The road less traveled

I am not one to be spontaneous, but when I looked at the calendar and realized (YIKES) only one more week of summer vacation before I go back to school, I felt Blake and I needed a last "hurrah" to end the summer. But where to go? Every time we need a change of scenery we usually hop in the car drive 3 hours west and end up here:
which is fine, but we do that all the time. So instead, we hopped in the car and drove 3 hours east on the road less traveled and ended up here:
Steamboat Springs, CO. It's a typical touristy ski town kind of like Park City complete with a natural hot springs, lots of funky shops on main street, trails to hike and parks to play in. Our first stop was to hike the Fish Creek waterfall trail

It was kind of windy if you couldn't tell :)

After the hike we were feeling hot & Brooke was sick of riding in the car & being carried on the trail , so we went back to the hotel & went for a swim. Traveling mid-week was so nice, there weren't any crowds anywhere we went and we had the pool area to ourselves all afternoon. We ate at this restaurant called "The Oar House". It is a 100 year old barn now converted restaurant--it had a cool atmosphere and even yummier food.

We decided to go for a walk along the Yampa River trail to work off the big portions we had just eaten. The trail backs up to this gorgeous 6 acre botanical garden
Then it was time for Brooke to get her wiggles out at a nearby park
She was perfectly content with the little slide until daddy showed her something better:

She looks so small in that big slide! She had the biggest grin and was giggling the whole way down. Of course Blake and I spend the rest of the evening going up those stairs with her.

The next day we rode this:
To the top of the mountain. At first I think Brooke was just amazed that we were moving and she wasn't buckled in
Then she realized we were high up and was glued to the windowThe views from the top were incredible!We went on another hike at the top and just as we were getting to ready to leave I was attacked by a ferocious caterpillar! It all started when I put my jacket down on the grass so we could take this picture:
When I picked it back up I draped it over my arm and could feel something stinging me. I thought maybe it was an ant or something so I lifted my jacket to see. Inside was the biggest, fattest, furriest caterpillar I had ever seen! I don't know what it did to me, but my skin reacted the same way it does to stinging nettle: burns like crazy then blisters. I had to go ask the restaurant for some ice to put on my caterpillar wound (I'm sure they thought I was crazy).

We had tons of fun doing familiar things in a different city. It was the perfect mid-week getaway.