Day 1: Telluride

Our first day of the trip, because we're not even going to acknowledge that first travel day, we spent in Telluride. First though, we rolled out of bed around 10 and Caleb made me a lovely breakfast while I sat watching The View. When did Barbara Walters leave, bytheway? Not that I ever watch it, but uh, I guess I missed that. Anyway. After getting ready, we left our little cabin,

nestled in the valley of these gorgeous mountains

and headed to Telluride. To get there, we parked our car in a nearby town, Mountain Village, to ride the gondola in. On the way we saw some people setting up for some event at a hotel, and thought it looked pretty awesome.

We never did find out what it was for, but they were certainly going all out.

So we hit the gondola to ride into town.

 

See how happy and rested (well...sort of...) we are?

 

It's because we were riding through this gorgeous place.

 

Here's downtown Telluride, apparently in the throes of Bear Awareness Week. Don't let your dogs off leash, and don't feed them and stuff. That didn't seem to faze the locals, everyone had dogs and more than half of them wandered along with their humans, totally off leash and perfectly content. It is certainly a dog friendly area.

 

We wandered the little shops, which I completely loved. Western wear (saw the cutest little cowboy boots for a little boy, if we lived anywhere near a farm I would have purchased them. Insanely adorable.), handmade jewelry and all sorts of little tchotchke's, candy stores, deli's, T-Shirt souvenir shops, practically everything you could think of.

 

My favorite store was a little kids clothing store, we bought our firstbaby item, some insanely cute wool sock / bootie things. I'll post a pic of them tomorrow.

After wandering down one side of the street we decided to grab some lunch, and found Maggie's Deli, where Miss Maggie herself stood behind the counter. I ended up getting the chicken salad sandwich, because when I asked her what was in it she went off about the rosemary roasted chicken, celery, onions, with just enough mayo, on freshly baked bread, and I just couldn't resist. She was so charming. While we waited for our lunch Caleb started my photography lesson. It took me several tries to get it down.

 

While he was eating, of course.

 

This was the nine millionth attempt. He was such a good sport, I think I interrupted his lunch at least 10 times to tell him to sit back and smile.

We wandered down the other side of the street and found this little area, tucked in between the stores, and I rested my swollen feet while Caleb went about his photography business.

 

I wasn't sure that rickety bench could hold me, but it did.

 

 

After a good 10 minutes I'd had enough though, see, Caleb has this tendency to take hundreds of photos of me wherever we go, and I always hate every one of them. I am not photogenic. He always insists, "Just one more..." and 30 snaps later I've had it. So this time I told Caleb he had to pose and do whatever I wanted. So I got this fabulous shot.

 

I took extra long to fiddle with the settings, and forced him to hold this pose whilst several passersby looked on. Payback is so sweet. I think we'll call this one his glamour shot.

After his photo shoot we took pictures of the town and gorgeous valley we were in.

 

And then decided to head back to the car, taking pictures along the way, of course.

This is the view of Telluride as you ride the gondola back up to Mountain Village. I would like one of these homes, please.

 

I snapped this one on the ride up in the gondola. I just love when Aspens change colors.

 

 

On the way back we found this fun telephone booth and had to get a few shots in.

 

 

We decided to go check out a spot that Miss Maggie had recommended (after of course, giving Caleb the low down on her preferred birthing method, The Bradley Method, while I was in the bathroom...), up past the airport. Gorgeous at sunset, she said.

First though, I'd just like you to see what happens when you take food up to this kind of altitude. Also, my feet looked like sausages. Behold.

 

If you look closely, you can see the indentations of my sandals. Really hot.

Anyway, Miss Maggie did not disappoint.

 

 

 

On the way home we ran into some horses,

 

some sheep,

 

and even some elk.

 

After getting our fill of animals, we went home to make some dinner and curl up on the couch with some popcorn and....tv. Satellite doesn't work so well up in the middle of nowhere, we had about 5 channels to choose from. I think we ended up watching reruns of The Office, but we were perfectly content. We were finally, finally on vacation. And we wanted to soak it all up.

Comments

[Liv]

I am SO glad that Telluride made up for the bad travel day.

Those photos are so beautiful! SO beautiful.

Yea for vacation!

[Katie]

Those pictures are so beautiful! I love the aerial shot of the town. Also, it's just about lunchtime here and the mention of that chicken salad sandwich made me so hungry!

[Lindsay Cahng]

I love the aerial view photo of the town! The colors are so bright and vivid!

[Kjersti]

I LOVE the pictures! It was so beautiful there, and you were right, it did remind me of Park City, especially the shot of all the brightly colored houses! And by the way, your hair is insanely cute. I love the color!

[Bethany]

Those pictures are beautiful! Caleb does know a thing or two about photography-- so he must have taught you well... I love how vivid all the colors are! I am so ready for fall!

[Abby]

Kim, those pictures are INCREDIBLE! I loved them and they made me want to go to Telluride so bad! I would love it if you/cabe could give me a photography lesson when I come down! ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. Good job!

[Heather]

Next stop for the Carliles... Telluride! Are you kidding me, that place looks gorgeous. Also, I do feel that Caleb needs to give me some online training as to how those pictures come about. I mean seriously, I think my camera is capable of such shots, but I feel as though the photog is holding it back.