The last three days have involved a lot of driving, challenging some fears, and exploring this part of beautiful Colorado. I don't necessarily see the "purple" in the mountains, but Brian thinks it MUST be there if the song says it is! The majority of Thursday was spent DRIVING, except that we took a pitstop in Golden, CO to ride an alpine slide.
I don’t know what possessed me to suggest it because by the time we got to the top of the ski-lift type thing, I could barely talk I was so nervous. It was SO high!
{The height made it so we could see Denver though!}
It was actually a lot of fun and when we got to the bottom, I wished we had bought the three pack of tickets instead of just one each!
After the alpine slide, we stopped at Rock Rock Canyon where there are concerts held in the rocks above the city. {It would be pretty neat to watch a concert from there!} We kept driving after that and stopped in Boulder for dinner at Panera and so that I could have an interview on the phone.
We arrived at Rocky Mountain (finally -- 1 day late) and set up camp. There were signs and warnings EVERYwhere about bears! I spent pretty much the next 48 hours praying that the bears would STAY away. I had a semi-irrational fear that they would just come and get me in my sleep. (They did stay away! Whew.)
Friday morning we got up and switched campsites (we didn’t have reservations for another night). We also drove up to Bear Lake...
Then we went into Estes Park because I was expecting a call about the job and I found out I got it! YAY! I will be an assistant at a preschool 30 hours a week. This will hopefully allow me to then pursue other things {photography?!} as well as get more training in the preschool world.
The town of Estes Park is a good combination of cute and touristy. (There were almost no empty stores which is impressive and different than most towns we went through.) We got giant cookies from Grandma’s Cookies (they weren’t good), souvenir shopped, went to a bookstore, a SCRAPBOOK store (I’ve been deprived lately because my stuff has been packed away for months), and ate lunch at a place called Penelope's (they had good burgers). {As a side note, the bookstore was really neat by itself, BUT they had a box of “free” books at their backdoor that they are “advanced copies” and not sell-able. I want to get on THAT mailing list please or at least find another bookstore close to me that gives away those kind of books too!}
After being in town for most of the morning, we drove back into the park and drove around the top of the park. The drive is GORGEOUS and there were many places to stop and take pictures. There were also storms rolling in which made photo taking both fun and challenging.
{The storm moving in is off to the right.}
When we got to the Alpine Visitor’s center, which is 11,000+ feet, we had coffee at “Cafe in the Clouds” and watched the elk from the warm and dry inside.
We drove back to our campsite and made grilled cheese for dinner before getting into our tent barely before it started to pour! I don’t mind being in our tent when it’s raining. It is kind of relaxing.
This morning, we got up and packed up the site. We planned on stopping at the outlet mall in Loveland and so that was our first goal. It was actually really lame. Most of the stores are closed, but the community is using the empty shops for things like Boy Scouts, dance groups, a workout facility, etc. It just wasn’t very good shopping.
We continued on to make it to our campsite reservations at a KOA a 1/2 hour outside of Denver {with quick stops at a Borders to see if there was any good deals and the Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to get the Rapid’s tickets for tonight.}. We got to the KOA and took the first shower in over 48 hours and it was heavenly! By 3:30, we were ready to go explore downtown Denver a little bit.
Denver is a VERY unique city. I know that I should be used to Portland and even Chicago with uniqueness, but those felt like “my” cities so I feel safe and confident. I think it’s also coming from almost 2 weeks of small towns and being out in nature that I was shocked by the amounts and craziness of people. The area we were in was a street called “The 16th St Mall” and it traveled for blocks and blocks. There is even a free bus that you can take up and down it. There are beautiful flowers in the center, lots of different decorations (from painted pianos to metal buffalos). There are a variety of shops from chains to individually owned ones. Our FAVORITE stop was a bookstore called “Tattered Cover.” It was like Powells, but almost more personal feeling because it wasn’t as large and the way it was set up was creative and welcoming. I felt like I was in someone’s really nice, book-covered home!
We had dinner at Noodles and Company because they were started in Denver. Then we went to a Rapids vs Chivas MLS game. It was a different experience as well because we were by the 25 people in the WHOLE stadium who were there to cheer for the Chivas and MAN were they loud. It was neat that Brian got to go to a game while we are here though!
Tomorrow we’re starting the long drive home. We have a couple more quick stops on the way, but, unless something happens, we plan on being in Ohio by Monday evening! Then the REAL adventure begins. ;-)
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