Steamboat Springs with Jen and Eliza

We had a short drive from Craig, Co to Steamboat Springs yesterday (Tuesday the 3rd). Colorado is beautiful, for sure. Our newest home is the Rabbit Ears Motel on the south side of downtown Steamboat. The room is right on the Yampa river and we have a lovely balcony view. Jen and Eli joined us shortly after we arrived. The four of us spent the afternoon exploring downtown Steamboat and then had a tasty but expensive dinner at an Italian place. We sat outside and drank really yummy wine. Oh also, we bought an obscene amount of socks. So many socks. In our room we played games and told tales.

In the morning our first stop was the Creperie, which, alas, was closed. So instead a coffee shop was our destination and it was good. A blended chai was the perfect way to start the day. Others ate and drank too. And then, it was time for the hot springs. We chose our hotel for its proximity to the town’s hot springs pool. It’s a pretty amazing place, all natural spring water of the hot variety that’s fed into several pools that are different temperatures. Get too hot? Jump in the swimming lanes. Too cold? The heart pool with mineral goodness is for you. I opted to stay at the pool while Jen, Eliza and George went to the summer ski jump competition. Did I mention that today is the 4rth of July? All kinds of festivities were going on in town, including the jumping. We mostly scheduled our time to avoid crowds, so when the parade was going on, we were swimming. It worked like a charm. We met up in the motel afterwards and made plans to extend our vacation another day so that we can go tubing tomorrow. And then it was time to shop for tubing shoes for E and G. Mission easily accomplished with a visit to a shop that was going out of business. And then, we went to the candy store, much like the one that Alex, George and I went to on our first day of vacation. This time I didn’t buy gross soda. I did get some of the good stuff, though. Jen bought taffy. Dinner was at a cool place called Table 79, which serves appetizer portions of food that the table shares. I think we ordered 8 items and they were all amazing, especially the Brussels sprouts. Oh, and we also bought really good vinegar and oil and wine. Then we put stockings over our heads, which was very weird and funny. Eli and George took them from the shoe shop. Scary pictures were taken. And to cap off the night, we took another dip in the hot springs, this time during sunset. And that was magical. The air was cool and the clouds lit up with color. In the distance we could hear fireworks. A dang good day.