Messages come in different forms. My latest came from a well traveled Cuckoo clock handed down from my grandma now making its home on our kitchen wall in Colorado.

At 3pm, as I was packing for our next trip, his little door popped open and out he came, as he has since 1932, chirping out the hour. Cuckoo, cuckoo, then cuck…coo. A chirp of exhaustion, his little door stuck open, his tiny beak a draggin’. I knew exactly how he felt.

We just moved to Denver after 11 years in England and Austria. In that time, we navigated many narrow European roads and slept in plenty of off the beaten track accommodations. We changed diapers on Paris park benches, looked for a missing (and presumed stolen) rental car in Croatia, and worried about our son’s raging fever in Bled Slovenia.

What we did not do was relax. At least not very often.

And after a whirlwind few months of international relocation, house shopping, and new schools, we really needed to. We headed due west to Keystone, Colorado for a mellow off-season break.

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The ski village of Keystone is the least commercial in a ring of ski towns in the Rocky Mountains an hour and a half drive from Denver. Just a short walk or shuttle ride will get you to the slopes at River Run Village. From lakeside biking and skating to restaurants, theaters and outlet stores, you’ll find all you need just a short drive away.

We were there between seasons in October, but had plenty of fun just the same. It turns out kids only care about being cold if they’re bored. We scavenged some cardboard from a dumpster for a little impromptu sledding, threw snowballs, hiked, panned for gold (yes, we found some!), and visited a ghost town called Montezuma.

Afterward we warmed up at the Inxpot coffee house in River Run Village where we lounged on mismatched overstuffed furniture, lingered over warm beverages, and played chess. The boys got to play with an old typewriter there (and all its movable parts). For all their computer-literacy, they’d never seen one before.

We stayed in a 2-bedroom condo in Summit Cove in a building called Settlers Creek. It had everything we needed and more: a full kitchen (with added goodies like a blender and mixer), a fully stocked spice rack, an extra coffee pot and plastic dishes for the kids—all of which can stay neatly tucked away if you prefer to eat out. There were board games, puzzles and DVDs as well as plenty of extra blankets and pillows, and a ski locker right outside the front door to store the skis.

The log cabin clubhouse, just a stone’s throw from the condo, provides added entertainment with a pool table for the kids and a massive fireplace and sitting area for some relaxing. Clean locker rooms and a hallway of towels lead you outside to the heated pool and Jacuzzi where kids with moms who think to bring swimsuits to a mountain resort in October will have a great time splashing around even when the temperature is in the 40s.

We especially loved our soft and puffy sectional couch that curves around ½ the room and points at a big screen TV. Curling up there under fuzzy blankets in front of the gas fire was the perfect way to end our long Saturday.

The fact that we were eating 5-layer chocolate cake while doing so didn’t hurt either.

Go to the Summit Cove website.
Read our full review of Settlers Creek.

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