TheThriftArchives: Weekend Wrap-Up # 4: Anniversary Edition

Thursday was my & Rick's 4th wedding anniversary and we went to Fort Collins for a mini-vaca to celebrate. I booked a room at The Armstrong Hotel, one of our most favorite historic hotels in the state.

This is our third stay at the Armstrong & they just don't disappoint! I booked the Vintage Queen Honeymoon Suite (you have a choice between vintage & modern rooms) mostly because of the gorgeous sleigh bed, the view of College Avenue and the claw-foot bathtub. While checking in, I spoke to the lovely front desk attendant, who used to live in Greeley. He was so nice & super helpful! When we got up to the room, we realized they had left us $20 in gift tokens to the downstairs jazz club, Ace Gillettes. Talk about classy! While we didn't get the chance to visit the club this weekend, we plan to go back very soon to catch some jazz and have a cocktail. I can not recommend the Armstrong Hotel enough. Please think of them for your next mini-vaca or special event!

After checking in & before dinner, we did a quick walk around Old Town Fort Collins and peeked into some of the stores we wanted to visit in the morning. At 7pm we had reservations at The Melting Pot. We went to The Melting Pot last year for our anniversary & both enjoyed it so much that we decided to go back! We had a wonderful waiter who made us feel really special & taken care of through out the whole evening! On top of a wonderful 4-course meal, I had a new cocktail called a French 75 that I am going to NEED to figure out how to make! After dinner, we walked home (or should I say waddled) and enjoyed our lovely hotel room!

The next morning, we slept in and awoke to find that Fort Collins was covered in a drizzly, foggy storm. That didn't bother us much, so we headed downstairs to Mugs, the coffee shop located next to the hotel. I had a wonderful Irish Cream latte & a chocolate scone as big as my head & Rick had a nutty latte and a bagel. Every time we go into Mugs, we're reminded of the coffee shop/deli we met & eventually fell in love at. While that place is, sadly, no longer open, we love to find places that remind us of the energy we felt there. Please go to Mugs if you ever have the chance.

After breakfast, we walked around downtown and hit a few of our favorite shops. Realizing the rain wasn't going to let up enough for us to go yard sale-ing, we headed back to Greeley and to the cat-men. We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning out the garage and getting some boxes ready to donate to the Thrift store.

Friday evening we headed out to downtown Greeley to check out what was happening for First Friday. Our first stop was Saint Pat's for our friend Natalie & her brother's art show. Natalie is a wonderful photography & her brother, Ryan, does so many different kinds of art, including making board games! Next, we went to John Galt Coffee, Cafe Panache and the Cranford Cove Tea Tavern . All three location had wonderful art shows and if you have the chance to see them, they will be up all this month. We finished off the night with some comic browsing at the Nerd Store & dancing at the Block Party.

The rest of the weekend was pretty casual & normal. Rick did work on a mural downtown, but I want to wait to show any pictures until he's done. We're both really excited to see the finished product! Sunday was the Kick-off for our church's fall semester and that means a big party on the front lawn and not one, but TWO bouncy castles for the kiddos. Do we know how to party or what?

We finished up this fabulous weekend with two glasses of really fancy wine, given to us by one of Rick's clients, and some left-over pizza. There's probably a metaphor in there about our marriage, but I'll be darned if I know what it is! ;)