Although I was a bit depressed to be turning 30, especially after sitting down and thinking about all that I had accomplished in my twenties–getting married, completing two degrees, starting my career, and giving birth to three daughters!–Bruce totally surprised me for my 30th. The morning started with him getting up early and fixing me breakfast, a beautiful plate of sliced strawberries and bananas, a sunny-side-up egg, and three pancakes. Delicious! Then I went to school and got to go on a field trip all day–one that I was not in charge of, so stress-free on my part–instead of teaching. After school, though he was a bit reluctant about it at first (little did I know why), Bruce brought the three girls to Joe’s Crab Shack in Parker to meet me and some of my co-workers for happy hour. When we arrived home, my dad had torn up double the size garden in our back yard and was in the midst of laying out soaker hoses and planting seeds. On the table were the countless seeds and other gardening supplies that Elizabeth had sent for my birthday. And on the sofa and couch were bags filled with stuff–some for the girls to take to Grandma and Grandpa’s for the weekend, and some for us to take on our weekend trip to Glenwood Springs!
I was so excited. I’ve been wanting to return to Glenwood Springs for years, ever since we went for our third anniversary, but I’ve been too busy being pregnant or breastfeeding! And not only that, as I discovered as we arrived, we were staying in the hotel I’ve always dreamed of staying in–Hotel Colorado. Bruce booked a bautiful suite with a huge jacuzzi–it was about the size of a small swimming pool. Right after we arrived, Bruce told me to open my gift–as if the weekend getaway wasn’t enough–and he’d bought me Grease on DVD and a 6-pack of Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate bars. We walked across the river and had a delicious dinner at Peppo Nino’s. During dinner, Bruce pulled out another surprise: a silver family tree necklace with all five of our birthstones embedded in the branches. Then we had a wonderful bath and went to bed exhausted…
The next morning, we walked across the river again and ate breakfast at the Glenwood Cafe, a small breakfast/lunch restaurant that’s popular with the locals and has excellent prices and delicious homemade pancakes. From there, we drove to Hanging Lake Rest Area and began the very strenuous one-mile hike to the top of the canyon. The beautiful view of the waterfall and bright blue lake water was well work the walk! And just a bit further up the trail was Spouting Rock. Couldn’t think of a more appropriate name, as the rocky mountaintop seemed to just have a hole carved out of it with a waterfall flowing from that. Pretty amazing sight.
On sore legs, we hiked back down and enjoyed the afternoon in the therapy hot springs pool. After a couple of hours, we returned to the hotel, showered up, and drove over to the Rivers Restaurant, a beautiful, bright, high-ceilinged restaurant overlooking Crystal River. Bruce had prime rib and I had red ruby trout, and together we shared six oysters, a complimentary piece of Chocolate Decadence cake, and a bottle of Zinfandel. We returned to the hotel and switched out our evening wear for our swimsuits, enjoying the hot springs pool, with the steam creeping into the cool night, one last time. Back at the hotel, we poured the last of our Bailey’s and sat by the fire in the huge, early-twentieth-century decor of the lobby. The Hotel Colorado was where Teddy Roosevelt once stayed to go on a bear hunt. He came back from hunting one night feeling depressed and discouraged about not catching any bears, so the maids stitched together a stuffed bear for him. One of the local reporters printed the story and called it a “Teddy Bear,” and soon the Associated Press picked up the story and printed it nationally. So that’s where Teddy Bears come from!
On Sunday morning, we enjoyed one last bath in our jacuzzi and one last breakfast at the Glenwood Cafe. We were going to do the tramway, but we missed the girls and headed home instead. We went to my parents’ house, where my mom gave me some diamond earrings from Frances and my dad gave me an apron from Rhode Island. We had a nice dinner and birthday cake.
Although I thought entering my thirties would be depressing, given that this was by far the best birthday I’ve ever had, I think my thirties will be just grand!
