Weekend With the Aspens

Visiting the Vail Valley is always a bit of a challenge when driving an RV with a toad attached.  Fortunately, I arrived on Friday afternoon when most folks (and their cars!) were out and about.  I easily snagged a nice parking spot for the RV right in front of the house, but with overnight temps hovering around freezing, my brother’s fiance’ insisted Millie and I stay in the guest room in the house—so, I packed a little duffle bag and away we went for the weekend!

My wonderful hosts for the weekend, brother Randy and his fiance’ Karen--

and the obligatory brother and sister shot--

Randy took Karen and I to a wonderful restaurant on Friday night with panoramic views of aspens on the mountainsides surrounding us.  While I failed to get a pic of the views, I did manage to get a pic of my delicious vegan entrée!

After a fine meal and good wine, where to next?  To the high school football game, of course!!!

Karen has two kids in high school and her daughter’s dance team would be performing at half-time.  I don’t think I’d attended a high school football game since I was in high school!!!  But it was a fun evening (even if our team ended up clobbering the poor visiting team with a final score of something like 53-0)!

Humans weren’t the only ones playing and having a fun time.  Millie’s malamute cousin, Shine, was ready to show Millie a fun mountain time too!

 

Shine loves to steal toys from other dogs…especially dumb Labradors who are always eager to share their toys with anyone else around them.

So, as soon as Millie would catch her Frisbee, Shine would be right behind her…

Ready to snatch up the Frisbee for herself!

All in good fun, though-- the dogs were pals again soon enough back home!

 

In the afternoon, Randy took me on a great backcountry loop tour between Eagle and Basalt that included Sylvan Lake State Park and the Ruedi Reservoir.

First stop was lovely Sylvan Lake--

We continued along the road to see New York Mountain covered with a nice layer of snow:

The road was in good shape most of the way, and just gorgeous!

Only a few muddy spots!

Finally, we came down out of the mountains to Ruedi Reservoir just east of Basalt.  It was still warm enough for sailboats to be out on the lake.  What a gorgeous “bluebird” Colorado day!

Randy and Karen were leaving for vacation the next day, so this visit was a short and sweet one, but now that I’m full-timing in the West for a while, I’m sure we’ll have more opportunities to see each other again soon.  Thanks for the lovely weekend guys!