Hola Amigo // A 100 Cups Of Coffee Adventure

In the age of Instagram, I've found so many amazing things that I love. Most of them I probably will never get to see {though who I am following is my list, just in case} this weekend, there was one I was able to check off: Amigo Motor Lodge.

I asked Ocean Eyes if he was working on Monday {President's Day} and he told me he had off so I booked room immediately, without even seeing how far away they were {2 hours and 41 minutes from North East Denver}. Not too bad. Plus our dog Piper could come too. Perfect for National Love Your Pets Day which was also on Monday.

So we packed up my little red car with Piper, wine, champagne and a picnic lunch and drove down for my first trip to Salida, Colorado. Boy am I glad I drove, because about thirty minutes in it go really twisty. And I do not do well in the car. But we made it through, came out the other side and saw some of the most gorgeous landscapes I've seen since I've moved to Colorado.


Wide open golden fields and peaks of pure white. It was a sight to behold and we still had two hours to go. To pass the time I listened to two really great podcasts: Strategy Hour {which had my favorite blogger Studio DIY on} about online business, blogging and productivity. All of my favorite things! The second was an NPR podcast called How I Built This all about how companies and entrepreneurs built some of our world's most popular brands {Kate Spade, Crate & Barrel and Drybar}. They were very inspirational and made me want to jump out of the car and create! Which was what this trip was about.

Since Amigo Motor Lodge was so Instagram worthy, from what I had seen, I had planned for Ocean Eyes and I to do a photoshoot while we were there. I wanted to capture the uniqueness of the motel + have some new headshots for myself and he was game! We drove into the motel's parking lot and met one of the owners Phillip and his dog Mofffet. Piper and Moffet became fast friends. Phillip gave us the key to room number 11.

All of the rooms had doors painted black with HUGE numbers on them, you couldn't miss your room number. I pulled into the space right in front of our door and right away we unpacked and popped the champagne. It felt like a cool adult summer camp. The room was bright with light and decorated with a minimalist retro feel which I adored from following them on Instagram. Each room is unique and I was lucky enough to peak into all of the rooms when they were cleaning the following day. My favorite is room number one with a space theme and an Ice Cube quote hanging on the wall.

Everything about Amigo Motor Lodge is strategic. The graphics surrounding the brand, which we were lucky enough to have seen a few being put up in the lobby the following morning, to the humor used throughout the motel, to the environmental friendly feel {reusable coffee mugs in the morning, one big dispenser of toiletries in the shower and beautiful glass water cups or in our case, Moscow Mules}.

Besides the motel living up to all my dreams, Salida had some of the best food I've ever had. We had dinner at The Fritz and breakfast at Seasons Cafe. Seasons Cafe uses only local food and now creates their own in house coffee. Both were some of the best things I've ever tasted.

Since we had driven all day, we returned from dinner and snuggle up in the comfy beds. I loved the huge down comforter and once we turned the heat on the floors felt like they were heated! Since we don't have cable we watched The Walking Dead live for the first time and in the morning drank our coffee and watched the news. We spent most of our time in the beds.

After our Huckleberry Roasters coffee and yogurt in bed, it was time for our photo shoot! I had brought three different looks and Ocean Eyes was the best photographer. It was this time last year that he had taken my old profile picture for my socials and this year he did a great job again. We utilized the amazing motel's scenery for our back drops: outside our door, sat two bright red chairs, perfect for a pop of color.

Inside the bathroom, which had good lighting and cool metal fixture to frame the shot.

And the Amigo Motor Lodge lobby, which was probably my favorite with it's HUGE pile of wood, vintage feel and lots of amazing diffused light.

Our trip was short and sweet. We decided we want to make a trip down to Amigo Motor Lodge at least annually. But I'm already planning a summer trip. Owner Phillip has big plans for the space come summer: landscaping, pop up tenting and mini "RVs". Plus their signature teepee being resurrected after the wind dies down. I cannot wait to see how this hidden gem grows and becomes even more picture perfect.