Rocky Mountain....Hello!

Well we are back from another great trip. This time Alex, Aunt Peggy and myself all went to Colorado. Being up in the mountains really is an experience that just lowers your blood pressure. It was a great escape from all the chaos with work. Check out the recap below.

Thursday

After work Alex and I got a cab to the airport. AP had flew in the night before so it was just us for this leg of the trip. Earlier in the day a little boy apparently got stuck in a small hot air balloon and was floating over Denver airspace so the Denver airport was closed for a couple hours. I thought we might be delayed a little bit while they tried to catch up from that outage. Little did we know that we would be delayed for an even lamer reason.

I guess our idiot of a Vice President likes to shut down airports when he is flying from them and cause thousands of people to be delayed and miss their connections AND cost the airport and airlines even more thousands because they need to rebook these people. Way to go for saving money in this economy you jack ass. So yeah...we were delayed about 2 hours while the VP sat on the runway drinking scotch that we all paid for. When he finally left the whole airport clapped and made rude gestures and the planes were finally able to land and we could board. Luckily we had a direct flight so we just had to deal with a delay, others were not so lucky.

When we arrived at the Denver Airport AP and Lorrie picked us up and we headed to Greeley to get some rest. It was sometime past 11:00pm when we landed and that is with us gaining an hour from the time zone change. When we got to Lorrie's house an hour later we got settled, had some conversation and went to bed.

Friday

Friday morning I received a jarring wake up call that in turn also woke up Alex. At 7:00am my brother Jason called to chat while he was working. In Michigan that is 9:00am and even normally it would be 8:00am in Minnesota so I cant blame him for the wake up but damn we wanted more sleep. We were in a smaller size queen bed without our normal pillows and it was crazy hot in there so we were both too uncomfortable to fall back asleep. I guess we are both too spoiled with having a king size bed normally.

We got up and got ready so we could make an early start on our drive up to the mountains. With all the running around and getting Lorrie ready to go we didn't hit the road until noon. Normally this would have thrown me for a loop since I am a schedule fanatic but on this trip I was all about just relaxing and going with the flow so it really didn't bother me.

Now I have never been to the mountains before and have always wanted to go to any mountain range. I just think they are gorgeous to look at and I stand in awe to how massive they really are. We were staying in a mountain town called Estes for the night so on the drive up we stopped several times for me to take some pictures. When we couldn't stop I opened the window and stuck the camera out. It is amazing to see the mountains as you are driving up to them and as you drive through them. I took tons of pictures and have a chunk of them posted on Facebook.

When we arrived in Estes we stopped and checked into the cabin AP had rented for us. It was an awesome place that reminded Alex and I of The Shack from Michigan. It was all wood furnishings, fireplace, full kitchen and two bathrooms. The place could sleep 8 with a King Bed, two queens and a fold out couch. AP was very generous in letting Alex and I have the King bed that was in its own room. After we dropped off the luggage we headed into the Rocky Mountain National Park.

The drive up was amazing to begin with and at the time we came to Estes and entered the park we were about 7,500 to 8,000 feet up so the views were just amazing and so diverse. In one direction you would see countless green trees blanketing the mountainside and a little to the right would be snow covered peaks that seemed to touch the clouds. This was all contrasted by rocky surfaces with running waterfalls and large plains of brown prairie grass. I was truly humbled by even the first views as we came into the park and that would not even be the best of it.

When we got in the park we settled down at a picnic table for some lunch that we brought with us. While we were eating some blue jays started to drive bomb the table looking for scraps. This really didn't bother me too much but Alex started to get a little nervous, he has a fear of birds, and Lorrie made the most outstanding shrill noise when one landed on the table lol. I am laughing out loud right now thinking about it. It might have been the biggest laugh of the trip which is saying a lot because we had a blast. :) After lunch we walked around a little bit and took some pictures before getting back into the car to drive as far as we were allowed to go, about 10,000 feet up a peak.

Now this part got a little scary for me to say the least as I have a small fear of heights. My fear isn't so bad if I am just standing and looking down or if I was to have control of the vehicle I was in but DAMN...trekking up to 10,000 feet on a road with no side rails and thousands of feet to the base is just a little much for my nerves. And to make it better Lorrie drives just a little too fast without paying the right amount of attention to the road lol. So I kept my eyes on what was ahead of me without looking out the windows. When we got to the farthest point we could go we got out of the car and stood out on a little railing that overlooked the vast flatland below the peak and out across to all of the surrounding peaks. It was indescribable I do not have the right words and the pictures I took doesn't do it the justice. And to make it better I was able to share this experience with Alex, my love. Yeah yeah, sappy I know, moving on.

After we had our fill of the sights we started back down the mountain and stopped off to see a huge gathering of Elk. We took in some good pictures and I got a great video of one licking the front of our car! There are no fences in the park so all the wildlife can come right up to you. It was pretty cool. We then made our way out of the park and back to the cabin to meet two of Lorrie's kids, Emory and Kyle, and a couple cute doggies, Duncan and Wrigley.

Once everyone was together we found an Italian place for dinner called Dunraven. Lorrie even made the drive there pretty exciting lol. Everything there was fresh and made from scratch so we all had some great meals. I had Lasagna which was done with spicy sausage and TONS of cheese. I loved it. The place was pretty unique as well as they had all of the walls and ceiling of the place covered with $1 bills that people had wrote on. They estimated that there is $16,000 covering the place and when one of the bills gets tattered or faded they donate it to local charities which I thought was pretty neat. Lorrie donated a dollar in recognition of mine and Alex's engagement. We all signed it and stapled it in the only spot that we could find. Since this was my first time meeting Emory and Kyle we had some good conversation over dinner and then we headed back to the cabin for some games and we turned in for the night.

Saturday

We spent Saturday in the town of Estes doing some shopping and walking around town. I bought a few shirts and some picture frames for Alex and myself. It was great that the town was very pet friendly so they could come with us. Some places had water dishes and treats for them too. Estes is a great town that I would love to come back to. After spending the day shopping we headed back to Greeley for the night. When we got back it was around 6:00pm so we had some dinner, played some games and turned in early. We were all pretty exhausted.

Sunday

Sunday we were going to meet Lorrie's other daughter Lexie and her boyfriend John in Boulder for lunch, a tour of the Celestial Seasonings plant and some more shopping. We met Lexie at a place called The Sink. With Boulder being a college town The Sink was pretty catered to it. The atmosphere was kinda of cool with the walls being completely painted. Next to the men's bathroom someone had painted an exact replica of the door so if you weren't paying attention you would find yourself face to face with a wall lol. It was unique. The food and service were not the best but what do you expect from such a place. I cant even get into the clueless stone head that was our waitress but it was an experience.

After lunch we all headed to the Celestial Seasonings Tea Tour. The tour guide was kind of lame and rude but we all had fun by making the tea-bagging motion every time she said tea bag. It was a riot! After the tour we picked up some tea and some yummy chap stick and headed back into downtown Boulder for some shopping. It was a pretty nice place with some one of a kind stores but much of it was way overpriced. We did find a cool little candy store with some retro candy and memorabilia. Alex fell in love with a old school metal lunchbox so of course I got one too. His has a couple smurfs on it and mine has a sock monkey...good times. I love Alex :) We finished off the day with dinner at Cheesecake Factory before heading back to Greeley to pack and get ready for the flight home the next morning.

That is our awesome trip to Colorado. I want to thank Lorrie for her hospitality and driving us all over the place and AP for paying for the cabin and countless other things. You both made the trip wonderful! And another thank you to Alex for sharing such a wonderful experience with me. I know we will have many more to come. Like our cruise coming up in February!

Check out my Facebook page for some pictures.