Palisade, Colorado

Oh, what a weekend! There aren't words for most everything we did and saw and ate and drank. So I'll post photographs with some brief explanations. Keep in mind that the pictures can't possibly do any of the subjects justice. It was magical.

The bed and breakfast where we stayed --
 a charming Victorian that has been stunningly renovated and is run by the sweetest couple.  We had fabulous breakfasts every morning and relaxed in the heavenly hot tub in the evenings.  We can't wait to go back.

The view from the backyard.

Our room and bathroom. Told you it was stunning.

The winery across the street.  We had a personal tour with the winemaker and his wife.  That man is a viniculture genius.  He really knows his stuff.  I learned a lot about wine and how to better appreciate different varietals. They liked us, too because they invited us back that evening for an Independence Day celebration with some of the best food I've ever had.  We're talking roasted pork rib quesadillas with cherry jalapeno salsa, green salad with mandarin oranges and white wine dressing.  Oh, man.  It was tremendous.

The town is small so we did a lot of walking.  The railroad tracks run right through the middle of town so we had to wait on a train.  In case you didn't know, it's rather loud.

We saw some interesting signs.

And some interesting plants.  I still have no idea what this was.  It almost looks like a fungus that has overtaken the the tree but I can't be sure.

One of our favorite places to eat, ever.  They serve the best Greek gyro I've ever had.  I might change my mind if I have a real gyro in Greece some day but since that's not happening any time soon I'll keep going back here.

This particular day, however, I had a garden veggie sandwich with sweet potato fries.  It was so good I'm still thinking about it.

We toured another winery.  This one wasn't as interesting because the tour was given by an employee of the vineyard.  I know it's not possible to tour with winemakers all the time, but it does add a nice personal touch when we can.

Scrap metal sculptures outside another winery.

Awards won by our favorite winery.  I loved every single wine I tasted at this place.  It's called Garfield Estates and they are fabulous.  Paul joined their membership club and I won a free bottle of wine when I entered their drawing.  Yay!

We also ate at the Palisade Brewing Company.  They're an interesting place.

The brew delicious beer and serve delectable French dip sandwiches.

On the way home we stopped at Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs for lunch.

I had a veggie burger that was To. Die. For.  And, of course, more sweet potato fries.  For the record, Palisade Cafe and Grill makes better fries.

We lunched on the patio by this fountain.  The weather was perfect.

After lunch we walked around town a bit before getting back in the car for more driving.  Glenwood Springs is a great place to vacation.  This pool is fed by natural hot springs.  I'm dying to go there and get in it some day.

There are both Hotel Colorado and Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs.  I don't think that should be allowed.   It's too confusing.

I'll give them a pass though, because Hotel Denver is attached to Glenwood Brewpub that makes more good beer.

More sights in Glenwood Springs.

  And then we got back on the road for the rest of the drive home.  We saw thousands of dead trees like these.  They're being killed off by the bark beetle.  It's a sad but necessary part of natural forest life.

The Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel.  Did you know that it's 1.7 miles long?  It feels like it, too.  Funny tidbit -- that car in front of us has a license plate that reads HRVRDMAN and the plate is inside a frame that says 'Harvard Alumni' on it.  Um, you think?

On the other side of the tunnel we hit this.  Record-breaking holiday traffic.  We sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 2 hours.  It was bad.  It was maddening.  It was hot.  It was yuck.

I left out a big section of our trip.  On July 4th we went up onto the Colorado National Monument, took lots of pictures and had a picnic.  We watched the fireworks down in Grand Junction.  I'll put that in the next post because there are almost as many pictures of that as there are of the whole rest of the weekend.