telluriiiiiide! man, i love that place. this is becoming sort of a bi-annual (biennial?) tradition for us to visit in the summer. crazy to think that our first trip was 4 years ago when we were much younger and kid-free and the last time we went avery was just 6 months old! traveling with a toddler/two year old drama queen is never easy but it was still really, really nice to get away. i love this place so much and have been mildly obsessed with it since college when i listened to tim mcgraw's set this circus down album pretty much nonstop. if we ever win the lottery you can bet we'd be buying a place here. funnily enough the kids pediatrician is also slightly obsessed with this place and every time they have an appointment we have a conversation about just how awesome it is.
our drive out was actually pretty horrible. we took the 'back way' and completely forgot that the pro cycling tour was going on. they closed one of the roads that we needed to take and we had to make a four hour detour that turned a 6 hour trip into a 12 hour trip. the kids actually did amazing until maybe the last 2 hours when ellie was just over her car seat. really couldn't blame her since i was pretty over it, too. we didn't get there until around 9:30 on wednesday night and after we found our place and unpacked everything we just tried to get the kids to bed. they both had a hard time that night. avery climbed into bed with charlie who was sleeping in a room with her and ellie was flopping all over the place in our bed. when we woke up the next morning we walked to find breakfast and let the kids sleep a bit as we walked around.
we usually stay in mountain village (charlie's favorite) when we come and this was the first time that we stayed in telluride. i actually really liked being right in town but charlie said that he really missed taking the gondola into town even though we rode it a bunch while we were there. after breakfast we rode the gondola into mountain village and walked through a bunch of shops since charlie was on the hunt for some ski deals.
avery throwing a giant fit for some unknown reason.
avery loved the gondola ride and we did it again that night and each day after that. after the gondola ride we went back to our condo to try and get the kids to nap but they were doing construction right outside our building and we ended up moving to a different house where it was a bit quieter. the nice thing was that the house was actually much nicer than the condo we were in. one sort of funny thing about it was that it was a really tall and narrow house (4+ stories) and avery kept getting confused about where everything was. and another bonus was that there was cable in the house which meant that charlie and i binged watched hgtv after the kids went to bed. i really miss that channel.
we ate out for every meal when we were there but we usually just ended up eating breakfast and then a late lunch/early dinner and then giving avery a snack before bed. the kids actually did pretty well at the restaurants, which is something they're often pretty hit or miss with. the one meal that was pretty awful was on saturday i took them to breakfast alone and avery was just not into having proper restaurant behavior or really proper anything behavior but we survived and left and then i walked around with ellie in the ergo and avery in the stroller until they both fell asleep.
i love this place so much that even just a morning walk is so amazing. the san miguel river runs through town and there's a really nice path that runs along it and we walked there a few times and then took avery to the playground at the end. charlie and i always talk about how awesome it must be for kids to grow up there since there are so many amazing outdoor activities that are literally right in your backyard. the playground was pretty awesome too, avery really liked it although we had to book it home pretty quickly because it started to rain.
i love this place so much that even just a morning walk is so amazing. the san miguel river runs through town and there's a really nice path that runs along it and we walked there a few times and then took avery to the playground at the end. charlie and i always talk about how awesome it must be for kids to grow up there since there are so many amazing outdoor activities that are literally right in your backyard. the playground was pretty awesome too, avery really liked it although we had to book it home pretty quickly because it started to rain.
charlie got some new skis one of the days that we were here and then exchanged them a few hours later. i think he's pretty excited about our steamboat trip this december now that he has new, 'fast' skis.
on our last say here we ended up doing the bridal veils hike that we've done every year in the past. i was actually not at all in the mood to be hiking since i thought the kids would probably freak at some point (they did) but i am so glad that we did it. the waterfall is the tallest free falling waterfall in colorado and not a terrible hike. it's a decent climb but pretty short, which was good since both kids were ready to get out for a bit. on the way down they were not into the hike at all. i think we were all hungry and tired and just ready to eat something. it was 3 pm at this point and we hadn't eaten lunch. so we made it down as quickly as possible and then headed to brown dog (one of our favorites) for pizza and beer.
on sunday we ate breakfast, checked out of our place, rode the gondola one last time, and then finally headed back home. the kids did pretty well in the car but we were all really happy to be home. i know ellie was so excited to be out of her carseat and she spent the hour after we got home before bed crawling around the house as if she was trying to remember everything.
until next time, telluride! i know charlie really, really wants to make a winter trip here at some point but i see no point in doing that until the kids are old enough to ski and not whine about the cold. also, i cannot even imagine how expensive it would be to plan a winter trip here. summer is still pretty popular because of all of the festivals that they have going on but not nearly as popular/expensive as the winter time. it's really the funniest down because it doesn't look like anything crazy. it's tiny, there are no stop lights, no chains or big box stores, etc. and the houses are pretty modest and some are really, really tiny and yet they're over a million dollars and really, usually several million dollars. it's also not easy to get here. even if you fly you can't really fly direct (unless you're one of the super wealthy) and obviously driving from anywhere is a huge pain. so it's sort of funny that the little town is as expensive and popular as it is. i have heard that the skiing is amazing but obviously we've never done that. anyway. i totally get the charm but probably will not be buying a second home here during this lifetime. that's okay. we'll just visit when we can and take lots of pictures while we're there.
