Psalm 42:1
As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
We arrived at Chipeta Lodge. This week was supposed to be our big splurge on this part of our adventure, and I was pretty disappointed with the room. First of all, we thought we were supposed to have a private hot tub on our balcony. The room we were given did not even have a balcony. We asked for a different room, and the front desk said we would have to cancel our Expedia reservation and book the room through them, and pay for the upgraded room. We were trying to find a nicer room in the area and were not having any luck. We went to look at the new room and decided to pay the upgrade as it was much nicer. That evening, we went to dinner at Colorado Boy Pub, and I had a beer sampler, including my first of many prickly pear libations.
The next day, we went kayaking at Ridgway Reservoir. We kayaked for about an hour. The water was like glass on our way out. We were minding our own business, watching the fish jump, when a giant bird flew over our heads. The wingspan was grand in the way the Grand Canyon is grand. When we wrapped around the reservoir heading back we saw three of these same birds hanging out on the endge of the water. They let us kayak by without any notice or concern. I didn’t have my phone with me but on the way out of the park I saw one knee deep in the water and I snapped a photo and used the help of Google AI to determine it was a Great Blue Heron. These birds are very common here.
We have been taking long walks, and we visited the Friday Farmers Market, we visited the Floating Lotus Brewery for another sampling treat and played cards at the lodge’s restaurant.
There were two six-point bucks who enjoyed hanging around the hotel in the evenings and mornings. If you can believe it, I saw the bucks during the sunset and moonrise while Michael saw the bucks the next morning during the sunrise. It seems that our schedules are all mixed up in retirement.
We “lunched” in Telluride one day. It might have been the single most expensive lunch I have ever had… it was raining, but the rain and clouds broke long enough to experience the full Telluride experience. Telluride reminded me of Park City. Not exactly, but it is hard to put my finger on exactly how they were different. Ridgway reminds me more of Park City’s location and mountain views, whereas, Telluride’s striking sheer mountains that are so close you feel you can touch them was breathtaking and that is not something I have felt in Colorado. We strolled down main street and looked at a couple of sales. The town was also having its own Farmers Market. We bought some goat cheese from a woman originally from Hungary. She raised her family on the goat milk from her goats and natural foods.
More to come!
Looks so relaxing!