Kate's 24 Birthday: Colorado Roadtrip

Two well-know secrets of us Marbles:

1) We love to travel. Cool places, preferably.

2) We love Birthdays. We're thankful for life!

So, we started a little tradition to combine the aforementioned elements: Birthday trips! It only makes sense, really. We started this tradition in 2009 with a trip to San Fran for Kate's 23rd Bday and then we headed up to visit Uncle Maury and Aunt Linda in Kelowna, BC for my birthday in August.

This year for Kate's two dozenth birthday, we did a road trip around Colorado. There are lots of places in this awesome state that neither of us has been.

So after a long work week for Kate, we headed out. Here was our route: http://bit.ly/8KcvNQ

Friday January 15th: Bright and early departure from Manitou Springs, CO, headed west. We were able to book dog-friendly hotels throughout, so Rosy joined. She started out in the back, but we were suckers for her cuteness. She looked down-right distraught!

Her new post:

A few other pics of the first day: on our way to Salida, CO here's Kate in front of Mt. Princeton.

We had lunch in Buena Vista on the first day, went for a nice hike just north of Nathrop, CO towards Agnes Vaile Falls.

Our trusty sidekick, Rosy, enjoying the roadtrip.

We stayed the first night in Salida, then headed west on Highway 50 past Gunnison, then south out of Montrose towards Ouray. This little town, was our most favorite on the whole trip. Several signs said, "Welcome to the Switzerland of America" and it definitely deserved such a title.

We took a quick little trip over to Telluride for the afternoon. The mountains there are absolutely stunning. Pictures don't do justice here either. Great little town too. Our 2nd favorite of the trip behind Ouray.

Telluride has a free gondola that you can take up the mountain and over to "Mountain Village" which has shops and other activities like ice skating. On our way up that gondola:

So our second night we spent in Ouray, then day three we headed up Highway 550, past Montrose again, then headed Northeast up towards Glenwood Springs. We stopped on the way in our namesake town. Good ol' Marble, CO! Not much a town (no offense, Marble) but we took a couple goofy pictures to commemorate.

(The newest proud member of the Marble clan)

We also stopped in Aspen, since Kate had never been. Here's a cool little shot of downtown Aspen, looking towards the ski hill.

We stayed our third night in Glenwood Springs. Our final day, Monday (Kate's 24th Bday!! Happy bday, my love!!) we had a great breakfast at "Rosi's Bavarian Restaurant" in Glenwood then made the trek back to Manitou Springs.

Overall, it was a great road trip for the three of us. Enjoyed our amazing state and saw several new towns we'd never visited. Kate really enjoyed herself, so: mission accomplished! Happy birthday, Kate Marblehead!