Arrival and our first day in Breckenridge!

This trip came out of a desire to have a quick mother/daughter getaway to someplace fun! We didn't want warm, and we're all snow/winter lovers so we decided to go cold! We'll see if going to one of the highest elevations in the United States was a good choice. Breckenridge, Colorado was chosen because Patty had visited here for a quick day trip when she was in Colorado for business years ago....

On the plane and ready for a great 3 day adventure!!

We made it to our rental car just as the sun was setting and that was the last "view" we got before darkness. We had a two hour drive up and into the mountains from Denver to Breckenridge in the dark with WAZE as our tour guide.

Denver Airport at sunset..

I found a great app to watch our elevation, since I couldn't look at the scenery - we started at about 6,500 feet in Denver and climbed as high as about 11,100 feet and then back down to about 9,000...finally ending about about 9,600 at our hotel when we checked in.

We had a very late dinner at the hotel restaurant and then tried to sleep. Between altitude adjustments and the time change...sleep was hard to come by this first night. I was up at 4:00 a.m. (6:00 Virginia time) and just caught up on some work while waiting for sunrise at 6:45.

Woke up to finally see where we were and explored the area before breakfast...it is beautiful and cold! About 20 degrees outside. Today is forecast to be a beautiful, sunny day with a high of 35.

 The lobby:

Our view from breakfast:

After breakfast we drove down into town and enjoyed walking around, shopping and taking in the sights...

First stop was a cute coffee shop - lots of fun!

After that we walked around town and found lots of cute shops. The weather was about 23 degrees and a little breezy.

Coming from basically sea level to 10,000 feet  we were all a little winded and mom was hit with altitude issues hard, so we made a recommended stop at the Oxygen Bar. We hooked up for about 45 minutes and had smoothies while we "oxygenated" our bodies.  The place was very popular - a bridal party of about 10 girls came in while we were there, as well as a couple groups of guys who weren't feeling well. After 45 minutes, we were good to go for the rest of the afternoon. 

We ate lunch at Flip Side - a great burger place with awesome milkshakes.

And wandered Main Street some more - so many cute shops and fun areas to explore in this little town

Our view driving back to The Lodge

We got back to The Lodge and mom took a power nap and we watched a Winter Bride get ready for her outdoor mountain wedding. So pretty!

One of the highlights of the day was my new snow boots! Crazy as that sounds, I got new boots for this trip and also for our Rahn family adventure in December. I was worried they wouldn't be broken in enough...and after wearing them for 12 hours today, they were still super comfortable!! So excited!

So day one was in the books and we survived the huge changes in elevation...tomorrow is supposed to bring snow in the forecast and some more exploring...maybe a gondola ride to the top of the mountain.