Live Inside My Bubble: Vail Anniversary Trip: Day 2 & 3

So, Andi and I have this thing for amazing buffet breakfasts while we're traveling. It's basically the way we judge the success of our vacation.

On the second day of our Vail anniversary trip, we had breakfast at Ludwig's in the Sonnenalp Hotel. The hotel has a Bavarian theme, from the decor to the staff attire, which made us feel like we were somewhere far away in Europe. I may have eaten my weight in buttery, flaky croissants.

Coffee cup as big as my head

After breakfast, Andi and I visited the spa at Sonnenalp. Massages are also always on our vacation bucket list and those we received in Vail were very relaxing. (As they should have been - it was the most expensive thing we did on our trip). We lounged around in the hot tub for a while afterwards and just talked. It felt so good to be JUST US. That hasn't happened much since we became parents almost one year ago. We're always pulled in a million directions and when we finally do have time to connect, we're both too exhausted to really dig deep and share. By this point in our vacation, we were relaxed enough to just BE there together. I loved every minute.

For some crazy reason, Andi and I decided to go hiking after our spa time. I suppose it'd be a shame to visit the mountains without going to the top, so we rode the gondola up Vail Mountain with the intention of hiking an easy path and then riding back down. Neither one of us enjoy exercise all that much, so we weren't looking for anything too strenuous, just a way to enjoy the outdoors. We arrived at the beginning of two hiking trails with one directional sign laying on the ground. Which way to the easy-peasy Fireweed trail? We couldn't quite tell and definitely didn't want to get half-way down the road of a difficult one. Andi asked a lady approaching us and she told us she'd just hiked up the Berry Picker trail in the last 1 1/2 hours. For real? She hiked UP the mountain? Berry Picker had be an easy trail then, right? We could surely follow it down without effort.

So we started down the Berry Picker trail. Down the mountain. Down. Can I reiterate that? DOWN. As in, toes jammed in the tops of our sneakers, bracing ourselves as we hiked down the side of the mountain. This was actually fun, Andi and I said over and over. High five! Look at us being all sporty-spice and enjoying ourselves!

We gave a nod to the gazillion people we passed on the trail hiking upwards. UP. Seriously, we couldn't believe people were actually doing that! One guy even had a baby on his back. For real? At the one hour mark, Andi and I were feeling good. Yay us! Two hour mark? We were like, where the hell is the chicken exit? Our feet were in so much pain from jamming into the toes of our shoes we were almost in tears. (A week later, my toes are still aching from the pressure).

Overall, Andi and I enjoyed the hike because the scenery and the weather were beautiful, but we were also glad to sit on a patio and enjoy a cocktail afterwards. We met a former colleague of ours who happens to live in the Vail area for a drink. Our lives have changed so much in the nine years since we all worked together.

After a happy hour drink, Andi and I went back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. We had another cocktail at The Tap Room bar just down from our hotel then had dinner at Kelly Liken restaurant. Honestly, we weren't all that impressed with our dinner selections. The $7 cheese plate we ordered as an appetizer was literally a piece of cheese the size of my thumb nail. Restaurants stingy on cheese are not my friend. Somehow we ended our evening with grand marnier on the rocks because it was served in a glass with one giant ice cube. The things that excite my husband .... Obviously, after what turned out to be a bar-crawl-esque evening, we then stumbled back to our hotel.

Traffic on Sunday was forecasted to be terrible, so we left the mountains early to avoid the rush. We ate breakfast at our hotel, then stopped at an outlet mall on the way to Denver. Somehow, malls have also become a vacation tradition for us and I'm not sure why as neither of us ever set foot in one otherwise. I think it has something to do with killing time before the airport. Anyway, we hit up Carter's outlet and I did some serious damage with my credit card, buying baby gifts for my sister, best friend and Tory Bean.

Andi and I contemplated ways to spend our last few hours in Colorado, and opted for a showing of The Hunger Games at the one and only theatre still showing the movie. We both felt a little guilty about seeing a movie on vacation (we should be enjoying the beautiful outdoors!) but going to the theatre is something we very rarely do as parents. And since the movie has been on our "must see" list for months, we went for it.

Our flight was delayed a few hours, so we decided to visit the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver. It's the first place Andi and I met nine years ago, so what's more special than a ride on the trolley where it all began?