Surprise! It's all about the goats this weekend!

 Scott's Birthday (4.24.26) present was a secret weekend in the mountains. All he knew was that it would not be taxing, the drive would be 3-5 hours and the packing list I gave him was generic and casual.

We left Friday morning. The car was packed! Hard to believe my clothes took up less than one cubic foot...until you calculate the food and whatnots that also went in.

We drove through Fairplay and Salida to The Great Sand Dunes National Park and found ourselves under clear skies, in a cool wind, picnicking before hoofing it up a dune or two.

It was good to stretch our legs and I was happy as a clam with my camera and my favorite person.  

Telly-Tubbies? Mmm... kinda looks that way. But these hoods did the best job of keeping blowing sand out of ears and such, and I was grateful for mine. 

We exited the dunes as the wind whipped up and made tracks to the Visitor Center for some learning - as you do, or should do at a National Park.

Mountain Goat Lodge was the destination today. We checked in, unloaded and showered before hitting downtown Salida for a little dinner at Currents. It was still warm enough to eat outside and boy was the food good! Stroganoff and Jalapeno-Cheddar bangers and mash shared between us seemed more than we could eat... 

But then there was the birthday cake. It had survived the long day on ice in a box on the back seat - secured by a seatbelt and bungy cord. I sprinkled it with golden glitter, stabbed a few golden candles into it and lit that thing. We poked cream-cheese covered forkfuls into our mouths and washed it down with Prosecco. That's how birthdays should be celebrated, after all! Did Scott make a wish?! I believe so. 

Oh... and we did visit with 2 sets of twins today too. Kids. Goat kids! Phoebe and Lillith had birthed their babies just a week or so ago. They were a handful. 

Uh-huh, we picked them up. Our hosts, D'Arcy and Gina, told us to go forth and handle them. It's how they ensure their goats are all happy and friendly. They get lots of handsy visitors from the time they are born. 

Saturday morning we found ourselves back in the barn as soon as coffee hour (goat lattes!) and community style breakfast was over. Today we found the 3rd set of twins too - Heaven's babies were born just yesterday. They are small, clumsy and cute as a button. Much easier to kidnap too! Heaven herself was as cool as a cucumber and seriously ok with us cuddling her twins. 

The rest of the morning was full of cheese-making class - sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt, butter, ricotta and chevre. I learned so much! And came home with jars of dairy products, culture for making more and pants that were too tight.

The day was still young and we wallowed in Mount Princeton hot springs for a couple of hours, getting pinker by the minute as the sun peaked through clouds. Then hightailed it back to the lodge in time for goat milking. 

Dawn showed us what was what. Lillith, Phoebe and Mara took turns (pushing each other out the way) to be milked. These ladies produce enough milk to feed lodge guests AND can make more milk to keep the babies full just 20 mins after being milked. (Mara had triplets that arrived too early and didn't make it, a few weeks ago. She is contributing a lot of milk to the household right now and is super affectionate too - I might have fallen in love with her.)

Tonight, exhausted by all of our extra-curricular activities, we opted for a charcuterie dinner with wine, cake and card games. Then threw open the doors in our room and watched stars twinkle between clouds as the night cooled.  Bliss. 

Sunday already and.... I don't want to go home!!! 

There was snow on the mountains around us this morning. The air was crisp and rain was falling gently. Nothing a goat latte couldn't fix of course. Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, cereal with fresh homemade yogurt and fruit. Mmmmm.

We got in one last goat fix at the barn, finished up cheese class - I.E. loaded jars of handmade dairy product into our cooler and hit the road. 

Bishop's Castle was our quirky and awe-inspiring stop along the way home. OMG?! While I had doubts about the mental soundness of the builder, I had to hand it to him; his vision was quite a thing to behold. Artsy, engineery, loaded with passion and energy. 

A testament to his non-permitted, anti-government attitude and delightfully dangerous to walk around on. Hahaha! I was not entirely comfortable with the rusting mesh flooring - complete with welded patches and holes that needed patches, ridiculously flimsy wire securing it in place, missing handrails and narrow steep staircases but I'm glad I got the chance to risk life and limb before someone official finally deems this place a deathtrap and stops us regular folks from falling through/off/down to the dusty ground below!

And that's a wrap. The first of many birthday and other celebratory getaways I hope. 

We had fun, we relaxed, we ate, we walked, we soaked and we almost adopted (stole) a baby goat! It doesn't get better than that.