I have become an avid listener to audiobooks, but getting them through the library is much less harmful to my retirement fund so. As can be the case, none of the books I wanted to read were available so i started searching for sloppy seconds and ended up with "the Mirror" by Marlys Millhiser. Serendipitously it is about a woman from Boulder Colorado who travels back in time due to a mirror ( Maybe it is really about the mirror?). Regardless it is about mining, Colorado and time travel. Serendipity in the form of Colorado and mining. I find my creator so generous as I was not really engaged about going to Colorado, ( its not Paris you know) , but because of this book i really enjoyed today ( yesterday) in a way I might have not.
I woke to the luscious scent of freshly baked croissants. 
Who can stay in bed with that wafting trough the room? So coffee with the fun Krups type coffee maker, croissants, juice and fruit. The croissants got my thumbs up rating! Which means pretty stinkin good for an American Croissant!
Next on the agenda was a gander at the scenery and indeed we are up in the mountains in a valley, gorge, gulch, or fissure ( had to throw that in for my SANE buddies). It is a lovely setting.
A shower in the amazing walk in shower with the L'Occatine products made the lack of a bath much less painful. I can't get over what a find the Hotel Chamonix is!
Next to our Hotel is a "Health Center", regardless of your beliefs about medicinal Marajuana, it is funny to be next to that. Beyond that is a liquor store which was open on Sunday so we bought a bottle of wine and Kaluah so at least Jodi could have some Kaluah and cream! Then we found a SMALL town grocery store and bought some water, jam for my morning croissant, chips and cheese and crackers.
We drove into town and looked around some, there is a Museum to the Hotel de Paris here! 
Yippee, hopefully tomorrow we can go there, but today we were doing some reconnaissance and looking for food to take with us on a train trip as we drove up and checked out the Georgetown Loop Railroad (http://www.georgetownlooprr.com) and bought tickets. 
There are several interesting dining establishments, several of which are breakfast, and lunchy places, just like I would own if I were to ever have done that. We ended up in the Dusty Rose Tearoom (https://dustyrosetearoom.com) Jodi and I both had the potato soup and She had a cucumber sandwich and I had a meat pie. The plan was to take them on the train. We got to the Loop early and Jodi looked at me and said "are you hungry, I could eat now." So we did and boy was I glad, Soup on that train, even sandwiches, would not have gone well. That said the food was excellent! My meat pie even segued well into the mining tour as many miners were Cornish and Welsh. Not exactly a pasty but tasty and nice dovetailing into the experience. 
Engine #9 pulls about 8 cars 2 or so Parlor cars and then some closed and open cars. We intentionally stood in line for almost 30 minutes so Jodi could have a prime photography spot. When we finally got on the train, she was very intentional about our seats and we sat ourselves down, ready to see beautiful scenery and have an adventure! As people were piling on this women, you know the type, pushy, thoughtless and entitled, demanded that we move to make room for her party of 7. 
We said we had sat there so we could take good pics and she blew us some rash of merde that she came this time every year, and her family needed to sit together. Once she realized she had irritated us she started with "she could move her nephews and blah, blah, blah". Sorry salope, way too much, too late! THEN she started touching Jodi on the arm offering still to change places, this earned her a hemorrhoid hex.
The scenery was/is beautiful, lots of green in the mountains from the pines with scattering of (silver?) birches. Those birches leave swathes of gold among the green. 
The sound of water dancing over the rocks and the rustle of leaves is ubiquitous and a pleasant addition to the scenery.
The Lebanon mine was very interesting We got to see photos of the miners, hear stories about them and the mine. The average lifespan for a miner was 35-45 and not necessarily due to injury, the rock they were mining is full of silica and they ended up with silicosis ( http://www.humanresourcesmba.net/10-deadliest-occupational-diseases-in-history/), which had the dubious distinction of being on the top 10 deadliest occupational disease list even today.
Time to consider dinner and so we came back to the room, and sat out on the patio with a glass of wine, contemplating the mountains and menus available in the room. 
We settled on Euro Grill, and I am thinking we should have had one more glass of wine! IT was an experience. Jodi was interested in the cabbage on the menu, but she was not allowed to have a side of that, even though listed as a side. 
So the waiter told her she could have peans with garlic and bacon. She asked for peas without either, just plain and I had Hungarian Goulash, which included dumplings.
She got green beans, and my dumplings looked like slices of unbaked but risen bread. Certainly NOT a do over.
There is a 2 person hot tub here and the hotel supplies robes and towels, we decided skinny dipping would be easiest so we grabbed robes and mine would not close, tee hee hee; so out we went and jumped in. The stars were draped in the heavens, and it was a perfect way to end the day.
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