Colorado: Estes Park & Boulder

I'm alive but sleepy, so, so sleepy. We got back from Colorado Sunday night around 9:30pm and I headed back to work bright and early Monday morning. Ugh. We had a great trip but spent a good deal of time worrying about our family and friends here because of all the flooding and tornado watches/warnings, etc. Unfortunately my Nannie's house flooded and it's going to take a lot of work and time to get it back to normal. Luckily she and my aunt were able to evacuate with all of their animals. I'm planning on driving up Saturday to take them some things and check out the damage. Please keep everyone in your thoughts, in Shelby County Millington was hit rather hard and the folks further northeast in Nashville have really got a mess.

On to the trip - we flew into Colorado Springs Wednesday afternoon, picked up our rental car, grabbed lunch at Marigold Cafe and then hit the road for Estes Park at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park (almost three hours away). I was blown away by the mountains, just gorgeous. The trip from Colorado Springs to Boulder was pretty uneventful but once we got past Lyons, Colorado heading towards Estes Park the drive up into the mountains was a little narrow. When we arrived in Estes Park we pulled over at the visitors center and gawked at this collection of elk. We also realized how flipping cold it had gotten. Our reservations were at The Stanley Hotel, the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining! But when we got there we found out we would be staying in the new villas (fancy condos) behind the hotel. We were kind of bummed until we got inside the condo, it was huuuuge, two bedrooms, two baths, full kitchen, fireplace, hot tub, mountain view - we were no longer bummed. Our biggest challenges in Estes Park were finding places that were open, most restaurants/stores don't start opening until later in May.

Thursday morning we awoke to a town blanketed in snow. In the mountains snow = not a big deal. It took me a while to get the snow off of the car so I could drive into town but once I got on the road everything was pretty clear. I did some coffee drinking (Kind Coffee), pie-buying (Estes Park Pie Shop) and souvenir shopping. I also drove to the park entrance but the snow and cold kept me from walking. Instead I stopped at Coffee on the Rocks, warmed up and took more pictures of the mountains. By the time I got back to the condo the snow had melted and I took pictures of more elk from the front door.When Kenan's conference session was over we drove to Boulder and spent a very nice afternoon there, it was our favorite place out the towns we went to. We bought yarn at Gypsy Wool, had the best little cupcakes at Tee & Cakes (salted caramel! bacon & chocolate!), walked around and shopped and ate dinner at a crepe place while playing our new favorite game "Spot the Subaru" - extra points if it had a boat rack on top. I still have Denver and Colorado Springs to tell about, which include stories of alpaca, cog wheel trains and more yarny goodness.