H-H-H-Honeymoon! {part 2}

In the last installment of the Honeymoon series, I explained how we got to Colorado (literally and decision-wise) and showed you our digs for the week.

Will planned the whole trip. He did a wonderful job! It was all a surprise to me. Everyday, we would wake up and he would tell me what the plan was for the day. Each day was filled with the perfect balance of local, unique activities and time spent resting, either at "home" or in cozy spaces. It was exactly what I was hoping for.

Walking around the lake behind our cabin

Yup. PDA. This is about our honeymoon, after all

The next day, Will and I woke up and went to a breakfast place, Creekside Cafe, that came highly recommended by his family. Eggs Benedict is one of my favorite meals, and this place offered 14 varieties. Heavenly.

The creek near Creekside Cafe. They're very literal in Colorado

After breakfast, we went to this little local bookstore nearby, Off the Beaten Path. It had a small coffee shop and reading areas, study areas, stationary and notebooks. It was adorable! We looked around and picked out some books to read. We settled into a couch and read for a long while. Not a typical honeymoon excursion, but one that fits us pretty perfectly. 

Later that day, we went to the grocery store with our handy list. We planned a menu of tasty meals for the week, taking advantage of the grill and weather. We got home from the store and got straight to work on dinner.

Dinner: Pasta Carbonara, Caesar Salad, White Wine

It was a pretty perfect day, actually. Slept in (relatively) late that morning, went to a wonderful breakfast place, spent time in a cozy bookstore, and then made and ate a fabulous meal. It tickled a lot of the things that Will and I love to do together, so it was a perfect way to start off life as Mr. & Mrs. Killmer.

The next day, we had breakfast and headed out for a hike at Fish Creek Falls, a recommendation from Will's family. There were several hikes available. We chose the moderate sounding path, primarily because it is a paved walk and that sounded more appealing for our knee joints.

The namesake waterfall is behind us

Well, we started walking along, enjoying each other's company and the smoothly paved roads and moderate weather... and then we were done. Just like that. We turned a corner, and suddenly we were at the "overlook". Not really the hiking experience we were expecting.

You can see the waterfall is a little bit closer, but it was a mini-hike, and the Killmers were hoping for a more dramatic & brag-worthy hike

But we got some beautiful pictures on the walk back!

We walked back and decided to take the harder route up the mountain and closer to the falls. The 3 hiking options were: a "walk" to the picnic/family area, the paved path we took, and... a 5 mile hike through the wilderness. Go big or go home, Colorado.

So we decided to take the harder path, go until we got tired, stop and have our picnic lunch, and then turn around. We got closer to the falls, walked between trees and around rocks, and got out of the way of the SUPER HIKERS who had walking sticks that looked like ski poles. 

Gratuitous "honeymoon waterfall" picture

Wilderness man... makes his beard look so tame

Smile, Mrs. Killmer!

Our "action" shot. BAM

We finally stopped for our picnic lunch. We found a large tree that had fallen over, providing for us the perfect bench (and lunch guests... hello bees, dragon flies, and crazy big ants.)

Um, this is our "eating action" shot. Also, this is the face Will makes when he impersonates a wookiee* (which he does more often than you'd guess...)

*Yes, I Googled how to spell this

We made our way back from the hike and were going to go play disc golf at a campus nearby, but the wind was CRAY-ZAY and the course was pretty hard for a beginner (ahem, me.) Also, I managed to get pretty sunburned on our hike, despite remembering to pack our sunscreen and carrying it in Will's backpack for the entire hike. #gingerfail

Not the prettiest picture, but I thought it was cool to see the paths of the ski slopes on the mountains

Then it was home again to make dinner. Grilling success.

Menu: Grilled Salmon, Grilled Asparagus, Mango Cilantro Salsa

Finished Day 2 with a movie from Redbox ... oh, and a visit from a local mouse. We were contentedly watching "Ironman" [please read: Jenn had fallen asleep on the couch and Will was attentively watching], when suddenly Will sat up and was very rigid. I thought something AWESOME just happened in the movie, but he didn't really say anything for a minute. Finally he said, "I don't want you to freak out." Um, not the best way to start this explanation, William. The he said he thought he saw a mouse go across the living room floor. I calmly raised my legs to the couch and looked around the room from my safety perch. Sure enough, we saw a small brown mouse jet up the stairs. We went upstairs looking for it, to no avail. 

Plan for Day 3: go to store for a mousetrap. Be still my heart...