Day one we arrived in Denver, grabbed our rental car and drove up to Estes Park, a little touristy town on the eastern edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. While we waited for the condo to be ready, we took the airtram thing up the side of a mountain and scoped out the view from the observation deck. As you can see from the pic...needless to say it was awesome. We saw little chimpmunks running around, brave little suckers. One practically ran across my foot! The we checked into our freaking amazing condo, complete with fireplace, mountain view, hot tub for two in the bathroom, marble countertops, you name it, this condo had it.
A quick cat nap later, we had after all woken up at the crack of dawn, and we went out to dinner with my cousin Winslow and his new fiance, Megan. It was great to meet her. Lovely girl. Had an excellent dinner with them. And by the way, the YMCA they work out is crazy big! Wowzas.
Day two started with an 8 a.m. breakfast trailride. That's right, horseback trailride. With our guide and a mother-daughter pair we started out into the mountains on our horses. My horse, April, was a very nosy horse. It was a fight to keep even a foot between her and the horse in front of her. After an hour of riding we stopped for breakfast. Now here, unfortunately the daughter from the other pair realized she had a crazy rash across her whole face. A little freaked out, they called it an early day and went to the hospital. Fortunately she had no problems breathing or anything so I'm sure she's fine. Of course the result of this was Ross and I had 2.5 hours of a private horseback ride through the mountains. The views were amazing!
Day three we got a wild hair and went on an eight mile hike. Two miles up the side of a mountain to Gem Lake, two miles across the top of the mountains to Balanced Rock and then of course, four miles to get back. The first two miles were the hardest but fortunately we were also the freshest. Despite that though when we were just a quarter mile or less from the lake, I thought I was going to die. It was so steep! I kept telling Ross to stop and he kept saying "just make it to this spot" or "baby, just a little further." Grrrr. It hurt but I did eventually make it to the top.
Day four, Thursday that is, we left Estes Park and worked our way into Denver via the Coors Brewery. Ross was in love. And even as a non-beer drinker, I have to say, the brewery tour was pretty good. It was entertaining and I've never learned so much about making booze in my life. After the brewery, where Ross got enthusiastic about a Christmas ornament souvenier for the first time ever, we headed into Denver. By this point, my laid-back always relaxed husband needed some downtime. After all, in this relationship, I am the Energizer Bunny and he is the Super-Relaxo. Its a combo that usually works very well for us. So I explored the 16th Street Mall in Denver while he zoned out in the hotel to an hour of ESPN. The 16th Street Mall is great! It's like Faneuil Hall in Boston but in Denver. Shopping, coffee houses, restaurants, street performers, painted cows and pianos. It had it all. On my exploratory visit I scouted out a dinner location and after a little more ESPN with Ross in the hotel, was treated to an excellent meal downtown.Day five we flew home, picked up our baby Lexi and wrapped up one excellent Colorado-extravaganza. Hurray!
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