Aspen Food and Wine 2013 - Part 1

Well, my favorite event of the summer has come and gone...and what an amazing weekend! Aspen Food and Wine 2013.

One of my favorite things about my job is the summer events season. It is such a wonderful time of networking and doing some work outside of the showroom. We are very specific with which events we choose to do given that we are also trying to gauge an ROI for our time, resources, etc. 

Last year was the first year we participated in this weekend event and we were very blessed to go back this last weekend for our second year!

Even though I grew up in Colorado, I don't like skiing or snowboarding....gasp! It's sacrilege to say in this mountain state of ours but it's just not my thing. Ha. The mountains do not draw me in the winter but the summer is a different story. 

The thing I love about summer is that there is so much to do in the Colorado mountains-camping, hiking, etc! While I haven't spent a ton of time in the ski towns, Aspen is my favorite. I am so smitten with that place.

Oddly enough, it has nothing to do with the $$ side that people typically associate with that town. I spent one Christmas there nannying for a family I knew in Seattle; it was such a cool experience. So snowy, gorgeous and filled with celebrities...ha. Definitely the fancy side.

 Being there last year for the first time in the summer, I was a caught off guard by how local and 'normal' the place feels. Unlike Vail, which as been very commercialized, Aspen has fiercely maintained it's small town feel and quirky individuality. There certainly is money in Aspen; no doubt about it. But there is an entirely different side which is what I have fallen in love with...the side that makes you feel like you know people after only 3 days, the side that allows you to call up friends from the year before only to discover that it seems as if no time has passed.  It is so small that you literally drive into Aspen, park your car and never drive again until you leave. You walk everywhere; there are dogs everywhere and it is so isolated that you feel far away from the 'big city' -smack dab in the middle of these glorious mountains!

Here are some photos of the town and road trip.

{on the way up}

{Heather and Paul-Heather came with me from the store in Denver and Paul flew in from MN for the weekend}

{on our way to Independence Pass}

{can you believe this view?!}

{Brooke came with me last year, and this year Heather took her place. So fun to have a companion!}

{the first morning in Aspen, we hiked Smugglers Mountain. Such a good hike (steep!) and a gorgeous view of Aspen Valley}

{around town-so happy to be there!}

{on the way home}

More work pics to come....

I LOVE ASPEN!!!!