Saturday September 19, 2015
Grand Junction – Delta, CO – Carbondale – Aspen
155 miles
We were downstairs in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express by 6:30 for juice and coffee and headed back to Main Street downtown for breakfast at the Dream Cafe. I found it yesterday online and it’s across the street from Le Rouge. Gorgeous morning, cold, clear, bright.
Wish we had the Dream Cafe at home! They have our lamp.
Bob ordered two fried eggs (over hard, yolk cracked), Dream potatoes (hash browns), bacon and a biscuit. Me; two poached eggs, ham and rye toast. And strawberry basil jam. All of it excellent. Including diner coffee. The place had a really comfortable happy vibe from the wait staff to the other customers. Loved it. Figuring out how we go back next Saturday when we leave Breckenridge and head home.
We had an easy and, again, gorgeous drive to Aspen. The last time we got gas was Delta, UT and this morning we got gas in Delta, CO. And a car wash to get the millions of squashed bugs and whatnot off the car and windshield.
We were stopped here for about 10 minutes for road work.
And Bob did this. Not really but it looks like it.
We drove through mountains, by mountains, in view of mountains. The trees are changing and the air is crispy clear.
We checked into our room at the Hyatt and, for the first time EVER, were disappointed. We always get a studio here to save points and we have always been lucky; they have had tables — to play dominoes and give us an option to bring in take-out if we want, armchairs for reading etc. This room had a huge bathroom, large hall entry, fireplace, king bed and that was it. NO CHAIR(S).
We took a walk to find lunch and scope out the town. Looked at menus, etc for an hour and sat at the J Bar in Hotel Jerome for a drink and maybe lunch. I was really bummed about the room so took my phone and called the Hyatt Residence Club from the lobby. Gave our sorry story, the (lovely!) woman called Aspen while I was on hold and said they could move us to a one bedroom. We gulped our drinks — Long Table draught for me, house Chardonnay from Napa for Bob — and headed back to change rooms. O M G. Why we haven’t been getting a one bedroom all these years is beyond us!! Damn the points. We have two sets of double doors, full kitchen, glassware for martinis, champagne, white wine, Cabernet, a washer/dryer, steam shower…did anyone hear Bob whoop around 2:00p MT?? It is fantastic, as you can see… No more studios for us.
We decided to skip lunch and go right to Happy Hour so we hung in the room catching up on emails, news until about 3:30 when we decided to prowl for something to eat and drink. We both realized we were starving. Brunelleschi’s answered our prayers. We have been here in previous years and always enjoyed it. There were two seats at the end of the bar in front of a tv. I ordered a Manhattan with local rye and Bob his Chivas. They had a two topping happy hour pizza for $10 which we split with sausage and red peppers — thin, blistered crust; fantastic.
From there we walked around for about an hour looking in stores and menus. We decided to go to Mezzaluna, another favorite from years past, and see if we wanted dinner or more appetizers. We sat at the bar in view of the pizza oven and ordered glasses of Pinot Grigio and Chianti for $5 happy hour price. Bob ordered popcorn shrimp and I ordered the carpaccio. We gobbled up both with another glass of Chianti.
It was about 6:00p and we decided we were full but stopped at City Market to get cheesecake, snacks for tomorrow, good chocolate….. We were back in the room watching USC-Stanford, blogging, reading for the rest of the evening with the fireplace on and the French doors open. Yay for upgrades.
Bob and Sharon's Travel Diary 