Biking, Hiking and Drinking

June 6th was Adam and I's 2 year anniversary! Holy cow- I literally can't believe its already been two years. Anyways, since we had been to Mexico in May for Courtney and Brian's wedding- we knew we couldn't do a huge trip. So Adam decided to plan a little surprise weekend get away for us.

Friday after work- we jumped in the car (I still didn't know where we were headed). Adam had told me what to pack and the only clue I had was that there were bikes in our car! Adam completely outdid himself- we ended up about 3.5 hours away from Denver in Palisade, CO! Palisade is the home to the famous Palisade peaches.... and lots of other fruits, including grapes. Basically this part of CO is perfect for growing grapes and has recently been becoming its own little wine region in CO. There are probably about 20-30 wineries in the area (all small, some VERY small). And since we are wino's... it was perfect :)

We stayed in a cute B&B and spent the entire day on Saturday biking to all the vineyards... and we hit 11 of them....

Starting out!


So to explain this picture above. One of the wineries we went to was a Meadery. Which means, they make Mead wine- which in a nutshell is honey wine. Its made with honey+water+yeast. No grapes at all! And it was SWWWEETT and delicious! They made all different flavors including: Cherry honey, Blueberry honey, peach honey, apricot honey, cherry chocolate satin (my fav) and their special- raspberry chocolate satin. It was really fun and different.

One of the other wineries we went to specialized in fruit wines. Made similar to wine made with grapes, but they do all different fruits. I believe they had around 30 different flavors on the menu. They were also really, really sweet- but really really good. My favorite was the cherry wine- which we brought home a bottle of.

Back to the pics....

And what I felt like after hitting up 11 wineries...... I felt just like I look. Notice my purple mouth- awesomeness...
Sunday we woke up and headed back towards Denver. About half way, was a hike we have wanted to do for a very long time. We didn't even realize this hike was on the way, so it was a last minute decision and it was AMAZING!!! We hiked up to Hanging Lake. Its about 10 miles East of Glenwood Springs and a mile hike up and I will let the pictures do the talking... WOW.

The hike up...



Behold: Hanging Lake. The water was crystal clear.

So after we hiked up to the hanging lake- we heard there was a second trail that took you behind the waterfall. We found it and I am sure glad we did. It was exhilarating. I quickly went behind the waterfall, but it was freezing and wet. I tried to stand there to take it all in- but could only last a few seconds. Adam got a few pics (quickly so he didn't ruin the camera).

Behind one of the falls...
LOVE THIS PIC! It was kinda scary, but worth it.
It was a fabulous weekend. Adam and I had such a good time together. I told him I get to plan our next surprise trip- but don't know if this one can be topped!

Love you Adam- Happy 2 year. Cheers!