Happiness Lives High on a Mountain

Telluride, Colorado. Perfection in the form of a small town. Seriously, y'all, I'm this close to putting a down payment one of the cutest darn houses you have ever seen, because I am that ready to live there. I know I exaggerate, but no jokes here. Well, yeah, there will most likely be jokes, but that wasn't one.

They say that the name Telluride comes from an old expression "To hell you ride," with reference to the forbidding terrain surrounding this breathtaking mountain oasis (in the days before Jeep Cherokee Limiteds with automatic transmission and heated seats). I don't know who "they" are, but I really hope that's true. And they have magnets that say that for sale in the pharmacy across the street from our hotel. If a magnet says it, it must be true. Oh, and I just checked Wikipedia, and it makes reference to the same legend. The Wiki-gods have spoken. And we all know that you can't put anything on the internet that isn't true. So there you have it. To Hell U Ride...Telluride. And hell could not be farther from the truth. Telluride is officially my happy place. Or one of my happy places, since I can't seem to decide. Close call between this and Kiama, really. But I digress.

This trip was planned by my sister. She was working media ops for the USA Pro Challenge this summer, and Stage 1 wound through the Rockies from Durango to Telluride. As she tells it, she stepped into town, picked her jaw up off the ground, shook her head in disbelief that she had lived in Colorado for more than a decade and never been there, and then promptly began planning our return. The day after the Pro Challenge finished (and she recovered from a killer after party), she sat down and booked us three nights at The New Sheridan on Main Street.

The last week of September was chosen for its merits in the fall foliage department, and it could not have been more perfect. We woke up the first morning to this.

Swells the heart and brings tears to your eyes, doesn't it?

We spent the weekend sleeping in, eating delicious food, shopping, eating delicious food, hiking, eating in adorable restaurants, and staring all around us in disbelief that this exists on earth and is not overrun by people constantly. Oh, and riding the gondola. And eating.

The gondola is a really awesome form of free public transportation that takes you over Coonskin Ridge between Telluride and Mountain Village. The view is breathtaking on both sides of the mountain. Also, if you get to Allred's (the restaurant at Station St. Sophia at the summit) right at 5:00 for happy hour, you can snag the table in the corner and get a view like this to enjoy your drinks. And burgers. And truffle fries. Drool.

Dinner with a view.

...if you can tear your eyes away from the truffle fries...

Riding the gondola for the 8000th time.

On the gondola riding back from Mountain Village.

We had breakfast at The Floradora Saloon on Saturday morning...and enjoyed it so much that we returned the next morning and all ordered the same thing. Go there asap and get "The Trucker." Perfect biscuits, topped with crispy bacon, topped with two eggs over easy, topped with the best sausage gravy I have ever tasted. With a side of potatoes that are not even possible to describe with words. Why didn't I take a picture of it, you ask? Well, partly because I plain old didn't think of it in my rapture of breakfast deliciousness, and partly because the plate barely touched the table before all three of us were shoveling it into our mouths like some kind of crazed starving...something. Something that's starving. Words fail me. It was a gravybath. For those of you unfamiliar with that term (which is everyone, because it's made up), that's like a bloodbath, but with creamy, peppery sausage gravy instead. In case you didn't get it.

If you're there on the right weekends, you can catch the cutest little farmer's market you've ever seen.

We spent a morning there buying too much jewelry, and eating curried pumpkin pasties, spicy beef burritos, fresh kettle corn, apple tarts I would swim through shark-infested waters for, and this Colorado-made cider. A great way to spend a fall morning.

We hiked twice that weekend, once up to Bridal Veil falls in the box canyon, and once on Bear Creek Trail to another waterfall (not sure what that one was called...).

Back towards town from the box canyon on the way to Bridal Veil Falls.

About halfway up the Bear Creek Trail, you will find a clearing in which people have been constructing cairns. Like, for years. There are hundreds. It's a spiritual feeling to stand there, with that view, and see these little pieces of people who have stood there before you. It sounds cheesy, but when you see it, you'll know. We each built our own  before continuing on up the mountain.

The shopping there is great. It is the epitome of a small town, with only a couple blocks of shopping, but you'd be surprised. Every store was a gem. I spent way too much money.

The only thing that was less than perfect about the weekend was the fact that I did not realize until about 2 hours into the 6 hour drive that I had left my camera (my precious...my precious...(who read that in a Gollum voice? Be honest...)) sitting on the foot of my bed, all packed up in its best traveling outfit and ready to have a weekend in Telluride. I would say I was devastated, but I guess there are worse things. Are there worse things? Luckily, Telluride, being a ridiculously charming truly small town, pulled through, and more than one person offered the use of their own personal DSLRs. The concierge at the hotel and the guy that owned the computer store across the street (both of whom I had met within mere seconds of the offer) said I could have their Canons for the weekend. I do wish I had my own sweet Nikon, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, and thankfully I had the willpower to not let it spoil the weekend. And I got some OK shots out of the deal. The shots in this post are either from that camera or my iPhone.

Oh, fun fact. Did you know that Butch Cassidy's first bank robbery was in Telluride? Huh. I didn't. Anyway, excuse the strange lighting in this picture, but there you have it. The plaque says "Mahr Building - 1892 - Site of the San Miguel Valley Bank - Butch Cassidy's first bank robbery - June 24, 1889"
Cool.

Thank you to my beautiful sister for planning this trip. It was a wonderful girls' weekend.

One last look on our way back to reality.

Go there. You'll thank me when you do. Happiness really does live high on a mountain.

Your Geek is Showing - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Hogwarts, Instagrammed. Cell phones are great, ya?

Remember a while back when I told you that I kind of like that one book series, the one with the boy wizard? You might have heard of it. Well, those of you that actually know me (as in, real life, face-to-face, not on the interwebs), are friends with me on facebook, or follow me on Instagram know by now that I recently made a pilgrimage to that most wonderful of wonderful places. That's right. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was magical. Pun intended. But really. That is the word of choice and I'm sticking to it.

I went with another HP Enthusiast, my future sister-in-law (yay!) Natalie. Nothing says fun like a couple of grown women acting like children for a week. It was fantastic. Here's how it went. 

We flew into Florida on a Sunday and went straight to our hotel, where we promptly discovered that our room had a view of Hogwarts. No, I'm not joking, you could see the castle from our hotel room. Cue "Hedwig's Theme," and picture us squealing a little bit like a middle-schooler at a Justin Bieber concert. 

See? Not exaggerating. Taken from the hotel room window.

After dinner, we hit the sack in preparation for an early morning at the park (we had early admission. Duh. I told you this would be nerdy). We hadn't been in bed for more than two minutes before we both started giggling, and heartily agreed that we both felt like five year olds on Christmas Eve. We felt like we were never going to get to sleep.

In the morning, we walked to the park. Yeah. Walked. It wasn't all that far, and we weren't going to wait for the shuttle like some schmuck who doesn't mind sharing Hogsmeade with all the muggles. Keep in mind that we left the hotel at about 6am. As in, actually walking out the door. Those who know me well know that there are few things that can get me out of bed at that hour. Let it forever be known that early admission to WWoHP (as it shall be know from now on) is one of those things.

Anyway, where were we? Right. Sun is coming up, we are walking to the park. Siri tried to make us go the wrong way, but luckily we are smarter than the robots, and we figured it out on our own. Muggle technology can be rather unreliable at times.

I don't think I actually can describe for you the moment when we walked under the Hogsmeade sign, so here is where the pictures start in earnest.

Welcome to Hogsmeade, and please respect the spell limits.

The moment. THE moment. We thought we were all early and stuff, but check out all these other peeps!

Love the train. Love. Also, this is another instagrammed pic. Honestly, sometimes I wonder why I even carry a real camera. Never mind, I immediately take that back. I'll be right back, I need to go apologize to my camera and promise to buy her nice things.

First full view of Hogwarts. Soak it in.

Another view. If you are at all interested in seeing pictures of Hogwarts Castle from every single angle physically possible by a human without possession of a commercial-grade cherry-picker and professional photography equipment, let me know. You're welcome to come over and see them. Just make sure you set aside a couple hours.

The first of many "honeymoon" pictures...first you take one of me, then I'll take one of you... 

Platform 9 3/4

Told you. Another view of the castle. Here it is in the near darkness.

Hogsmeade by night

Honeydukes

My first piece of advice...if you just want Butterbeer (and not something to eat), grab it from a cart. You won't have to wait as long. Plus the carts are so freaking cute! Like seriously, look at that, will ya?

Let's look at it closer up. Goodness gracious. I'm having flashbacks. The good kind.

Try and get it early or late in the day though, as the lines can get really long in the middle of the day. There are also these guys that hover around near the entrance of the Three Broomsticks who will take your Butterbeer order and bring it out to you. If you don't need anything to eat, try and find those chaps.

About the Butterbeer itself. I have to say, this was a moment of great anticipation. We went straight for a Butterbeer cart the first morning we were there. Nothing quite like a flagon of liquid sugar to kick-start your day. You can choose between regular Butterbeer and frozen (but no warm option, which, even though the park is in Florida, would have been a nice in-universe touch I think...), and both kinds come with this imitation foam on top (being that it's not real beer and thus does not actually have foam). The Butterbeer was nice. Very sweet, but a pleasant taste if you ask me. I had three flagons over our two days at the park. Nat didn't like it that much on account of the sweetness. That and the fact that she gets motion sickness and we immediately went on a rollercoaster. Go figure. Anyway, I was saying that the Butterbeer is yummy. I personally liked the frozen better than the regular cold liquid variety. However, the real star of the show is the "foam." It is this butterscotchy, keep-your-dentist-in-business sweet, creamy, divine experience that I would have eaten by the bucketful. Maybe that's a little over the top. Let's just say it was pretty good. And honestly, this cupcake frosting that I made once was pretty close on the taste. I think this foam is one of those things where the recipe is probably guarded very closely (most likely by a couple armed security trolls or something), and no-one can ever get it exactly right, but the frosting'll do when I'm having a craving and getting the shakes.

Butterbeer!! And another "honeymoon" picture, in case you didn't notice.

The only major disappointment in the food/drink department? No pumpkin pasties. You can't get them anywhere. We asked about them at Honeydukes (and The Three Broomsticks), but no dice. The girl was quite apologetic, and told us we were not the first people to have asked. Oh, and also, they don't sell an alcoholic version of Butterbeer at the park. I don't mean like Spring Break get-you-faced kind of alcoholic, but just mildly, the way that they drink it in the books. I wanted to see what it was like. Other than those little quibbles (haha, get it?), the food was great. The WWoHP is not on the same food system as the rest of the park. Meal Deals don't apply there, and they don't sell soda. Instead, to drink you can get pumpkin juice, Butterbeer, regular muggle beer (Hog's Head Brew!), hot chocolate, milk, a couple different ciders, orange juice, or apple juice. Which I think is awesome. 

Like so. Pumpkin juice on tap.

They also don't sell any typical theme park food (hot dogs, turkey legs, churros, pizza, etc.). Their food is mostly traditional British food (or at least an Americanized idea of traditional British food).

Here is what we had for breakfast at the Three Broomsticks...

Oh, but first, the Three Broomsticks. Totally great.

But the food. Right. Here's breakfast:

Breakfast of British-American champions/theme park goers/people who like to eat a lot.

The English Breakfast came complete with Black Pudding. See that thing in the middle? It's black.

It tastes...well..here's how it went down:

Looking optimistic, yet apprehensive. Looking kinda silly and excited. Tasting...and...not so much. Washing it down with some Butterbeer. What else?

Sorry Brits, black pudding is totes not my cup of tea. The rest of the breakfast was pretty great though. Beans, croissant, eggs, potatoes, a yummy little roasted tomato, some sausage (of the non-blood sort), some English bacon, and some mushrooms. So much food!

And here is what we had for dinner at the Three Broomsticks (the only sit-down eatery in the WWoHP)...

Cornish pasties and a large salad. Complete with Hog's Head Brew and a chocolate cake/strawberry/whipped cream dessert. 

Having a brewski at the Hog's Head!

Chocolate strawberry cream dessert thingie...

Here's the Pumpkin Juice. I thought these bottles were just so cute! I kept one for my classroom.

Next up, the sweets (for those who aren't bilingual, that's British for candy). Ah, the sweets are great! Honeydukes was spot on, super colorful, and smelled positively divine. It was also always crowded, no matter when you are at the park, but it kind of added to the charm. You can imagine it's a Hogsmeade Weekend, and that's what it would be like with all the students there.

We didn't actually eat any of our sweets until we got back to Colorado, partly because we were doing quite a fine job of stuffing ourselves on park food and didn't have room for candy, and partly because eating chocolate when it's 8000ºF outside is neither appealing nor neat. However, we did have ourselves a nice little feast when we got back. First off, the chocolate frogs are fantastic! They are packaged just like the ones in the movies, and we got a nice assortment of cards (Only one repeat in five boxes. Not too bad. We also got all the Hogwarts founders amongst us). The frogs themselves are massive. As in, you might make yourself sick if you try to eat the whole thing in one sitting. I'm holding it here for a comparison. Now to be fair, I don't have the biggest hands, but really. That is one enormous chocolate frog. The picture is from above, but I should say that it stands about 3 inches tall too (from the flat surface underneath to its back).

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans are also a really fun treat. 

We spent time trying all the colors and having a good laugh at the less pleasant flavors. Some of them are gross. But that's the idea, so have some fun with it. Chase those ones with blueberry (of which we seemed to have plenty). The only flavor we couldn't find in our assortment was vomit. Not too torn up about that though.

So many beans!

I also bought some Peppermint Toads for my Mom. They were great! Really yummy, and so cute. They were about the size of the top of your thumb, perfectly minty, and super creamy.

I don't know what was going on in my mind when I failed to take a picture of their adorable-ness. Well actually, I do. I was in pepperminty bliss. Anywho, here is the Honeydukes display at least...

They have a large range of other sweets from the books and movies in Honeydukes...you could really do some damage in there (to your wallet and your teeth). I wish I could have sampled everything, but went with the basics (and the ones that would travel well in a suitcase). Had we the space, tooth enamel, and sweet-teeth for it, we could have also purchased:

Lemon drops (Dumbledore's favorite),

Pepper Imps,

Chocolate Cauldrons, 

Cauldron Cakes, 

 Exploding Bonbons and Fizzing Whizbees,

Blood Pops, Acid Pops, Sugar Quills, and Edible Dark Marks,

Fudge Flies, 

or Fred and George's Ton-Tongue Toffee.

And that's not even all of it.

Another must-see is Zonko's. 

Zonkos! I do wish they had Weasley's Wizard Wheezes too...

It's attached to Honeydukes, and is chock-a-block with jokes, toys, games, and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products (including U-No-Poo). 

Look up, look down, and check out each shelf. It is chaotic. As it should be.

Snippets of Zonkos.

You guys ready for me to stand on a soapbox, or what?

Personally (and forgive my nerdiness here...or don't. Honestly, I would understand if you don't), I think people should have to take a simple quiz or at least answer a couple questions correctly before gaining admittance to this section of the park. I mean, I didn't ask people any inane questions in the Marvel part of the park, did I? A lady actually asked me what Ollivander's was, and why people wanted to go in there. The nerve. I was just like "One moment please, I'm having a mildly euphoric out-of-body experience over here, I'll answer you in a second." I mean come on, it's crowded enough in there ...

Seriously? Holy moly, y'all! This is why we spent the majority of our time here in the mornings and evenings.

...without people wandering around wondering what everything is, or body-checking you out of the way when you are trying to get a picture of each and every window, just to try and figure out what the big deal is. Whew! Rant finished. Moral of the story? Don't go there if you don't give two hoots about The Boy Who Lived and The World he Lived in. I can't imagine you would enjoy it anyway. If you're a casual fan, or you've read one or more of the books, or even half a book, or watched the movies, come on down! Happy to have ya! But if you can't name a single character, or you stare at the little boy in full costume with a scar drawn on his forehead (of which there were several) like he's some kind of alien, spend your day somewhere else. Come in to enjoy the rides, like this one...

HP Dragon Challenge...dueling rollercoasters.

but leave the "streets" and the stores to the HP fans and enthusiasts. OK, now the rant is finished. Scout's honor.

My parting thoughts are these. If you are a Harry Potter fan of any kind, and you have the opportunity to get to the WWoHP, do it. It's so fun. And it's not even the only thing to do down there. There's always the rest of the park, and Universal Studios next door. Plus the Citywalk, and Orlando itself. And Miami's only a few hours away.

For serious HP fans: take your time. Look at everything. LOOK UP! Like, above your eye level. Then go back and look at everything again. Then get up the next day and do it again. There are little details everywhere that you don't want to miss. 

Like this:

Gringotts Bank ATM. Totally cute. Nice touch, WWoHP people, nice touch.

And this:

Owl clock tower

And this:

Wands stacked to the ceiling in Ollivander's

Don't think twice about spending hours and hours just looking at stuff. It's totally acceptable. The rides are fun and all, but while you're waiting in line, check out everything around you. Like all these Triwizard banners in the line for the Dragon Challenge...

And the flying Ford Anglia and Hagrid's hut.

And in the Forbidden Journey line, where you wind through the castle, you can see...

The house point hourglasses, Dumbledore's office, the Sorting Hat, and people sticking their faces into the pensieve (who invited that girl, anyway?)...

The fun signage for the Dueling Dragons...

Just go ahead and let people in front of you so you can stop and take pictures when the line is winding through the castle. You won't regret it. Just keep your eyes and ears peeled. You can even hear Moaning Myrtle in the girls' bathroom next to the Three Broomsticks.

This is what it looks like when you are the last people out the gates at night. They firmly but kindly had to ask us to leave. So we walked out backwards, and I snapped this one last image. 

Until next time, Hogsmeade, until next time.