It has been quite a while since I have last written anything, at least, that is how it feels! I actually have a little spare time to do some updating before things get crazy again...today!
So let me see, Mike had asked for some time off this last few days to go to a CE (continuing education) conference in Reno, but a week before the trip, he was finally approved by his management. Gotta love the last minute disrespect, huh? So because we couldn't go to Reno, we decided that we would take a nice trip into the mountains.
Mike booked a nice lodge in Estes Park, Colorado for us to stay in. We even got a night free! We were nestled in the mountains, no matter which window you looked out of, you'd see mountains and trees and elk! Our first night there, we got into our private hot tub on our balcony and watched the lightning show on the other side of the mountain. It wasn't until the wind started to pick up that we felt the need to go inside.
Our first day in Estes Park was spent packing up a little breakfast/brunch and heading to Rocky Mountain National, as they waived their entrance fees for the week. Because it was off season, meant that a lot of the roads were still closed down due to snow...that's right, snow! We had beautiful days with clear weather, a few clouds, but it was gorgeous!
We stopped a few times, but it was super windy! When we reached the top of one of the peaks, we got out of our car, and I couldn't walk. The wind was so strong, that I was leaning backwards, and not falling on my rear, until Mike decided to step into the wind, breaking the force behind me, and thankfully, he caught me, or else I would have been hurting! The wind did cause me to twist my knee a little, but the next morning it was fine.
There were a ton of elk! We started down one side of the park, and there on my side was about 20 or so, and on the other side was about 50 or more. Did I mention the elk? =) They weren't overly skittish, and we were able to get pictures of them, however, Mike's camera decided that it's life was over, and we weren't able to grab any pictures of us with them. =(
As we drove through the park, we were on the lookout for bears. We ended up having a pretty funny conversation...
"Can you outrun a bear in this car?" - me
"Sure. As long as it's a straight road with no turns...because he knows the shortcuts." - Mike
For lunch that day, Mike took me to an Indian restaurant, in which I've never had. It was pretty good. I liked it a lot. There was so much food and we ended up taking a lot of it back to our lodge. We walked the streets of Estes Park too, and got some ice cream and fudge that was freshly made and super yummy!
Mike and I also went to the Stanley Hotel, which is famous for the Shining. It is a beautiful hotel, and has so much history, and is haunted. We took the ghost tour, and had a great time. I took a lot of photos; no ghosts. We did smell a lot of things that didn't fit with the area in which we were in, and had some uneasy feelings here and there, but it was fun. It's super expensive to stay a night there, but maybe our next trip we will stay in one of those rooms!
We walked through the gift shop, but were very disappointed and shocked by the expensive prices of their merchandise. I saw a few things that were cute and neat, but I wasn't about to spend that kind of money for them!
During the tour, there was an elderly woman who continued to try and give me her things. My knee-jerk reaction was to take them from her, thinking that she wanted me to take a picture of her, or maybe she needed to tie her shoe or something, but she kept apologizing to me, because she was mistaking me for her daughter/daughter in law. I asked Mike if I looked anything like her, as she was much heavier and shorter than me. Mike laughed, thinking I was joking, but I was serious. How does one mistake someone three times for someone they look nothing like?
Our last day before leaving town was spent going to breakfast...which we tried to find using Trip Advisor, but it kept taking us to a house...it wasn't the cafe for breakfast that we were in search of. We skipped that place as we couldn't locate it and ate somewhere else. After breakfast, we headed to a local winery and sampled ten different wines. Mike, of course, selected five red wines and I selected a white, a dessert and three Mead's. We ended up buying six bottles out of all the ones we tried. They were really tasty!
After our wine tasting, we walked the now open shops of Estes Park, and ended up doing a little Christmas shopping too! I laughed as I told Mike that I felt it would be shocking to many people if I were to state that Christmas shopping was done! Granted, we weren't going to go crazy, but there were a few things that we couldn't help but pick up for family.
We left Estes Park on day four and headed the very scenic route home. This was a great trip!
Mike had to work on Monday, and Tuesday, I had jury duty. I was hoping to be a lucky person and not have to go in, but no such luck.
Then they brought a judge in and he did his big "ra-ra" speech, telling us that it's a right for us to be there, and blah blah blah. My thought was, "If it's a right, that means that I have the right to not be there." Granted, that is true if I wanted to pay $700 and spend some time in jail. Thank God I brought my kindle!
They put in a movie, National Treasure, which I felt was quite ironic, and crossed one of the three judge's names off the list. About three hours since I had arrived, they finally crossed all the names off and sent all of us home! I wish all jury duties were like this!
I got home after that at about noon, and Mike and I headed out into the great wilderness again! I can't go into much detail, but I will later.
The drive was spectacular getting here, and I will enjoy the drive back, since it was beautiful getting here!
Mike and I contacted a local landscaper in town, and still need to set up a time to allow them to come out and look at our yard. We are hoping to get some Xeriscaping done. It just makes the most sense.
Haven't been home much to be baking or cooking, so nothing new there. Although, our granola bars have still lasted this long. I think it helped that I was scolding Mike for inhaling them!
Not sure if there is much else going on...I don't think there is, at least nothing that I can speak of at the moment.
So, until next time!
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