3 Days in Aspen

Who wants to see a few pictures?

Here's my less-than-inspired recount of our trip. Not that it was awful but since we're neither rich nor famous... we were forced to the conclusion that Aspen is not our kind of town. It is however quite beautiful. Let's see here...

The picture above and to your right is one of the nicest shots we took from the plane window flying into Aspen. Breath-taking. One of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.

BUT

Can you say altitude sickness? Yucky, nasty pounding headaches that build to a throbbing crescendo awaited fair Ted and John and put us out of commission for the first afternoon/evening. Oh... hah, incidentally our first afternoon/evening started 24 hours after everyone else, because we misread our boarding passes and ended up stranded in Pittsburgh overnight. "John and Ted, I'm sorry to inform you... you are the last team to arrive and you have been eliminated from the Amazing Race". ...ok, so it didn't happen quite like that. (poor Uchenna & Joyce though) That might have been more entertaining actually. hah

But we did finally take in "The 300" movie. Hordes of insanely hot, scantily clad men or not... that movie is the very definition of gratuitous violence. Not terribly enjoyable beyond the first 2000 gallons of blood splashed across the screen. But hey - did you know that movies are still only $4-$5 in the US?? Wow. Even after exchanging our lowly loonie that's still a bargain. Anyhow... back to the trip, right? This picture (lookie-here)... is at the base of Aspen mountain. Our hotel is a little more than a block to the right of what you're looking at. Dinner was at the top of this mountain on the first night (for us) and "D'oh" if we didn't forget to bring the camera with us to catch all the glorious, beautiful mountains from a cranium-pounding altitude at sunset. We took that lift (a fifteen minute ride - ...the recent 8-million dollar upgrade that the city's quite proud of) up for free that night, thinking "ok, we'll get the camera and go for a ride tomorrow". Nuh-uh... $23 dollars per person to go to the top. And ladies and gentlemen, the Tedster and I are not cheap... just po'. Or rather too po' to fork over $46 American for another trip up the slope to something we'd already seen. On our second day, after a morning cooking class with a professional chef (Glenn Smith - totally funny, great guy) we walked and walked and walked every inch of the "boutiquey" downtown core. (I'd post the pictures, but although nice, they're not that interesting unless you've been there, or so I'm guessing.) That night was the formal awards gala. Ted's whole reason for being there in a sense. It seems silly to not have taken a picture of what he wore to the dinner, but he wears a suit every day, so I guess we didn't deem it too important. Now "me" in a suit... there's a purple elephant sipping jello through a fire-hose. (in plain-speak - it's RARE.) Exhibit A:

Cherish this one folks, it's the funeral and special occasion monkey suit. That's taken on the little balcony of our hotel room incidentally. If I look half as awkward as I feel than it's an adequate picture. Where are my jeans? Where is my hoodie? Who put this noose around my neck? I look respectable don't I? Church flash-backs. Church flashbacks. Don't make me go 5 times a week. Please.... NOOOOOO!

Ahem... I'll stop being Not-Funny now. Here's my handsome Ted. Enjoying that balmy Aspen weather. (I'm not kidding; it was colder here at home than it was there.) Ain't he a hottie? One picture from the afore-mentioned walk and a second from the hotel balcony in his freshly christened ski-bunny sweater. (give the gay-guys the room over the entrance, it's good for business - no seriously... our neighbours were gay too. Small world in the gay, gay, hotel & hospitality industry. We were everywhere!! Mwah ha ha ha)

Overall, it was a fun trip, but far from our most memorable vacation. Blame it on having no money to spend, blame it on the altitude, blame it on nothing to do in a frou-frou community of 5,000 where you might as well go home if you're not the outdoorsy type. Boy did I feel like chubby white trash by the way. Everyone is tall, fit, and pretty damned hot in Aspen. So there was plenty of eye candy to look at. Hell - the hotel staff alone were beautiful to the majority. Alan... Jason... we love you even though you don't know we're alive. hee

Other things of note: it's a dog-town, which we loved. Dogs EVERYWHERE, and what a wonderful environment to have them. We met a little basset hound tied-up outside a shop downtown and while we were petting and fawning over him, I read his name tag... ..."Porter"! Hah! Isn't that cool? All of the dogs made us miss our babies though.

Oh... and for gifts as only Starwood can dole out. Ted and I both received Colorado Timberline ski jackets (Ted did go skiing at Snow Mass on our last morning.), a whole mess of snacks and wine and vodka, and the gift to top all gifts: a digital picture frame. That thing is very cool.

How dare I complain about anything really. It was a fun time away, and nothing went terribly wrong at home and work while we were away either. Nice. Well, to amend that slightly, Porthos had a huge gash in his nose from being bitten by our dog-sitters (who shall remain nameless) dog. That wasn't so great. But he's recovering and both Cole and Porthos slept all weekend; content to be reunited with their doting daddies.

Just as happy as we were to see them I'd wager. All's well that ends in sleeping puppies.