*this post contains affiliate links

Mr. Jo and his college friends have been going on MANcation every year since forever. Starting last year, all of us wives and long-term girlfriends decided that we wanted to join in on the fun, so we all go on an annual “framily” vacation now (term coined by my fabulous model and event producer friend, Sirisha). Last year we hit up Asheville, North Carolina. This year, we booked a 5-day stay in Breckenridge, CO. No kids or pets allowed. Needless to say, the fresh mountain air, outdoor fun, and time with old friends made it a vacation to remember! Check out our travel itinerary and tips below.

The Couples:

Mr. Jo and me!

Sirisha (fashion model and event planner, our amazing chef and baker, dog mom) and Chaitanya (Mr. Jo’s college roommate, retinal opthalmologist, our other amazing chef, dog dad)

Lisa (badass corporate lawyer, workout fiend, dog mom) and Carl (Mr. Jo’s college friend, adventure-seeker, clever jokester, dog dad)

Liz (newbie to the group, badass investment banker, voluntarily “funemployed” at the moment, newlywed) and Sean (Mr. Jo’s college friend, hedge fund manager, newlywed)

Adam (Mr. Jo’s college roommate, the ultimate UT football aficionado, real estate investor, newlywed and father-to-be). Brooke couldn’t make it because she’s growing a baby in her belly! They’re parasites I tell you, parasites. But good ones, like parasites you want to snuggle up with and kiss a million times.

Breckenridge, CO Travel Itinerary

August 15-19, 2018

Wednesday, August 15

12:20 pm CDT departure from DFW
- 2 hr 12 min flight
1:32 pm MDT arrival at EGE (Eagle County Regional Airport in Vail, CO)
- pick up rental car from Avis
Drive 1 hr 20 min to Breckenridge, CO
- 2:52 pm stopped in Frisco, CO and picked up late lunch at Wendy’s
  - Frisco, CO is about 20 min from Breckenridge
  - Frisco also has Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, Main Street with lots of shops
Settled in at the house in Breckenridge, CO
- 15 Rounds Rd, Breckenridge, CO
- did three 7 minute workouts with the girls
Short drive to Above the Blue for quick dinner
- Food stand with great gyros and meatball subs
Short drive to Clint’s Bakery and Coffee for dessert
- can also walk there
- best frosted sugar cookie I’ve ever had!
Walked to Crepes a la Cart
- sweet and savory crepes – delicious!
Short drive to dispensary
- for the record – not for me!
Drove back to the house
- hung out and played Secret Hitler

Thursday, August 16

picked up Starbucks coffee and breakfast and drove to town
7:00 am arrived at Breckenridge Outfitters
- got fitted in waders and boots
- guides drove us to fly fishing spots
- sandwich lunch provided
- our group caught 3 brown trout!
- drove back to Breckenridge Outfitters
4:00 pm guides drive back to town
5:00 pm arrive at Breckenridge Outfitters
5:30 pm half the group goes to Whole Foods
7:00 pm start making “framily” dinner
- appetizer: cheese board
- entree: grilled steak with herb butter, pan-seared salmon
- sides: grilled corn, grilled veggies, bread with cilantro butter
- dessert: grilled peaches with ice cream
hung out until we passed out

Friday, August 17

breakfast: made my own yogurt parfait
8:00 am start driving to Rusty Spurr Ranch in Kremmling, CO
- 1 hr 5 min drive (45.9 miles)
9:30 am – 12:00 pm horseback riding through the mountains with guide
12:30 pm drive to Frisco, CO for lunch at Bread + Salt
- excellent brunch
- grilled cheese is to die for
- almost went shopping along Main St but it started to rain
2:30 pm drove back to house
took the most amazing nap ever
6:15 pm drove to Keystone, CO for 7:30 pm dinner at Alpenglow Stube
- 45 min drive to Keystone
- 35 minute gondola ride up to restaurant
- food was EXPENSIVE and just ok, would not go again
10:00 pm drove back to house

Saturday, August 18

Brunch at the house by Chef Sirisha and Chef Chaitanya
- amazing migas
- so delicious waffle bar
12:30 pm drove to Hoosier Pass for hike
- 23 min drive
- women left early
3:30 pm women went shopping in Breckenridge
- super cute Christmas ornament store
- Beloved Boutique – cute clothing store
- bought toys for the kids
men bought groceries and made burgers/hot dogs for dinner at the hosue
Carl’s sister and some friends came to the house to visit
played more Secret Hitler

Sunday, August 19

slept in!
10:45 am drove to Frisco, CO
- 20 min drive
11:05 am to 12:00 am shopped on Main Street, Frisco
- Funky Trunk clothing re-sale boutique
- picked up breakfast wraps at Butterhorn Bakery & Cafe
12:00 pm drive to Eagle County Regional Airport
- 1 hr drive
1:00 pm arrive at airport
- less than 10 minute rental car drop off
2:20 pm departure EGE
5:30 pm arrival DFW
Home to see my babies!

Breckenridge, CO Travel Tips

Altitude Sickness

Before I get into the fun stuff, let’s talk about altitude sickness for a second. According to Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge), altitude sickness occurs usually at an elevation of at least 8000 feet (2500 meters) above sea level. Since Breckenridge is 9600 ft above sea level, we definitely felt the effects of lower oxygen levels in the air. Just climbing one flight of stairs to our bedroom in the Airbnb left me short of breath.

Importantly, altitude sickness can affect anyone and doesn’t spare the physically fit. Some of our friends had headaches, nosebleeds, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, and just an overall blah feeling. Even worse, you could have pulmonary edema (fluid in your lungs) or cerebral edema (fluid in your brain), so it’s no joke. And, one in five people will get altered mental status. I’m going to blame the little tiff that Mr. Jo and I had halfway through the trip on this. Of note, the altered mental status does occur more in men than women.

You can try to prevent it by slowly increasing your elevation, but that’s not always an option. Sometimes, it can help to take acetazolamide or dexamethasone, but obviously talk to your doctor about that. To better adapt to the altitude, we planned our most strenuous activities for later in the trip. For example, we did our hike on Saturday, Day 4 of the trip. Apparently, it takes 3 or so days for your body to acclimate.

Fly Fishing

Line Fishing with my Dad

Growing up, I would often go line fishing (the regular kind of fishing) with my dad. One of my best childhood memories is my dad taking us to the little pond at the apartment complex near us where we would catch these tiny little fish. Of course, we released them immediately, but the experience was so fun. We would use anything from hot dogs to shrimp to marshmallows to catch fish. Occasionally, we would drive out to a real lake and use minnows to catch bigger fish.

Breckenridge Outfitters Fly Fishing Tour

While we were planning the trip, my friend Lisa brought up the idea of going fly fishing. Since most of us have never fly fished before, we did some research and found Breckenridge Outfitters, a fly fishing equipment retail store in town that offers private fly fishing lessons. We booked the lessons several weeks ahead of time. Let me warn you, it is expensive. For six fly fishers and two guides with a sandwich lunch and all equipment included, it cost us about $1000. This was for a full day of fly fishing.

What You Need to Bring

We were provided with waders and boots, fly fishing rods, and all the flies we needed. Other than that, I would just suggest bringing a ziploc bag or something waterproof you can put your phone in. The water can be pretty strong in certain parts and the rocks are slippery. So, if you slip, your phone may get wet. Some of the waders had a waterproof compartment but not all. Also, wear layers, sunglasses, and a hat! It can get warm if you’re baking in the sun. For us, it started to rain in the late afternoon, so our jackets definitely helped. There is enough room in the zippered compartment to hold a bottle of water and some snacks.

Go with a Guide

If it’s your first time fly fishing, I would definitely suggest going with a guide. Our guides gave us about a 45 minute lesson before we hit the river. There’s a technique to fly fishing and the lesson helped us learn the arm motions before we got in the water. The guides also gave us tips throughout the day and replaced our flies when we lost them.

Fly Fishing Rules

One of our guides, Eric Zamudio, was a natural teacher. He gave us some really good tips to up our chances of catching fish. He was nice enough to share his Five Rules of Fly Fishing with me:

Match the Hatch. There are many bugs in river systems that emerge or “hatch” given different conditions. Trout can be very picky. If they are interested in pizza and you are throwing burgers, they are less likely to bite. Try to be like the bugs in the water! That said, presentation is potentially more important than picking the right bug.
Foam is Home. Look for bubble lines or, “foam.” Most of the insects we are trying to imitate have a life cycle similar to a mosquito. They live in the water, eating and getting larger until they are ready to head to the surface and emerge (or reach their adult stage to reproduce). A smart fish will hang under a bubble line looking up for an easy meal.
Seam Makes the Dream. A seam is a line where slow water encounters fast water. This can be on an eddy line, along the edge of structure like rocks or logs or any sort of obstruction in the natural flow of the river. Just to exist, a trout has to constantly be moving. If that was the case for you or me, would you rather be on a sprint or a leisurely stroll? Trout are all about conserving energy. A trout will hang on the calm side of a seam looking into the fast moving water. It’s like a conveyor belt of food. All the fish has to do is dip it’s head over to the side and grab some grub that is flowing on by and then it’s back in the calm water relaxing.
Transition is the Position (or Slope is Dope). This simply means where the water goes from shallow to deep, or deep to shallow. In other words, it’s a place where there is a difference in water depth. That’s why if you go offshore fishing, you go off the shore where the continental shelf drops off. The drop off gives the fish a place to cruise for food and have protection from one side. They don’t generally have to worry about a surprise attack from the side facing the slope.
Wood is Good. This is a general rule for all fishing. Most fish like structure. Be it a log, a bridge or dock pylon, a rock or bolder, perhaps a cut in the bank; these are places a trout can hide. Most of these spots have a sort of slip stream that a clever fish can take advantage of to coast along without expending much energy. Again, trout are all about energy conservation!

After I learned these rules, something clicked, and I caught my 11 inch brown trout shortly thereafter! Mr. Jo actually caught a 14-15 inch trout and Carl caught a little 6 inch one. The rule is catch and release, so no trout for dinner, unfortunately.

Horseback Riding in the Mountains

Another great idea from Lisa, she thought of horseback riding in the mountains. Initially, we looked into horseback riding closer to town, but the reviews were not great. Mostly, we would have been doing nose-to-tail riding, which didn’t seem that fun to us. With a little more research, Lisa found Rusty Spurr Ranch in Kremmling, CO. The ranch was about a 1 hour drive from our Airbnb in Breckenridge. All of the women plus Sean went. Go Sean!

I had been horseback riding before a few times, but this experience was unique. We rode for about 2 hours round trip on well-trained horses. We reached a mountain summit and took some beautiful pictures on our horses. The guide that went with us was really sweet and personable. She said that the guides live in a little cabin in the mountains that have no running water or electricity. They contract out with an RV park about 20 minutes away to take showers there. Crazy! It really made us realize how dependent we are on every day conveniences that we take for granted.

If you’ve never rode a horse before, do not fear. Liz was a beginner rider and she handled it like a pro!

Hiking

Hoosier Pass

Hiking is usually our go to activity for outdoorsy vacations. Mr. Jo and I don’t get to see too many mountains or bodies of water living in Dallas, so we try to get exposure to nature as much as possible while on vacation. This time around though, we had so many great outdoor activities that the horseback riding crew and I only ended up going on one hike. On Saturday, after our enormous meal of homemade migas by Chaitanya and amazing made-from-scratch waffle bar by Sirisha, we were all in desperate need to burn off some calories. We took a short drive south and hiked Hoosier Pass (elevation 11,542 ft), a trail on Mount Lincoln.

Hoosier pass was a beautiful hike. We had a 360 view of the Rockies, including at least three of Colorado’s 14,000+ ft mountains. At the top of Hoosier Pass, it was pretty dang windy and cold. After the girls and I took some Instagram-worthy yoga pose photos, we booked it back to the car to go shopping.

McCullough Gulch

While the ladies, Sean, and I went horseback riding, the others in our group went hiking on McCullough Gulch. According to Mr. Jo, it was a nice hike up to a mountain top lake. As far as difficulty, it was above average but fine for anyone with reasonable fitness.

Dining Out

Reddz Above the Blue

The first night we got in, Carl and Lisa took us to Reddz Above the Blue in Breckenridge. Carl has family in the area, so he has been to Breckenridge many a time and knows of all the best places to eat. Reddz is a gyro food stand in downtown Breckenridge but they serve other stuff too. We all got the gyros and two of us, whom I will just refer to as Charl (Cha… + …arl) got two because they were that good!

Clint’s Bakery and Coffee

After gyros, I was craving some dessert since I had been saving up all of my calories for vacation. Carl suggested Clint’s for the best frosted sugar cookie in town. I’m not a huge sugar cookie person, but we went to have a look. I ended up buying a s’mores brownie, peanut butter chocolate brownie, several cookies, and then I went back and got the sugar cookie. I told you I was saving up all of my calories for vacation…

The sugar cookie was definitely the best and it was so good that we went back to Clint’s two other times to get them. Unfortunately, they sell out sometimes and we missed out on a busy Saturday. What was great about Clint’s is that their desserts are not give-you-diabetes sweet. My Asian peeps can probably get on board with that since we generally like our sweets a little less sweet.

Crepes A La Cart

While Carl and I were at Clint’s, the rest of the group made their way over to Crepes A La Cart. I had heard about this crepe stand while I was researching where to eat in Breckenridge on Pinterest. Sirisha got a strawberry nutella crepe and Lisa got one with fresh peaches, mascarpone and honey. Since we’re framily, we all dug into them. I’m not a huge crepe fan but Nutella on pretty much anything is freaking delicious.

Bread + Salt

After horseback riding, we were all starving, so we headed over to one of Lisa’s favorite restaurants in Frisco, Bread + Salt. Most of us ordered breakfast, but I went for the grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup. The bread was buttery and crispy and there was capiccola and salami with pesto in addition to cheese in the sandwich. Along with the creamy and slightly sweet tomato soup, I was in heaven!

Alpenglow Stube – A Gondola Ride to Dinner

On Friday night, we planned a fancy dinner at Alpenglow Stube. We were told that this was one of the nicest restaurants around, located in Keystone Resort. The really cool part of the evening was that we took two gondola rides to the top of a mountain where the restaurant was located. At the top, we took some pictures with an amazing backdrop of the mountains.

However, that was probably the highlight of the dinner. Maybe we are food snobs, but the food did not amaze us for how expensive it was. I ordered a blue crab frisee salad appetizer, an heirloom tomato starter, the rabbit special, and Lisa and I shared a s’mores dessert. By the way, they do recommend each person order one of each item from the four course menu. Overall, Mr. Jo and I paid $263.01 for our meals. I had 3.5 courses and Mr. Jo had 3. I would rank it 5/10 I guess. My friends would probably rate it lower.

Regardless, I got to sit with all of my lovely ladies on one side of the table and we had some great conversation. Lisa and I connected in a really nice way and found out we have a lot in common that we never realized. That’s what our framily trips are all about. So all in all, it was a great night.

Dining In!

Grocery shopping, food prepping, cooking, and even cleaning together brought our little group of friends even closer! This was one of the highlights of the trip for me because we made some of the best meals of the trip together and got to hang out in a very relaxed environment.

Framily Dinner

For our Thursday night framily dinner, we started off with an amazing cheese board as the appetizer. I got pretty excited because Sirisha had gotten my absolute favorite cheese, Sartori Merlot Bellavitano. It’s a mild pasteurized cow’s milk cheese that’s soaked in Merlot which gives it a berry-infused sweetness. I love having it with dried fruits, nuts, and crackers. Also, we had a variety of other cheeses and a fig spread from Whole Foods that just brought it all together. Brie + fig on a cracker = heaven on earth.

For the main meal, Chaitanya and Sirisha really brought it. They made grilled steaks, pan-seared salmon, haricot verts (fancy term for green beans), grilled corn (actually, Lisa made this), and grilled veggies. Of course, everyone chipped in with food prepping, cleaning, grilling, etc. Teamwork makes the dream work, baby! For dessert, we made grilled peaches with ice cream! Simple and so delicious.

Breakfast

On Saturday morning, Chaitanya made these amazing migas with fresh fried tortilla strips. Wow, they were good. Glad I saved up my calories before the trip, but the calorie bank was already running pretty low by this point.

Of course, I didn’t want to miss out either on Sirisha’s homemade waffles. She even packed her waffle maker from home! Girl be cray. I’m glad I indulged, though, because all of the nutella, fresh strawberries and blueberries, and giant mound of whipped cream just made my entire day. Yes, I’ll take a little waffle with my whipped cream, thank you very much.

Blueberry Pie Made from Scratch

If she didn’t have enough talents already in the kitchen, Sirisha really showed off with her homemade (even the crust!) blueberry pie. This was a labor of love that spanned 2 (or was it 3?) days, and it was freaking delicious. Maybe I can get her to share the recipe below in the comments.

Shop ’til You Drop

Breckenridge Shopping

Even though I hate cluttering up the house with trinkets, I love going shopping on vacation! My favorite thing to do is go from one local boutique to another to find that really unique item and get a great deal of course! We usually look for an ornament to commemorate the trip and a magnet of a map of the area.

I didn’t end up finding my map magnet, but I did come upon a really cute Christmas ornament shop. It had so many adorable ornaments and after admiring nearly all of the inventory, I found the perfect ornament! It was a fly-fishing reindeer!

Frisco Shopping

We realized on Sunday morning (last day of the trip) that we had about an hour to kill before we had to be on our way to the airport. So, I convinced Mr. Jo to go to Frisco with me and do a little more shopping since it was on the way to the airport. My favorite find was this little resale shop called The Funky Trunk. I got a couple cute blouses for super cheap! They also have a pretty large selection of dresses and cowboy boots!

We also bought chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon fruit bread, and breakfast wraps at Butterhorn Bakery & Cafe for the road. The restaurant was packed but we got in and out within 15 minutes. Highly recommend.

Check out some of our other trips with friends and family:

Breckenridge, CO