Since my last post focused mainly on the Bluegrass festival, I’ll focus this post on non- festival related things.

I had dinner with my friend Kate last week and she asked me what my favorite thing about Colorado. “That’s easy,” I replied, “the stars!”

On our first night in Telluride we were walking back to the gondola and when we got to a particularly dark stretch of road, free of street lights, Chris told me to look up. I gasped. I have never in my life seen that many stars. That is by far what I’ll miss the most. I wish I could see those stars every night of my life and I made sure to look up and appreciate them every night.

Our first two full days in Telluride were mostly spent going in and out of the festival, but we mixed it up on our last two days.

On Saturday we relaxed and lounged around the condo for a bit before heading out for a hike. My amazing friends Becky and Ben were back home in DC participating in the Walk of Hope in memory of their daughter Cecelia Grace and many of us around the US and Canada took our own walks in solidarity.

The scenery was absolutely stunning and it was a great way to show Becky and Ben our support and to honor Cecilia Grace. After our hike we cleaned ourselves up and headed back to the festival.

When we got in to town Chris decided to stop at Baked in Telluride for a doughnut. As we waited to pay we noticed this sign at the register and had quite a laugh. I’m pretty sure there are like 4 Jewish people in all of Telluride, including Ralph Lauren who has a house there, but us New Jersey Jews really get around, huh?

On Sunday there was no one we particularly wanted to see at the Bluegrass festival until the “house band,” who would close the show so we planned a day of activities. We started the day out with another hike. This one brought us 10,000 miles up to Bear Creek Falls. The last 100 feet of this hike is a bit more challenging as the path up to the falls becomes narrow and you have to hop over some streams and climb over some fallen tree branches to get there, but it was totally worth it for these views.

Unfortunately, what goes up must come down. As a New Yorker who walks all the time, the distance of this hike, about 5 miles round trip, didn’t intimidate me at all. And walking uphill, well you’re excreting yourself more than on a typical New York City sidewalk, but I can handle that. Downhill though, that’s another story. I am a huge klutz and not known for my grace, elegance or balance. I was pretty much terrified on those first 100 feet back down from the falls, but I stayed calm while Chris helped guide me and I managed to climb down without inflicting serious or even minor injury on myself. I’ve been known to inflict injuries on myself while walking from the bedroom to the bathroom so this was quite and accomplishment for me.

After our hike we cleaned up and headed in to Telluride to watch the US vs. Portugal World Cup match. (Please note that I have not mentioned World Cup at all in my previous posts because I’m so depressed about how it all turned out. I really thought we’d make it to the quarter finals this time. Sigh…)

We met Dan and a bunch of other friends who’d left the festival to watch the game at a local “pizza” place. The place was so packed that I wondered if anyone at all was still at the festival! Our large group gathered around a very small table, ordered drinks and settled in to cheer on Team USA. At this point Chris and I were starving and ready for some food so we ordered the boneless spicy bbq wings which were delicious.

Chris and I actually both prefer bone-in wings, but there were so may of us gathered around this small table that Chris and I had to hold the basket in our laps and so we went for the easier option. The things we do for our love of food and soccer!

After the bittersweet game we headed back to the gondola to get back to our condo. For days we’d been seeing a cart in front of the gondola station advertising, “Teddy’s Doughnuts,” and Chris decided it was time to try some. As he was placing his order a thought occurred to me and I asked the woman frying the doughnuts if she was the owner. She answered that she was so I told her about my allergies and she assured me that her doughnuts were safe for me.

We ordered the cinnamon sugar doughnuts which she served us hot right out of the fryer. They were so good! The doughnuts weren’t very sweet at all and they were so light that they melted in our mouths. I’m also a huge fan of cinnamon sugar and loved licking it off my fingers like a little kid

After freshening up at the condo we headed back to the festival to watch the house band, which featured; Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Del McCoury, Alison Krauss and others, close out the show. The band was great! We danced and soaked up the last of all the great live music before heading back to our condo for our final night sleeping in the mountains.

The next morning we were up and out bright and early for our 6 hour drive back to the Denver airport to catch our flight home.

This was a truly magical trip and I miss Colorado already. I visited Alaska in 2006 and that is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, but Telluride is a very close second and I feel blessed to have been able to spend time there.

Where is the most beautiful place you’ve ever been?