoyed the views from Snowmass Mountain.  I dumbly ran back down and my quads are still killing me but I guess it was worth it.

My pictures

Eric's

We packed up and headed back home going back the way we came - Independence Pass, Leadville - and stopped in Idaho Springs for some Beau Jos pizza.  Coming home we were noticed that a hail storm preceded us, thankfully it was no bigger than pea size but it was a lot and hammered my poor little garden.  I'm just glad we didn't have to drive through it and come home to battered siding. 

Now the question is, where should we go next Memorial Day Weekend?