Anniversary in Ouray

Since last year’s anniversary was pretty much a bust (Thea got the flu), we wanted to make up for it a bit this year. We both enjoy hot springs quite a bit, so we decided to stay at the Wiesbaden Hot Springs spa in Ouray.

We rented their “Hilltop Cottage,” which is really just a little cabin up the hill from the rest of the place. It was very small, but there was a good deal of privacy. Part of our plan in renting the cottage was that it had its own kitchen. We planned to save some money by making our own meal, instead of paying someone else to cook for us. So, Thea developed the menu:

• Elk medallions garnished with sauteed mushrooms in a red wine reduction
• Potato boats filled with leek mousse
• Asparagus with cabernet dressing
• Field greens with goat cheese, candied pecans and dried cherries
• Vanilla bean ice cream with raspberries jubilee

Yum, right?

Unfortunately, when we checked in and went up to the cottage we learned that the electric range was broken.

UH OH.

But instead of getting pissy about it, we talked to the desk person and asked about options. They offered to give us the little house across the street from the spa instead. But we looked it over and decided we liked the cute little cabin better. So we could either just give up on making our own dinner, or use the wood burning stove in the cottage.

As you can see the menu was rather complicated, so we weren’t sure if we could prepare it on the wood burning stove. But luckily the cottage also came with a microwave, so we decided to go for it. We figured we could cook the food sequentially on the stove, then warm things in the microwave as necessary.

But before we started cooking, we wanted to soak and relax, so we went down and used one of our two hours at the private Lorelei Pool.

It’s a gorgeous pool with a huge private space. The whole time we were in the pool it was snowing. Loved it.

After the soak we spent some time in the Wiesbaden’s vapor cave. We had it all to ourselves for the 20 minutes or so that we could stand the heat. I noticed while we were in there that when I said something, the cave would resonate at a certain pitch. So I played with that for awhile (hoping not to disturb anyone). I could hum very lightly (kind of an “ohmmmmm” thing), and the cave would amplify the sound by a LOT.

Then it was back to the cabin for some champagne! There was a gentle snowfall while we sipped the drinks and relaxed.

When it was time to get to work on dinner, I started a fire in the oven and we began the preparations. First was the potatoes and leek mousse, then the asparagus, then the elk medallions.

Because we could only do so much at once, it took much longer than it would have (like 3 hours), but it TURNED OUT GREAT!

We woke up the next morning to a beautiful mix of sun and snow. We took another soak in the Lorelei, hit the vapor cave again, and checked out. Then it was breakfast downtown before turning around for home.

You can see all the photos here:

http://www.grownbypeople.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=17th-Anniversary-in-Ouray