Vacation Part Cuatro: The Final Post. Food, Wheels, Games, Meditating & The Poolest Pool

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz

There were endless opportunities for fun and relaxation at Three Forks, but let’s not forget the most important part of any vacation: THE FOOD. I require three squares and a few snacks or else I’m hell on wheels.

FEED ME

The Coach and I had one of their new suites that wasn’t actually IN the lodge; it was a bit of an easy walk to the lodge BUT they were doing a lot of landscape work at the time and everything was messy. So we would ring down to the lodge and someone would pick us up within a few minutes in this little electric fully enclosed car and bring us to the lodge anytime we wanted. I loved that GEM so much, thinking of adding it to my shopping list. In the morning, I like to take my time preparing for the day, you know, linger. We had a fancy scmancy coffee machine and a fridge that contained our special creamers; oat for me, almond for him. But the best thing happened each morning: around 6:30 am we had a special delivery of fresh fruit and fresh croissants delivered onto our kitchenette counter via a little secret door. I KNOW. I need this in my life 365. It was like Santa himself made these stealth deliveries. Apparently I need breakfast while I prepare myself for breakfast.

Am I really this high maintenance now? Don’t answer.

After dinner each night, you were able to choose your meal for the next night. I KNOW. I wish I had this luxury at home. (Left was my choices for a meal, right was my actual menu when I sat down for another meal)

I had beef three times during this trip. My cholesterol wasn’t happy with me, but my stomach was. BTW: The egg yolk ravioli didn’t sound that great, but it was ahhhhmazing.

BIG WHEELS

The kids were super excited for a mountain biking tour. Look at those tires! Wait, even more so LOOK AT THOSE HILLS. Fear not, the bikes did have some electric assistance for us flat land loving Floridans.

GAMES & THE POOL OF POOLS

One afternoon we had a little free time between breakfast and lunch, so we had a little Corn Hole Competition. Look at the views around us. You want an IPA while you talk crap and toss around a bean bag? Sure thing, chicken wing.

SAFETY FIRST

By the way if you ordered a cocktail or any beverage with alcohol during the daytime, they always clarified what activities you had later on….making sure no one had a few beers and then headed to the rifle range or axe throwing.

The Biggest Baptism

Since our last visit, Three Forks has added in a huge addition that included a second eating/bar area, another Gym, more spa space, a regular indoor pool and The Pool Of Pools: A Hydrotherapy Spa Experience. I’d never experienced something like this before.

There are numerous places around this warm pool where you can experience different types of massage. Here is a video of Linds and Nathan; they were supposed to have a ‘neck massage’ but it looks like they wanted to bore holes into their skulls.

They even added in a Salt Relaxing Room. How long do you sit in the middle of all the salt walls? I assume you sit there for as long as it takes for all your rings to not fit.

I almost forgot one of my favorite things that I did was A Guided Mediation. I’ve never been able to quiet my brain for any amount of time but it turns out, I just need to be GUIDED by an actual human.

GIDDY UP

Linds and Halie enjoyed a nice horseback ride with a small group of people. I think I was getting something rubbed at this time.

A massage. People, I was having a massage!

Our visit to Three Forks was an amazing opportunity for lots of laughter, relaxation, adventure and all around together time which we all know is a precious commodity.

I started a final post titled: Please, Let Us Get Home about our departure from Colorado and how we loathe United Airlines. I decided not to share since it’s all negative, but needless to say I’d rather give birth to human triplets before I ever give United money again. We didn’t feel united one bit as they stranded us with no caring involved and it took an act of God lots of money to get home even one day late.

Did you feel like you were with us for all of this trip? That explains why I was getting kicked in my sleep that one night…

Raise your hands if you have travel plans this summer! I hope everyone is getting back on the travel wagon and enjoying their lives.

XOXO

46 thoughts on “Vacation Part Cuatro: The Final Post. Food, Wheels, Games, Meditating & The Poolest Pool”

  1. Looks like that resort had it all. I’m intrigued with smoked pickled blueberries… do tell. Sorry the return trip was a nightmare. I’m hearing that so often it makes me reluctant to fly right now.

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      1. I’m also intrigued by the pickled watermelon radishes, and even more so, by what happens if one checks more than one option per category? Does that work or do you get (lord forbid!) banned from the heavenly resort? I don’t see anywhere that says “pick one and ONLY one”… Wait… “Am I really this high maintenance now? Don’t answer.” (I know the answer for myself 😀 )

        So many of the photos look divine! When are you going back? 🙂

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        1. I think chefs get a little crazy in the kitchen sometimes; if the radishes aren’t broke, why try to fix them?
          I’m sure you could get all of the options if you wanted to. On our last morning I requested breakfast burritos instead of fruit/croisants for the two of us since we needed to pack up and get out of dodge. I’d rather eat and pack in the comfort of my PJs.

          The Coach wants to check it out during the winter…so we will see!

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        2. I like pretty much anything pickled, so I’d try … (almost!) anything pickled 🙂 I once saw a challenge in The Amazing Race to eat a little bowl of sauerkraut. It was so small, I’d consider it a tasty snack and ask for more. And all this brave souls that swam in (literally) icy lakes and walked barefoot in rat-infested temples were struggling with it. Go figure 🙂

          I’m with you on breakfast in bed. Though hash browns would be my choice over a breakfast burrito 🙂 And a side of pickled _____ (I’m open minded 😀 ).

          You may want to suggest to him that checking this divine resort once during each of the 4 seasons might be the way to go… Just sayin’ 😀

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  3. Bijoux

    Good choices on the food! I love an electric bike….so fun! I’ve had horrible experiences with United in the past, but they are often our only choice. We have tentative travel plans, but nothing is booked and my husband is refusing to fly because EVERYONE we know has had similar issues as you.

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    1. The good news is our three flights OUT of Florida to CO were perfect! The issue happened when there was some ‘weather’ to contend with; we were dropped like hot potatoes and forgotten.

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  4. That looks like an amazing trip and that pool? I would love that. The neck “massage” was hilarious, and I was laughing out loud! Thanks for sharing your vacay with us! We do have travel plans for early July but they don’t involve any flights, thank goodness! Just the price of gas will be enough!!

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  5. Yes on the egg yolk ravioli, but no on pickled, smoked blueberries. (Truth be told, I’m a big no on blueberries, period.)

    What a gorgeous resort, and what an incredible array of activities. It’s too bad you had such a negative denouement. I really loathe all the inconvenience of flying and how we’re at their mercy, literally. It’s dehumanizing.

    How happy were you to see your name spelled correctly on all those menus? I bet you thought, SEE! IT’S NOT THAT HARD, EVERYONE!

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    1. I’m sure you could have said: HOLD THE BLUEBERRIES. And they would have.
      I’d never heard of Egg Yolk Ravioli before, but it was really good.

      That is the issue, we are at THEIR mercy, and lawd, they had zero mercy for us. This happened after sitting in the plane on the tarmac for over two hours, then we were told they would get us vouchers for transport to a hotel and dinner, to giving us nothing and not even being able to rebook another flight. There were no rental cars in the vicinity and the closest hotel was 35 minutes away. It was so weird and almost comical how it all happened. I was looking around to see if we were on Candid Camera.

      Yes, people CAN spell my name if they try. Or I suppose if we give them a lot of money. 😳

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  6. Oh, the menus. So much to choose from. My fav thing when it was time to have a baby was choosing my food off the hospital menus. Food that I didn’t have to prepare. Somehow, I think your menu choosing was a step above the hospital menu I was given.

    That HUGE hot tub (?) /pool, plus the view. Amazing. I won’t even try to compare to my raccoon spa of days-gone-by. 😉

    What a relief that they check to be sure no one is enjoying too many adult beverages before throwing an axe.

    We just finalized our Yellowstone dates last night, so I have to cancel the cabins we had reserved on the dates we aren’t going to be there. *I reserved over two weeks, knowing that it would be hard to find a time that would work for everyone (Ed isn’t going, because of his internship). We are driving, but Coach and Reg are flying out to meet us in Sioux Falls after Reg finishes basketball. Fingers crossed they don’t have issues with their flights while we hang out in Sioux Falls twiddling our thumbs. Sorry to hear that your trip was impacted by flight nonsense. Ugh.

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    1. You are so funny about the hospital menu excitement!

      I’m so happy you guys are finally getting this Yellowstone trip! I hope all your travel plans go smoothly too!

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  7. What a wonderful vacation (minus the rude travel back to reality)! So glad you all got to enjoy it!

    No travel plans for this summer…this is the summer of packing, renovating, moving…not one but 2 households. With a new puppy to look after and grandkids coming to visit. Hopefully a beach day or two thrown in the mix should the weather ever cooperate. A friend is supposed to come see me in the fall – looking forward to some adventuring then!

    Deb

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  8. M

    Thank you for sharing your vacation with us; it all sounded divine! I’d love to have something rubbed every day while on vacation, specially doing more outdoorsy stuff to soothe my not-being-used-anymore muscles that would certainly be sore. Reminds me a bit of when my group of girlfriends went horseback riding; we found ourselves getting massages no less than an hour later. We got back to the car and thought, “Hmmmm….you know what would be really good?? Get rubbed!”

    We don’t have specific vacation plans but I have been itching to go. My friends keep going to Hawaii and inviting us but Hawaii doesn’t beckon to me in the summer; the heat and humidity isn’t my favorite. So I have been looking at Alaska or Canada — but when I shared with my family my plan, my brother right away responded with, “Be prepared to have your flights cancelled”, and I went back to staring at the walls. I just couldn’t and your flight back shows my fear is not unfounded. Luckily, my husband is taking the lead on vacation planning; “a family vacation” was my response when he asked me what I wanted to do for our 31st anniversary earlier this month. We came back from a 3-week vacation late January 2020 and haven’t gone anywhere since, except for short jaunts to Las Vegas and they don’t count as vacation.

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    1. If you don’t like heat and humidity, then stay away from Florida too! I’m already complaining about it on a daily basis.
      I have a desire to see some parts of Canada; so much to see there!!

      We did have great flights (3) TO our destination, it was just the ‘getting back and there was some weather in Denver’ that screwed everything up.

      We are anniversary twins as we just had our 31st on May 25th. Perhaps we already realized that and I already forgot it? That sounds like me…

      Over two years since you’ve had a trip? You need to plan something soon. It’s good for you to have adventures.
      You know what they say: life is short, have fun. 😳😜

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      1. M

        My son and husband were in Delray Beach from Aug until Jun after my son graduated from HS. I joined them for a week for Thanksgiving (they came home for 3 weeks for Christmas – yay!) and then in Feb and also in early June. February was my favorite. Even in November, there were days I didn’t want to go outside — it was still hot and humid. We took the train Orlando in February — so much nicer weather-wise and the train was kind of a novelty; we don’t have trains (or at least ones you’d really want to ride) in Southern CA. June was hot but it was spent mostly on a cruise ship to Cuba.

        As I read your archives, I realized we have a few overlaps. I was also born in 1967 and I got married in 1991. We also lived in TX; I don’t know where in TX you were but we were in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. My son was born there.

        I do NEED a trip. Actually, I just want to retire. I’ve always been a homebody; very happy at home….but I do enjoy going on adventures every so often. 2020 was a bust and I wasn’t willing to travel in 2021 when everyone was also traveling. So this year feels like it should be it. The little overnight trips we’ve been doing in Coronado and fun with girlfriends weekend away were enough for a while but I’m starting to feel the need for more. We should’ve joined my sister and her family on a week in Turks and Caicos in April but I wanted my son to join the next family vacation and he was in school. Sigh…. Anyway, I would love to go back to Canada (Whistler was where we went but I am thinking Banff would be wonderful) and Alaska (that was one wonderful nature adventure for us all).

        Geez — I can’t seem to keep my responses/comments short no matter how hard I try!

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        1. M

          I take back the comment about no trains in Southern CA. I realize we have AmTrack in San Diego. I’ve taken it once — to go only 15miles with my son’s 4th grade class to go visit an old mission. LOL It was one of the things my husband and I thougth we’d do more of — take the Sprinter train to Downtown Los Angeles and just browse for the day; we have not been there since maybe 1990. But things are so different now; I’m told I won’t want to do anything of the sort these days because it’s not safe.

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        2. M

          And to make this comment thread even longer, my first time to FL (east coast side) was way back in 1995, shortly after we moved to DFW area. Another year, my husband and I somehow made it to Clearwater Beach (I can’t remember for what) and then I went with him when he travelled for work to Sarasota. He had a Donzi boat (small, 22ft) at that time so he was really hoping to see the factory, etc. but it didn’t happen — the factory was closed on the days he was there or something. Then when my son was about 6yrs old, we went to Fort Myers Beach. For someone who isn’t into the heat and humidity, we were in FL often enough! LOL Texas was hot and humid, too, though, so it wasn’t such a big deal then going from TX to FL. But maybe the older I get, and the more removed from the heat & humidity I am, I’ve become a wimp. Although I remember there were days in TX when it was 90+degrees at 8am and I’d mutter under my breath, “Whoever decided Texas was habitable was nuts!”

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        3. I live for the comment section. Chat away!

          Banf is on my list of places to see. Also Victoria Island.

          We lived in the Dallas area; we rented for a year in Valley Ranch while we built a house in Grand Prairie. Lolo was born in Carrollton, TX.

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        4. I grew up in Florida and I feel like the heat and humidity didn’t bother me until the last 5 years or so. Either that or I’m senile and forgetting everything!

          I found that the weather in Texas was always extreme; extremely hot in the summer, extremely cold, and harsh in the winter. We didn’t live there long (three years?) but we did love it. The people were great!

          You have seen a lot of Florida!!

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        5. M

          Thanks! I’m glad my comments were not getting on your nerves. 🙂

          Oh, so we were both in the DFW area then. We moved there in Jan 1994; rented a house for 6months on the very west side of Fort Worth (close to Lockheed) then moved to a hosue we bought in the North Richland Hills/Keller area. I wonder if we had overlap years in TX? Texas was good to us — but the hea&/humidity and the allergy seasons were not our friends so we moved back to Southern CA.

          One of my good friends lives in Grand Prairie — also moved there from SoCA. Another family friend also lives in Carrollton — also moved there from SoCA. We just sold our TX in March 2020. We thought we were lucky closing the deal before everything locked down — but I guess we sold too soon, judging by how much higher real estate prices have gone up since. Who would’ve thought??

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  9. THIS IS MY F*&#$ING DREAM. CAN YOU HEAR ME YELLING?? Because you grew up behind the airport, I wasn’t sure. Never gets old.

    The egg yolk ravioli sounds delectable. I once ate at a restaurant where the egg yolk was served as a side dish to soak our potatoes in, and I honestly shouted out loud, “I could take a bath in this.” I’m fun at parties.

    Mike and I are going back and forth on travel plans. Fingers crossed we may be going to California. Or Seattle. As you can see, it’s a tight plan.

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    1. WHAT DID YOU SAY? 😳

      Your egg yolk/potato story. LOL!!!!
      I had lunch with my girlfriend on Saturday: Grilled Peach Salad. It had this awesome vinaigrette over arugula, grilled chicken, grilled slices of peaches, and a bit of goat cheese…it was so freaking good that I said out loud: I’d like to immerse myself onto this plate right freaking now.
      I’m also fun at parties!

      I love that you have a tight travel plan in place. Packing will be a breeze.

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      1. OMG.
        I have a hack for you.
        Go to Trader Joes and get their jar of peaches and a package of their Unexpected cheddar cheese. Eat together. YOU WON’T REGRET IT.

        I think we’d be a hit at parties. People could hire us. Oh wait, that sounds bad….

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  11. nicoleboyhouse

    Oh Suz, this is all SO GLORIOUS!!!! I am dead from envy, I would love to do every single thing here, except maybe get a hole bored in my skull, and also get stranded by United. But everything else! I just imagined getting a fresh fruit delivery at 6:30 and then everything just got better from there. So glad you were able to have such a wonderful vacation, my friend! You deserve every luxury, and I think you should have such things 365!

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    1. Please don’t die from envy. You have much to live for! 😳

      Thank you for your kind words; having experiences like this concretes the fact that I am so fortunate to be living THE life.

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  13. Beth (A Mom's LIfe)

    I just saw someone make egg yolk ravioli on Master Chef last night and was wondering why I’ve never seen that before. Apparently, even though I watch a lot of Food Network, I’ve missed some new creation!!!! This looks like a wonderful vacation!!!

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  14. “Getting something rubbed.” Bwahaha! I appreciate your humor. You’re my kind of people.

    The whole trip looks fantastic, from the amazing food to the warm pool with various massage options, though I am wondering about this guided mediation of which you speak. Does that mean they have somebody coaching you to resolve your conflict and negotiate a peaceful settlement?

    We’re headed to Madison, Wisconsin in two weeks!

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    1. Saying you appreciate my humor is a compliment and I’ll take it!

      It was a very nice trip with lots of memories being made.

      The ‘meditation guru’ basically walked us through the meditation with phrases like: “your toes are feeling weightless, now your ankles are feeling weightless’….so on and so on until NOTHING HAD WEIGHT. It was all good and for the time being, there was a peaceful settlement within myself. Today? More colflict. 😳

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