New Year in Colorado

Here it is April and I still haven't shared some photos and memories from our New Year trip to Colorado. Our dear friends Chris and Jess moved there from Sydney two years ago and we'd been keen to visit ever since. So, after Christmas in LA and nearly a week in Ohio, we flew to Denver on New Year's Eve and met Chris and Lee (who had flown in from San Francisco) at the airport.

NYE

It was hard to wait until we got to Chris and Jess' house to tell everyone our news that we were expecting a baby. They were thrilled and it felt like there was all the more to celebrate when we dined out at a lovely restaurant in downtown Denver. We had a comfortable booth and enjoyed a multi course tasting menu that concluded only 15 minutes before midnight. Armed with noise makers and NYE hats from the restaurant, we brought in the New Year with other Denver revellers and fireworks.

The joke of the short trip was that Chris and Jess were running a fantastic, full-service B&B. When Chris picked us up from the airport he had water ready for everyone to prepare us for the altitude. Likewise, they had made our dinner booking for NYE and had organized snow clothing, shoes and gear for our venture into the Rocky Mountains on New Year's Day. We were extremely impressed that they had tracked down three sets of snow-friendly clothes and shoes that kept us warm on a freezing day.

Rocky Mountain National Park

I had never been to Colorado before and found our gorgeous drive into Rocky Mountain National Park to be a huge treat. We found a couple of easy hikes: one around a frozen lake and another through a field and up to the face of a frozen waterfall. I was tempted to walk directly on to the frozen lake as others were doing, but Jess absolutely prohibited me from doing so. The pregnant lady wasn't going to get hypothermia on her watch!

The Stanley

We had an early dinner at The Stanley, the hotel that inspired guest Stephen King to write The Shining. The hotel fully embraces this claim to fame and has movie posters and memorabilia all over the lower floor. The ghost tour was in full swing while we explored the lobby.

Back at Chris and Jess' house, we capped off the first day of 2012 with a soak (or partial soak for me) in their hot tub. On January 2nd we had time for a quick trip to Udi's, the manufacturer of the best GF products I've ever had, and a cute baby boutique before we were off to the airport.

Though our trip was brief, I couldn't have asked for a better New Year's celebration. I highly recommend the McFarland B&B and would certainly stay there again!