Mountain Clams

Vacation, day 1 of 4.

My wife, daughter (16), son (15) and I took a short 4-day vacation to the western slope of Colorado, from Friday to Monday. That would be why I didn't post anything here during that time. I thought I would share a couple stories from that trip.

Our first night was spent in Glenwood Springs. We made reservations at the Affordable Inn, not knowing that "affordable" in this case was really just "an excuse to not try very hard." The first thing I noticed upon walking into the lobby was the smell of stale cigarette smoke. Being a pretty strong (not-quite-militant) anti-smoker, this means I'll just never stay here again. The smell of "fresh" cigarette smoke was wafting in from the courtyard where someone was smoking next to the hot tub. Okay, I won't be using that, either. The beds were terrible, and the one pillow per person was just not enough to compensate. While bringing our stuff into the room, I noticed that the area inside the other entrance smelled of stale cigarette smoke, too. The room didn't smell of smoke, but the air conditioner contributed its own odor to the room. We opened the window for a while, but the second-floor room turns out to be on the ground level on the other side of the building.

We had a quick dinner at a restaurant located in the Denver Hotel. I don't remember the name of it, but they had an 8-beer sampler that allowed us to try some different beers without getting totally blotto. This is a good thing when traveling with the kids. For the record, I think my favorite was the light honey ale whose logo they sell on t-shirts.

After that, we headed up to the Glenwood Caverns. $18 per person gets you a ride up the gondola, which gives you a pretty good view of the valley that Glenwood Springs is located in, and a one-hour tour of the caves. They also have an alpine slide that we rode after the cave tour, for an extra $25. I rode down with my wife, which was fun. It was dark, which made it even more fun. A quick stop for pie at Village Inn and we were back at the dreaded room. It is at this time that I realize I didn't pack anything that would serve as pajamas. Since we only had one room for all of us, I decided to use my swimsuit.

I haven't downloaded the pictures out of the camera yet, but when I do, I'll see if I can figure out how to post one here. [I figured it out, I think. The picture above is of Glenwood Springs as seen from the gondola.]

Labels: vacation

posted by Brett @ 11:48 AM