7 years strong.....

For our 7th wedding anniversary, I decided Eric and i would do something just the two of us for a weekend. Thankfully Auntie Bria was able to help us out and stayed with the boys for the weekend.

I decided on Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Stables in Salida Co. http://www.coloradotrailrides.com/

I just goggled horseback riding, and that was one of the options, it looked fun and it offered a really cool package "A great trail along scenic Brown's Creek, enjoy the spectacular and interesting Waterfalls along Brown’s Creek, a 2 hour ride out, relaxing and enjoyable lunch and a 2 hour ride back to the stables"

Friday we saw Aragorn off to school and left Rohan with Bria and started out on the 3 hours drive.  It was a GREAT drive, wonderful view, i was in awe.  I LOVE this season,  and one of the reasons i love it is because of the changing leaf colors, on this drive, there was plenty of color.  Everything is changing.  After we found the hotel we got ready and headed to  dinner at a place called the Twisted Cork Café. They make their own wine there. I had 3 glasses, of different kinds. ultimately, i bought the first one i had tried called Cherry Apple blush. The cafe sits on a little creek that gives you lovely soothing background noise, and the great view is worth it.  They have horses tied up not far from the patio, along with the creek, we were in a little heaven.  For a while Eric and i had the entire area to ourselves.  It was the most relaxing moment.  After dinner Eric and i were so full we couldn’t even see straight. So we took dessert to go (chocolate cheesecake mouse for me, and tiramisu for Eric) and went back to the hotel.  Saturday we got up nice and early had breakfast at the hotel (Holiday Inn does GREAT continental bfasts now) after that we headed to the stable. There were cats all over, young ones, so one of the momma's must have recently had a litter. One of them jumped right into the van, I named him Chester, and he almost came home with us J The guide came out, and we followed him in the van to where the trail started, it was a good 20 min drive from the stable to the trail. When we got there I got Tequila & Eric got Domino. We started off, and I soon realized that this would NOT be an easy going little horsey ride. We literally went up the side of a mountain. Literally. The “trail” wasn’t that at all it was the “trail” that the water run off had made, we did great going up. We got to the waterfall and it was AMAZING!! So pretty the view was great just trees and rocks and water, no life signs at all, no city no nothing. We ate lunch and walked around a little while Rick (our guide) went back and watched the “kids”. When we were done Rick says to us “we made really good time getting up here, you guys wanna go up a little more and see a little more?” So we say SURE, why not. So we start out. I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of the “Trail” we took, because I was too scared. We followed Rick for about 30 mins, and we stop, we were at the beginning of the waterfall looking down. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pretty, and I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO petrified. We had traveled to 10,500 feet (the tallest mountain in CO is 14,000) so we were pretty high up. We were ½ way up when Rick says “I hope you’re not afraid of heights” and I said “yes, actually I am terrified” but it was fine. I did however ask, “now that’s we’ve come up this way, do we have to go back down the same way?” Rick laughed and said “Yup” and that is when I FREAKED. The ride down was in fact very scary. The rocks are lose, there is lose dirt, it’s just scary. Tequila and I did good. I felt her slip a couple times and held my breath A LOT. Eric and Domino did in fact almost fall. Domino got his foot stuck in a rock, and tripped. Eric held on, but was ready to jump if he had to, because at that time we were on the side of the mountain, there were 2 choices, straight, or off the cliff. Eric wasn’t letting a horse determine his fate. But they figured it out and all was well. We made it back alive and in the end it was fun. And I’m glad we did it. BUT I will let the stable know that they really should put a difficulty level on their rides. I am not kidding when I say on a scale of 1-10, this ride was at LEAST a 7. It was pretty hard. Saturday night, we weren’t feeling TOO bad, so we went to Wal-Mart and got me a lil sundress and Eric a new shirt (we didn’t think we’d be going ANYWHERE Saturday night so we didn’t pack anything) we went to downtown Salida, and had dinner at the Riverside Boathouse and Cantina, we had a great view of the river. Then we went back to the hotel, ate dessert from the night before and went to sleep. Yesterday I woke up and almost couldn’t move. My back muscles were used so much Saturday riding the horse, they hurt so bad, I could barely walk. As the day went on the pain moved from my butt, to my back to my legs, to my thighs. I didn’t think RIDING a horse would be that much exercise but I guess, it is. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and then headed home. I missed my boys A LOT!! Bria said they had a great time, and just had fun. Which made me happy. I am looking forward to next year’s getaway now......Hmmmmmmm. Where can we go??