Weekend in Breck

One long weekend in January we took a trip to Breckenridge, CO with a group of our friends for what is becoming an annual 30th birthday trip (the last 2 years it's been New Orleans but we needed a change of scenery and climate this time).

We left Friday, flew into Denver, and made the easy drive to Breck.  We rented a home about a mile from town, and it was great!  It had a large living and dining room (complete with an antler chandy!), a hot tub on the deck outside, 4 bedrooms and a game room, and a 2 car garage.  We got there in time to check out the house, put on some warmer layers and we went into town for dinner.  Emily did some good restaurant research for us, so we chose Motherloaded Tavern.  There was a long wait for a party of 8, and it was jam-packed, but eventually we found a spot to wait in the back bar, where we played Jenga and snacked on appetizers (fried pickles, sweet taters, and "not-chos" [nachos made with homemade potato chips]).  The food there was very, very good and I think most of us left way too full and uncomfortable!  I ordered the fried chicken and waffles and Jeremy ordered the "Loco Moco", a 1/2 pound beef patty, rice, fried egg and brown gravy.  We were both very happy with our selections!  That night the boys opted for the outdoor hot tub, and the girls went to bed early.

Saturday morning the boys left for the mountain, while myself, Emily and Meg slept in and lazed around the house.  We finally made our way into town around 11:30 am and stopped for brunch at Cool River Coffee House.  I loved this place - they have tons of specialty coffees and drinks, delicious-looking pastries, sandwiches and other lunch items, and breakfast wraps and sandwiches.  I ordered a honey nut latte and the lox bagel sandwich - cream cheese, onions, capers, egg and lox.  It was delicious, and we had a very long and relaxing lunch.  We walked down Main Street a little, checking out the shops, and then it was time for our massages!  We each booked a massage at Blue Sage Spa and  we all agreed it was one of, if not THE, best massages we've ever had.  I got the hot stone massage and it was divine.  We got a little snack from the crepes stand - it was a bit of a wait in the cold, but worth every second.  Emily seemed to think they were a decent substitute for Parisian crepes.  She tried the lemon, sugar and butter (her Paris favorite), Meg tried the berry and white chocolate (messy but good!), and I think I was the winner with the S'mores (chocolate, marshmallows and crumbled graham crackers).  The massage and the crepes compete for best part of the weekend.  After we were thoroughly relaxed and stuffed, we stopped by the grocery store so we could finally get some food in the house (we really tried to think of anything to put it off as long as possible!).  That evening when the boys returned we grilled burgers for dinner, then had lots of girl talk while the guys played dominoes.

Jeremy, Kevin, Justin, Neenah and Jason ready to ski/board!

Lots of snow in our front yard

A view into town

Mountains

My favorite lunch joint

Town Square

Myself, Emily and Meg, pre-massage :)

Family dinner!

Sunday - same story.  Boys hit the mountain, girls slept in and relaxed.  We went into town around the same time and had breakfast at Daylight Donuts.  I had biscuits with sausage gravy and a sprinkle donut.  It was very good, but not out of this world good.  It looked like most people were grabbing a quick bite for going up the mountain.  We walked around town a little more, did some more shopping, tried to get last-minute appointments at the spa again for a pink grapefruit-sugar body scrub (they were booked! darn!).  We all got kind of bored with town, so we just went back to the house for naps.  Delightful!  The guys got home a little earlier than the day before, so we had time to play in the snow, and then they napped while we got ready for dinner.  Dinner was a bust - the pizza place we wanted to try, Giampietro, had a 2 hour wait, so we walked to the other pizza place, Pizza Parlor who only had a 15-minute wait.  That should have been a clue - anywhere worth eating was going to be a long wait, like Motherloaded was.  This place had absolutely awful service - every single table around us complained (including us) and the pizza was mediocre at best.  We went back to Motherloaded for some drinks and dessert, and Emily and I ran like the wind to grab one last crepe from Crepes a la Cart before they closed.  This time I tried the Bananas Foster, and it was decent but my S'mores one was a life-changer.

Favorite part of the trip - crepes!

Monday morning it was time to go back to Denver.  We packed, cleaned, and got to at least see some snow start to fall (exciting but also scary to drive in!).  The drive back was a little stressful with the snow and tons of slow traffic on I-70, but we made it in plenty of time to the airport.  Unfortunately our plane was delayed leaving so we didn't get home until nearly 8 pm, but we made it and still got to love on Sawyer before bedtime.

We had a blast in Breck!  I don't have a detailed account of Jeremy skiing, but no one got hurt, Jeremy skied a black for the first time and didn't fall, and he loved it and can't wait to go back.  It was a wonderful, relaxing, lazy weekend for me also, which is a perfect vacation in my world.