Author: Jackie

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.”

~Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

Between preparing and selling our old house, The Kid’s work responsibilities and foreign travel, then packing him up and moving him to a new place – we’ve all been quite busy, stressed and basically exhausted. During those weeks, we promised ourselves a weekend away when it was all over.

With a Wodehouse audiobook for the road, we left after work Friday for Glenwood Springs. We had a suite room booked, and a five hour premium package at our favorite hot springs.

After a leisurely Saturday morning, we headed to the hot springs where we soaked in a dozen different pools inspired by hot springs around the world –

– from Japan, to Italy, to Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, to the Dead Sea,

sampled various poolside cocktails

and enjoyed lunch with a river view.

Everyone was hot, tired and thirsty, naturally, so we stopped for ice cream. Later, we had an excellent Indian meal, and a quiet evening in our room.

We were disappointed the little bookstore we visited last time was no longer in business, but we filled our time with something else we’d been meaning to do – and hiked up the hill to the old cemetery to visit the grave of Doc Holliday.

It was a lovely weekend – just what we were hoping for.

There may have been some talk of a repeat trip in cooler weather…