Aspen Rainbow

The predominant color of Aspen in the winter is white, as gorgeous undulating fields of snow stretch out in every direction. But I have also been surprised and thrilled to find that Aspen is so full of color, and it looks especially charming on the gorgeous historic buildings in the downtown area. Without further ado, here is my Aspen rainbow! We start, of course, with red. This is Little Annie’s Eating House, which is just as darling as it looks.  It’s a real locals’ joint, with hearty food and desserts as big as your head (I know because I ate one. Yum!) The bar gets kind of rowdy some nights, but it feels so homey that you never mind.

Next comes orange, which we see here on the sign for a lovely little cafe right across the street from the ski lifts. So pretty. Also, they roast their own beans, and their slogan is “Coffee above all else,” so they have already won my heart. I definitely plan on camping out there today while we’re waiting to head to the airport.

This bright yellow building was one of the first that caught my eye as I walked through town. Bonus points for the cowboy boots, of course!

No rainbow would be complete without green. I passed this gorgeous doorway on my way back to the hotel one afternoon and had to take a picture. I love the orange leaf accents too!

I loved the blue trim on this historic building. It houses several seriously high-end boutiques, so I just admired it from the outside. Thrift stores are more my cup of tea, and thankfully there’s a great one in Aspen!

And finally we come to purple, which is the best color, at least in my rainbow! I have always been a devotee of the printed word, and periodicals are no exception. So I am pretty much in love with the Aspen Times building, nestled in the shadow of a giant mountain. Even the newspaper racks are brightly colored. This is small-town beauty at its finest.

Aspen is as thoroughly modern as it is historic, though, and this is where all the colors come together! These bright containers are marking the future home of the new building of the Aspen Art Museum. Lovely!

These Boots Were Made for Walking

I have been having a blast tromping all over Aspen in my cowboy boots. But that definitely wasn’t the case before I got my boot chains, back when I was slipping on every patch of ice. I had thought chains were only for tires, but oh, naive Southern girl was I! These things strap right onto your shoes and give you awesome traction. They have made my week!

In addition to keeping me stable, they make the most wonderful crunching noise when I walk on snow and ice. I like crunches of all kinds. The first day I wore these, I felt like I probably looked a little strange, but now I am fully embracing the boot chain look, and I’ve started to see lots of the tell-tale wire coil tracks in the snow on the trails. In case you have any ice and snow to trek through, these are called YakTrax, and they are great. Happy stomping (and crunching!)

The Jerome

The Hotel Jerome opened in Aspen in 1889, and it has been dazzling people ever since. It is a grand hotel in every sense of the word, and although we’re not staying there, we have definitely made a few visits to drink in the ambiance.

The hotel has several restaurants and bars, and a few nights ago we had dinner at the legendary J-Bar. I loved how wonderfully old the place felt, from its faded pictures to its velvet drapes and ornate wallpaper.

I really did like that wallpaper.

And who wouldn’t want to eat dinner under the watchful eye of this guy?

The Jerome also has a lovely and antique little bar called The Library (I know, best name ever), which I’m hoping we’ll get to visit in the next few days. The bartender is a noted preservationist of pre-prohibition cocktails, and that sounds pretty great to me.

I saved the best part for last. Aspen is incredible at night, especially with all of the holiday lights still up, casting a warm glow onto the snow, but I quite truthfully stopped in my tracks when I saw the Jerome’s courtyard all lit up in the snow. My mouth dropped, and I immediately said to Eric, “Let’s get married here!” And then I remembered that we are already married. And that a wedding in the snow might not be the kindest thing for our guests. But I enjoyed imagining it nonetheless.

I think this courtyard is at least worthy of some waltzing. And maybe some twirls. It’s just so magic.

And I think I’ll remember this magic moonlit night for many years to come.

Aspen: The View From Here

I’m incredibly lucky to get to tag along with Eric to Aspen, where he’s attending a conference. The arrangements really came together at the last minute, so it feels especially like an unexpected gift. Saturday we made it to Denver, but then our flight to Aspen was canceled due to a storm. We made it in with no trouble on Sunday afternoon, and now we’re taking it all in!

Neither of us has ever been to a place like this, such a storybook winter wonderland. Neither of us has ever stayed at a place in which our immediate view out the window is a gigantically tall mountain. It is truly majestic.

And they’ve still got their holiday decorations up, which is extra charming. I really like this picture because of the icicle on the lamp post. I didn’t notice until this moment that there are two people hugging in the bottom of the frame, and that makes me like it even more.

Since we got here, I have been hilariously (and rather dangerously) sliding around in my cowboy boots on the ice (shouldn’t they be all-terrain?!), and our first mission was to find snow chains for my boots! I didn’t even know they made those, but Eric is a genius, and they are now in my possession, so the sliding is at a bare minimum. Success!

We are staying at the sweetest B&B, and there is a balcony overlooking Main Street. Aspen got 13 inches of much-needed snow last night, so this is what it currently looks like.

It’s actually really tolerable out in the afternoon sun, so maybe I will do a bit of reading on this rocker tomorrow.

Our hotel has several hot tubs, steaming up into the snow. Eric wonders about the logic of wearing a bathing suit in freezing temperatures, but I am holding out hope that it will be fun!

I am so excited about all the things we’ll be seeing and doing and eating this week. If anyone has recommendations, please send them my way!