Five of my best "girlfriends" and I celebrated my 60th birthday Sept. 16-20, 2009 in this beautiful log home in Buena Vista, CO. The weather was gorgeous, the stream behind the property was gurgling, and the aspens were peaked. The first day there was designated "Buena Vista Day" and we all piled into one van and went to town. We probably went into every shop before stopping to have lunch at Mother's. Dinner was at Mt. Princeton Hotel followed by the coolest thing of all--sitting in the hot springs at night. Later, back at the log home, we had a fire in the fireplace and played games at a nice, big table in the great room. Day II was "Aspen & Leadville Day" and Day III was Oktoberfest in Breckenridge. There is no chance of running out of things to do, because even if you lack imagination, you can sit in a rocking chair on the huge deck and just gaze at the 14,000-foot mountain peaks or go for a walk along Cottonwood Creek.
My friends and I loved the house, loved the entire area, and we'd go back in a heartbeat. Everything we planned went off without a hitch and there were no disappointments. A couple weeks before we arrived, there had been a rare sighting of a bear, so we were on the lookout for him. Fortunately, we didn't see him, but we saw plenty of deer lying on the lawns of the homes in town every evening around dinner time and a big moose prancing in a field on the side of the road on our way back from Breckenridge.
When it was time for me to blow out the candles on my birthday cake, I only had one wish to make....I wished that I could do this all over again next year.