Colorado Weekend, Part 2

If you haven't read it yet, you can check out Part 1 of our Colorado trip before continuing.  It's not overly crucial to the story, but I recommend it for any RV tire-changing enthusiast!  Intrigued?  Check it out.

Have I mentioned that I love Colorado?  I truly do.  I do I do I do.

I love the mountains, the wildlife, the beauty of the land, and the vast array of activities available.

I confess that I've never skied or snowboarded (but it's on my bucket list), and I'm dying to learn how to rock climb and maybe go through a ropes course or three.

Colorado.  The land of outdoor activity plenty.

On this trip we went on a lot of ATV excursions and tackled white water rafting once (which was AMAZING), but as I mentioned yesterday I neglected to collect any photos for fear of damaging my camera with river water.

Lucky for you, I documented our ATV mountain adventures thoroughly.

My husband.  What a guy!

We doubled up on his ride, so his helmet is in nearly every one of my shots.  Oh, and nearly every one of my pictures was taken while we were in motion... so being forgiving of a slight level of blurriness is appreciated.

Have I mentioned that I love Colorado?  Lucky for me, this guy does, too.

There's an old mining area on the trail we used and Mr. Pihl did his best to give me a run-down of what he knew about it.  There he is below pointing and gesturing and whatnot.  I on the other hand was perfectly content to just look at him.

Yes, mushy stuff again.

Our trail opened up into a large and beautiful meadow.

Seriously breathtaking!  And the perfect spot for a few Kodak moments.

Here's my brother-in-law, John.

And Mr. Pihl's parents.

But then it was time to get moving again!  There's that over the shoulder view I became so familiar with.

And an elbow.

And gorgeous rolling hills with a bounty of wild flowers.  I recognized a few of the buds, but was unable to get pictures of them whilst riding passenger on an ATV.  So I missed out on the Columbines, Indian Paintbrush, and blue bells...  And so many more.

But I did get a few of these.

And these.

So lovely.

Skip ahead a few days...

The next time we tackled mountains on ATVs I got my own!  I had a BLAST riding with Mr. Pihl and my father-in-law.

This place was a leetle more dusty than our picturesque Colorado forest from the previous ATV outing.

Dirt, dirt, and more dirt.  But I loved every minute of it.

I liked it so much that I tried to take the dirt home with me!

Okay, not really.  But I was covered.  Some of that junk on my face is dirt and some are freckles.  You can decide what is which.  (Hint:  I do not currently possess a unibrow-shaped freckle)

Since it was my beloved's birthday, after we finished up at the mountain we headed into Buena Vista to have a go at their Eddyline Brewery.

It's an awesome microbrewery with an even better arrangement of delectable dishes.  I had a really, really difficult time deciding what to eat.

I mean, they have grass-fed beef, for heaven's sake!  Mr. Pihl and I are ALL ABOUT grass-fed beef!

They also had a quinoa dish that intrigued me.  Hello, lavender.

In the end, I went with the rare seared tuna steak with greens and a delightful Greek style quinoa salad.

Three guesses at which beer I chose!

Hint:  I'm a redhead who prefers red beer.  Oh, the irony.

After lunch, our group split off in separate directions of downtown Buena Vista to check out the local shops.  Mr. Pihl and I came across this local favorite (with a line a mile long, so you KNOW it has to be awesome).

K's Old Fashioned Burgers (and ice cream).

We went for the ice cream.

What I loved about this place (beyond the fantastic chocolate malt I ordered) was the unique feel to it.  Every order was called by name.

And when I say name, I mean fictional character, of course.

We were assigned "Winnie the Pooh."

And while we were waiting we also heard order announcements for Buzz Lightyear, Strawberry Shortcake, Sherlock Holmes, and the Pink Panther.

How fun is that?!

Anyhow, there's a glimpse into our Colorado adventure!  Mr. Pihl and I had a wonderful time and are already trying to plan another trip back!