Estes Park, Colorado

July 3, 2009 we have a few days off from work!!! It's so nice to not have to think about the store for a couple of days.

So Grandma, Grandpa, Me and Tim decided to go up to Estes park and toodle around for the day . . . We wanted to toodle around at the Stanley hotel but Grandma can't walk much and the guys were bored. This is a picture of them ENJOYING the Stanley hotel.

We went to lunch at this place, can't remember the name of it. The food was good, but the Service was HORRIBLE!! We waited for our food for an hour and a half, and when I confronted the waiter on it he said, "Well, I'm just horrible as a waiter." Finally we talked to the manager and they gave us some money off the bill . . . but the waiter was a goober! He sucked!

Grandma at lunch

Tim at lunch

Grandpa at lunch

Me at lunch

Grandma's foot is really bothering her, and she's in a lot of pain, so she couldn't' walk a lot. So Tim went to get the car and I waited with Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandpa saw a Bluejay in the bushes and wanted it to fly out so he started throwing rocks into the bushes to get it to fly . . . It never flew out, but it gave me an opportunity to get some pictures!

Can't you just see my dad as a "Bad little boy" doing bad things and then pretending to be innocent??? He's so cute!

So after lunch we decided to go up to Estes park, the forest thing, Is it really called Rocky mountain state park? I don't know, it's the forest place up in Estes park where lots of people go.

On the low part, (Not on the mountain) it was beautiful.

For some reason, unknown to me, my family wanted to go up "Trail ridge road" Its the highest road like it in the country or something stupid like that. And Why my family would want to go up it for the life of me, I can't understand. Especially knowing how much Car anxiety I have!

Here is a picture of Tim looking out over the DEEP ravine . . . WHY WERE WE UP THAT HIGH!?!?!?

This silly road has sheer drops, off the side of the mountain . . . DOWN DOWN DOWN . . . What were they thinking taking me up there?!?!?!?

This is NOT the most flattering picture of me. But I took it when I took the one of Tim. It was cold and rainy and cold and rainy and cold and rainy . . .WHAT WERE WE DOING UP THERE?

Have I mentioned before that I hate to be cold!? And that I have car anxiety, and that I hate to be in the car?!?? So what were we doing up on Trail ridge road????

Its the 4th of July weekend, and there is SNOW and Dangerous snow fields? What are we doing up there???

Tim looking at the "Snow fields"

Then heading back down the mountain, there was a traffic issue, so I had time to take some pretty pictures of trees. I like trees! But not TRAIL RIDGE ROAD!

(Lorinda~ This picture is for you! I thought you would love it. The mountains and the trees and the sky)

The song~ "I'm on the top of the world, looking down on creation and the only explanation I can find, is the love that I found ever since you've been around . . ." (Don't ya just love the Carpenters?) comes to mind when I look at this picture!

More pretty trees

As we were driving we saw some elk . . .

This big boy had some big antlers!

We were so high up even the clouds were below us!

More driving, and then we see a MOOSE! (Well a moose butt) At first I thought it was a rock.

It turned around and Tim got a picture of its face.

I bet ya didn't know there were moose in Colorado . . . we don't see them very often, so it was pretty exciting to see her.

And finally we were down off the top of the mountain and headed back toward some semblance of FLAT ground . . . and Tim had to stop and pee . . . so of course I had to get out and take a picture of him peeing!

I know I'm goofy!

Poor Tim . . . has to put up with me and my silliness.

Over all we were on the road probably about 6 hours . . . I did really good managing my car anxiety for about the first 3 and then I was about to loose my mind!

I think everyone was happy when I finally calmed down. I came home and had a couple glasses of wine in the hot tub . . . and felt much better. I realize I'm pretty much a "FLAT LAND" girl.

We had a nice time, other than the lunch issue and the car issue . . . I'm not going up there again for a while . . . I'm going to stay in the flat part of the country!