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

That’s me holding him for the first time.

My mom’s an old hand at baby-holding.

Tiny feet.

Crashed.

You can find more photos here:
http://www.grownbypeople.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Revin-November-2008

The two big family highlights will be spending Thanksgiving with my sister and her new baby, and my grandmother’s 90th birthday party. We rented out a little room at the Moot House for the frivolity. Should be fun.

After spending a couple days with Thea’s folks in Las Vegas, we headed to Los Osos to stay with our old friends, Bryan and Molly. We always have a great time with these two. Soon after our arrival, Bryan said it best: "It’s like no time has passed." That’s what good friends do – they pick up where they left off regardless of how long it’s been since last they met.

Bryan has been busy in the back yard. Witness:

We had multiple meals that featured fresh veggies straight from the garden, including potatoes, beets and chard. And Bryan is a helluva cook!

While we were in the area we visited several of our favorite places, including:

• lunch with Craig at Pete’s on the Pier
• a couple hours hanging at Shell Beach
• checking on the status of the SLO Botanical Garden – looking good!
• Big Sky (of course) for lunch with the parents of some of our Paonia friends
• Montaña de Oro State Park
• A tour through "north county"

One of the places we wanted to go by was our old house in Santa Margarita. We were surprised to see that it’s up for sale again. We’d always been told that we sold the house at the perfect time, and it was a confirmation to see our old house for sale for $35k less than we sold it for. It was also a bit sad to see the house in the condition it was in. Sigh.

After a great evening of catching up with friends who dropped by Gus’s and then sushi with Bryan and Molly, we headed for San Francisco.

While in San Francisco, we stayed with some of my old colleagues from TrueCredit – Jill and Peter. It was great to see these guys again after so many years. They have a great old flat in the Castro, where they’ve lived for several years now.

Unfortunately, Thea picked up a case of food poisoning (or something) in SLO and spent the entire San Francisco portion of our trip feeling really terrible. It was quite disappointing for her, and I wish it hadn’t worked out that way.

I went with Jill and Peter to the rehearsal so I could check out the situation and help out if possible. Poor Thea remained behind.

Another of my former colleagues who now lives in Salt Lake (Nicole) flew in with her boyfriend (David) Friday night. Jill, Peter and I took the Muni (subway) down to the Embarcadero to meet Nicole and David for drinks. We weren’t there long, but it was good to hang out with them!

The wedding was the following day, and much of the day was devoted to it. Jill and Peter were involved in the setup, so they left early for errands, etc. I walked to the corner store and picked up some non-volatile food to whip Thea up some breakfast. Nicole and David met us at the apartment and we hopped in our car and drove up to Sausalito for the nuptials.

I’m glad we arrived when we did, because we had only really just sat down when they started the ceremony. And it was a very nice ceremony – short and thoughtful.

The reception started immediately thereafter, just inside the building next to where the ceremony took place. It was a great venue – a Julia Morgan structure with just enough room for 10 tables and a raised stage for the talent show. We’re glad our friends (the two who married that day) chose to skip the dancing, and instead feature musical acts by their friends. It was very entertaining. Plus, I had a job as "the roadie," running the sound for the various acts. Peter and I collaborated on this, which made it ten times more fun.

Our own performance was not up to our standards, but everyone seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. Thea is a gifted writer of comedy songs, and I help her out with song structure and stuff like that. (We’re going to prepare a recorded version of the song when we get over our respective diseases.)

After the wedding we loaded a bunch of Peter’s gear into the back of our car and followed them back to their place in the city. Thea naturally went straight to bed, but I stayed up with the others for a nightcap and our last chance to socialize.

Jill and Peter made us a lovely breakfast the next day, and then we headed out for Las Vegas. Bryan and Molly had highly recommended a scenic route through Yosemite and down highway 395 through Bishop, but Thea was still feeling quite bad. So we high-tailed it down I-5 (ugh) and made it there in 9 hours.

After a day of resting in Las Vegas, we headed home. I had just come down with a cold so Thea did most of the driving.

All in all we traveled about 2,560 miles on this trip. It was fun and exhausting.

Thanks to all the folks who hosted us, bought us meals, and were otherwise nice people! Hope to see you all again before too long!

Saw some old friends and was drafted as the sound guy/"roadie." It was good to contribute to the frivolity. Many thanks to Peter for his excellent partnership and copious stage experience.

For those interested, my friend Mike Soliman took some typically excellent and creative photos when he and his wife weren’t performing.

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_soliman/sets/72157607406061547/

Now we head back to Vegas to pick up the dogs, and then home!

Today is the wedding, and we’re going to go for it. Because Thea’s feeling better than yesterday, we believe she’s on the mend. So she’ll take it easy and we’ll do our best when we perform in the talent show. We (especially Thea) put a lot of work into the act, so I hope we can pull it off!

Walking around SLO today was fun – perfect weather, the students just arrived, and everything is gorgeous. It was a beautiful place to live.

We came half-expecting feelings of regret for leaving 3 years ago. But those feelings never came. The truth is that California is not our home. Nothing against California – we just feel more at ease in the dry, oxygen-poor air of the Rockies.

Tonight will be entertaining – beers on the patio at Gus’s (hope we can find a table), then back to our hosts’ place for carryout from Tsurugi (great sushi). Tomorrow we head north to San Francisco for the wedding.

Our friends, H & A, have a cabin near Lake Irwin, which itself is on the Crested Butte side of Kebler Pass. The cabin sits about 11,000 ft. The tallest mountain in the vicinity is Mt. Owen at 13,102 ft. There are tons of 13 and 14,000 ft. peaks in the region.

I’m kicking myself for not properly loading maps onto my GPS receiver, and for then forgetting that I could still plot our course even without the maps. Sigh.

Anyway, here’s a map that shows the most interesting parts:

We hiked from the cabin up along the western edge of the Robinson Basin, eventually reaching the pass between Scarp Ridge and Purple Peak. From there we could see forever.

When the wind picked up and we started getting cold, we hiked back down and stopped by Green Lake.

You can see photos of the day on our rapidly-deployed photo gallery site.

OK, back to work!