Vacation Recap

March 19, 2018March 18, 20187 Comments

Hey there! While I’m loving my {slightly sporadic} newsletter adventure, I thought B2B would be a better place to share our Telluride recap. If you remember, last year we went to Jackson Hole and were blessed with pretty much non-stop snow the entire time we were there. It made every run feel like a powder/first track run, which was awesome! While we were not lucky enough to have any snow during our time in Telluride {read: lightest snow fall in YEARS – bare ground everywhere!}, we still had a wonderful trip. The little town, the hotel, the views and the mountains were everything I’d seen in pictures that initially made me want to visit.

Here are details on our stay – I would fully recommend ALL of these to anyone planning to visit Telluride. There wasn’t one thing that we would’ve changed during our time there. Well, except to have the snow Gods on our side to bless us with more snow 🙂 That said, since our initial flight out was cancelled and our flight home was cancelled, I’m also going to share some details about our unplanned 2 night stay in Dallas. We were both more than ready to be home, but made the best of our stay in Dallas and had some great meals and drinks worthwhile of sharing.

Flights

When flying to Telluride, you either fly to Montrose or Telluride. I couldn’t find any flights into Telluride, so I am guessing it must be for private plans/very wealthy people or locals. We flew into Montrose (with a layover in Dallas) and then used a shuttle service to get from Montrose to downtown Telluride, which was a 90 minute ride. We used Telluride Express which ended up being a little over $100/pp round trip.

Where to Stay

I did a lot of research before we went in terms of where to stay. There are two areas that people generally stay: downtown Telluride or Mountain Village. Downtown Telluride is just a short (15 minute gondola ride) to Mountain Village, but has a better restaurant/bar scene. Mountain Village is at the base of the mountain and has a good array of hotels and restaurants, but they tend to be a bit busier since they’re at the base of the mountain. We opted to stay in downtown Telluride because we wanted more of a restaurant/nightlife scene (even though we went to bed so early every night!) and were very happy with this decision.

Originally we planned on doing an Airbnb, but they ended up being the same price as hotels so we booked at Hotel Columbia, which I couldn’t recommend more! The location was perfect – it was within close (5 minutes) walking distance to all the good restaurants, shops, Main street and literally across the street from the gondola and 1 chair lift that took you up to the mountain if you didn’t want to go to Mountain Village. Our room (room 42) was on the 4th floor, had a balcony overlooking the mountain, a gas fireplace, small kitchenette with a 2 burner stove, refrigerator and microwave, a large bathroom with heated floors and towel rack, the most comfortable bed and little sitting area. Included in our stay was access to their ski/board storage room downstairs and a delicious (and plentiful) breakfast which included lots of coffee, fresh juice, eggs, bacon, yogurt, homemade granola, homemade pastries and more. It was the best way to start the day! They also have a super popular happy hour at their restaurant, Cosmopolitan, with $5 Cosmo’s and snacks. We wanted to have dinner there, but they were booked the night we wanted to go 😦

Overall, we would HIGHLY recommend staying here – the staff was so knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. I had called ahead to see if they would stock our fridge with some local beers for RM and they were so sweet in this accommodation!

Mountain Details

Telluride is really big, with incredible altitude levels. It was crazy how high it was! We didn’t get to all of the trails since neither of us have fun on blacks or double blacks, but the blues and double blues that we went on were awesome! We loved the Polar Express lift, Prospect Express and Plunge. Getting to the top of Plunge was SO scary because it was so high, but Woozley’s Way and/or See Forever were great trails with beautiful views!

They have a few restaurants at various peaks and we opted to get drinks at Bon Vivant mid-day one day. I’m not big on mid-day drinking, though, as it decreases my motivation to continue skiing 😉

We Apres’d at Tomboy Tavern at the base of Mountain Village a few times and really enjoyed both their outdoor bar and indoor fireplace area.

Eats

Ah! We ate SO well during our time in Telluride. On our first day, we went to the grocery store (just like Whole Foods) and stocked up on stuff for lunches since we prefer to not eat out 3x a day.

With the location of our hotel, we were able to pop “home” to eat lunch and then go back out, which was great. For our non-room meals, here are some places we enjoyed

Smuggler’s – This was our first stop after arriving into Telluride as we were looking for a drink and food STAT, and this was down the street from Hotel Columbia. We shared wings, a salad and fried calamari and enjoyed it! It’s a brewery, so they have a large beer selection.
New Sheridan Chop House – After all of my Telluride research, I felt like this was a must. Luckily, we were able to find seats right at the bar and enjoyed some cocktails and a delicious steak dinner, paired with a lovely glass of Barolo 😉

There… – This was a recommendation that came from someone at Hotel Columbia, and we were so thankful for it! They are a small place off the beaten path, but somehow when we walked in they had 2 seats at the bar that we were able to snag. The drinks were funky and interesting, the service was great and the food was incredible. We shared a few small plates and both couldn’t get over how flavorful everything was. It was honestly one of the best meals we’ve had in a while!
Tomboy Tavern – We had some “nachos” after skiing one day and they were made with homemade potato chips rather than tortilla chips… a combination we both really enjoyed!

Brown Dog Pizza – While perusing through some of the shops along Main Street, we asked someone where we could find good pizza and this was her suggestion. A short couple of blocks later and we, again, stumbled into a busy restaurant that luckily had 2 bar spots open up just as we walked in. The bar staff were SO friendly and we took their suggestion to try their Detroit style pizza which was a combination of deep dish and Sicilian. In short, it was amazing. We were very happy with this recommendation!

Cosmopolitan – Again, we didn’t end up getting a chance to eat here (we fell asleep at 8pm our first night and opted for pizza on our last night), but everywhere I read recommended it. Plus, by the looks of the crowds we saw in there every night it must be good!

Overall, even without snow, we loved our time in Telluride! It was the cutest little town that felt like it was right out of a movie!

And now onto Dallas. I’ve been to Dallas probably 10 times, so I wasn’t super excited about being stuck there for 2 days, but we did a great job making the best of it. We stayed at the Sheraton in downtown Dallas, which I realized I had stayed at before. They had a HUGE gym and nice pool, although jeans and a longsleeve were the best I could do for sun bathing clothing 😉

We walked to Deep Ellum and had incredible beers at Braindead Brewing. Nothing like sitting outside in 65* weather in March! We had tacos and margarita’s at Maraca’s and hit the hay early.

On our final day there, we walked to The Woolworth for lunch, another place I had been to, but didn’t realize it until we got there. We sat outside and soaked up the sun – it was lovely. For dinner, we wanted another steak dinner (when in Dallas) and after some research we decided on Nick & Sam’s, which was great! The bar was a little dark/loud, but the drinks and food were awesome!

All and all, although we had an unexpected 6 night vacation (as opposed to 4), it was awesome. RM is my favorite person to travel with – it’s great how well we travel together! We are always on the same page about where to go, what to do, what to eat, etc. so it makes it so fun! We are already planning our next adventure – thinking of Europe in the fall!

If you have any questions or want more info on any of our travel details, let me know! And don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter – I share all sorts of things!

Wednesday Workout: Hotel Gym Full Body Circuit

May 20, 2015May 19, 20154 Comments

I’m a big believer that just because you travel, doesn’t mean you have to give up your normal routine. Sure, things will be different- that’s a given- but when I travel I really try to stay on track with eating well and keeping active. Well, I guess this is more true when I travel for work because personal vacations should include indulgences and living off your normal schedule, right?! Last week I had to travel for work and since I was traveling alone, I was able to eat when, where and what I wanted and also go to the gym when it was right for my schedule- this was awesome!

I’ve been to a lot of hotel gyms- some are good some are not so good. Luckily, the gym at Le Joule had a pretty nice gym- full set of weights, cable machines, kettlebells and cardio equipment. I ended up working out twice in my very short stay because I enjoyed the gym so much (ok, and the shower in my room was amazing and I wanted to use it again…). The first day was a little cardio and then the full body circuit in this post. The second was a 5K run on the treadmill and some abs. All in all, I was really happy that I was able to get some physical activity in, especially since the flight was so long each way!

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Boston>Dallas>Chicago

November 12, 2013November 11, 20139 Comments

Few! Hi everyone! How’s it going? I can’t believe that a week ago today I was packing up and heading out to Dallas. After making a detour through Chicago for a long weekend vaca, I finally made it back to Boston last night, just in time to jump into my car and head to Watertown to sub a kickboxing class. Not the brightest idea, but I wanted to help a fellow instructor out and I was itching to teach (it’s crazy how much I miss teaching when I haven’t taught in a week+.).

Let’s catch up, shall we? I am going to get to my Chicago recaps later this week, but I wanted to share some things I did and learned about while I was in Dallas. We are required to take certain classes at my company, one of those classes being a Business Writing Course. I’ve never been a terrific writer, and blog writing is veryyy different from business writing, so I was actually excited to take the course.

I got to Dallas on Tuesday night around 7 and immediately met up with a few coworkers (some taking the course and some just work in Dallas). We went to Pappadeaux and I ordered a glass of Chardonnay to quench my hunger thirst. I don’t know what it is, but as soon as I travel for work, I feel like I am on “vacation”, which means I tend to indulge in more alcoholic beverages than usual (on a normal week, I don’t drink at all Sunday-Thursday).

For dinner, I ordered the Seafood Skewers which were delicious! It was a mixture of salmon, shrimp and scallops with an assortment of grilled veggies sandwiched between. The plate was HUGE, so I barely made a dent in the meal- always a shame when I’m traveling and can’t take leftovers home.

Wednesday morning, I headed to the gym for a cardio and light strength workout and then went to day 1 of the training course. One of the best things I learned throughout the 2 days was how we have been taught to use big, filler words rather than using smaller, stronger words. I think some of you can agree that when typing business emails, a common sentence may be “Attached please find a word document with responses pursuant to your earlier requests. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.”, right? Well, in this course, we learned that no one likes to read emails with “filler” words that are used to try to make the piece sound fancier than it is. We want to read things that are quick, short and things that we understand. We were encouraged to re-write the sentence above with removing unnecessary words: “The answers to your questions are attached. Please let me know if you have questions.” Much easier to read, right?

I could go on and on about the course, but in attempt to not make this post ridiculously long, I’ll stop there. 😉

Wednesday night, my coworker and I grabbed Mexican at Chuy’s which is a restaurant our team went to the last time we were in Dallas. I splurged and ordered a margarita to start… It was SO worth the splurge!

I ordered one of the “lighter” chicken dinner options since I consumed my weight in chips, salsa and queso and was no longer very hungry.

We grabbed a glass of wine at the hotel bar before calling it a night. I was happy to have some earlier nights during this leg of my trip since I knew I would be staying out much later while in Chicago.

After the course ended for the day on Thursday, I headed to the Dallas airport. I mentioned on Instagram; that I had planned on eating healthier and not drinking, but what did I end up doing? Sitting at a Mexican bar drinking wine and eating chips/salsa. Ugh. I wasn’t so mad about it, though, because there were a few cute guys sitting next to me so chatting with them was a good way to pass the time. 😉

I got to Chicago around 10pm and headed to the hotel where my sister was staying. I was so excited to see her and start “vacationing”. We caught up for a bit and then went to bed. I had to work a bit on Friday morning so I got up early to work out and start my day. I usually rest on Friday’s, but I knew I likely wouldn’t work out over the weekend so I wanted to get something in.

Around noon, we headed back to the airport to take the Blue Line into the city. Our room was ready, so we checked in, dropped off our bags and quickly headed out. We stayed at the Sheraton in downtown Chicago and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for some place to stay. It was super affordable (I used points for 2 nights, but it was still affordable even without points), very clean/nice, had a great gym and was in a great location.

I’ll catch you up on the rest of Friday night in a later post… this one is getting quite lengthy!

Questions for you: What is your favorite Mexican restaurant or meal? Do you like margaritas? If so, what kind?

Weekly Workouts: Hotel Gyms & Preparing for Mania & Spartan

November 11, 2013November 10, 20132 Comments

Hi Friends! How are you doing? Did you enjoy Meredith’s guest post on Friday? It’s worth a read if you missed it!

I am still in Chicago, but heading back today. I’ve had a great week of travel, but I am reallllyy ready to be home. I’m ready to not have wine or beer at every meal and I am ready to not eat out. Does anyone else feel that way at the end of a vacation?

With that said, I tried to counteract the cocktails and restaurant food by getting in some solid workouts. The Westin I stayed in while I was in Dallas was great! It was big, there were lots of cardio machines and a good selection of weights. I got up before my training sessions on Wednesday and Thursday and took advantage of the gym. I headed to Chicago on Thursday night and met up with my sister at a hotel near the airport and was able to get in another hotel gym workout before heading into downtown Chicago.

I took the weekend off from any formal exercise. This wasn’t my intention, but it worked out for the best since this week is going to be an intense workout week between attending Mania on Friday and Sunday and doing the Fenway Spartan race on Saturday. I’m also subbing a class tonight, so resting on Saturday and Sunday (besides walking a lot!!) was a good thing.

Last Week’s Workouts

Monday- I went to the gym after work and ran 4 miles on the treadmill. I ran it about 40 seconds faster last week than I did the week before! My muscles were sore from Sunday’s “Y Pump”, so a good run was perfect.

Tuesday- I got up before work and did the 25 rep cardio & core I posted a few weeks ago. Before completing that, I did 10 minutes of random cardio in my apartment.
Wednesday- I ran 3 miles on the treadmill at the Westin and then completed some core and strength exercises.

Thursday- I did 20 minutes on the stair stepper (I haven’t used that machine in SO long. I forgot how much it makes me sweat!) and then did a superset workout: upper, lower and core.

Friday- I did 10 minutes on the bike and 20 on the elliptical and then did 2 rounds of my Got 20 Minutes? workout.

Saturday- Lots of walking around Chicago! My feet hurt by the end of the day!
Sunday- More walking around Chicago… lots of walking again!

This Week’s Workouts

Monday- Subbing a kickboxing class at the Watertown BSC… pending that my flight isn’t delayed!
Tuesday- Not sure! Something quick after work I assume so that I can grocery shop after.
Wednesday- Cardio and teaching UXF Burn- I missed my members!!
Thursday- SHRED and Kickboxing… ready to be back at it!
Friday- Spending the day in Danvers at the Boston Mania fitness event. I signed up for a bunch of courses so I am excited to be in my “happy place” all day learning lots of new information about workouts!
Saturday- I am doing the Fenway Spartan Sprint… eek! I hope I am not too sore from Friday’s fitness events!
Sunday- I signed up for more courses at the Mania event, but I think I chose lectures and information sessions more so than fitness ones… I have a feeling I’ll be very sore on Sunday.

Questions for you: Are you ready to go home by the end of your vacation? Is anyone else attending the Boston Mania event?

PS- Thank you to all the Veteran’s who protect our country!

Dallas, Y’all!

March 10, 20133 Comments

Howdy! (sorry, I had to!) Sorry for being a little MIA this week (I tried to keep you entertained with some facebook updates, photo’s and workouts, though), but from the time my alarm went off at 5am on Tuesday from the time I walked in the door Thursday night at 10:15pm, I had literally zero free time. It’s a good thing that I like my coworkers so much:)

I am not going to recap everything, but I will say that there were some very funny videos, terrific speakers and lots of laughs! I kept Tuesday night fairly low-key since I knew I had to be at the hotel for my professional photo at 7am on Wednesday morning. I lead a very small boot camp workout (big thanks to JP and Doan for showing up!) before meeting up with the crew for a Mexican dinner. Check out the size of this gym!!! Amazing. I was in fitness heaven:)

We just did a quick 25 minute workout- 5 minute warm up & 2 10 minute circuits of 10 moves done for 60 seconds each. I did a similar workout in my hotel room on Wednesday morning, too. Even though I had to get up so early, I knew I wouldn’t regret the workout!

Wednesday night was the awards dinner. I knew I might be in trouble when we had a happy hour that lasted, ohhh like 2 hours. Whoops! (note to self, there is really no need to double fist when it’s an open bar all night.)

Post dinner, more drinks and socializing, we managed to round up the troops and head to Sfuzzi’s. Enter: more drinks, loads of dancing, and a push-up contest. Yes, you read that correctly.

Sonja took a video, but it was too dark and blurry. I will say, though, that I won the contest haha

Anyway, I love that I have lots of fun work friends, it’s just a shame that we work in offices across the country. Maybe that’s why things get so messy when we get together?