ESTES PARK 2019 Day Four - Lily Lake and Trail Ridge Road

Another beautiful day in paradise!  The wild turkeys agree!  They came down from the mountains behind the cabins every morning, two toms and a hen, foraging for bugs.

After another fabulous breakfast, we headed over to Lily Lake to fish and hike.  We kept running into construction traffic all over town.  Why is this necessary in EP during the summer when there are a bazillion people there?  It's crowded enough everywhere without adding that problem.

The Lily Lake parking lot is small, so we had to park on the side of the highway.  Right away a park ranger came up to Cade and Philip (who were carrying fishing poles) and told them Lily Lake is no longer stocked with fish due to the heat of the water in the summer - nothing would survive.  This was a bit ironic considering the temps were in the lower 60's at the time.  So they packed up their fishing poles and headed to Estes Lake to test the waters.

This hike was a test to see if I could handle a somewhat short and easy hike. Sadly, I had a really hard time hiking up the steep part with steps.  My heart flutters came back and this time they brought a friend:  massive headaches.

Once we leveled off on the top and of course on the way down, I was fine.  But it was very disheartening to realize the altitude was going to mess with me that much.  All the long hikes we had wanted to try were now out of my reach, which not only made me sad for me but for Jav and the boys.  Jav did not want to attempt a longer hike on his own.  And the way Macy had taken to hiking so far, I think she would've made a good go of a longer one too.  But it wasn't to be.

We still had a great time and saw beautiful views.  I told the kids about the rock sculptures thinking they would have fun making one.  They did, but I have since been schooled by several serious hikers that this practice is frowned upon due to messing with the natural landscape and the danger of the rocks falling on small animals.  So I will be encouraging them to refrain from building any more after this trip.  The lake itself has really different bird life and we could hear these strange (at least to us) calls back and forth.  There was a beautiful Colorado blue sky and cool weather.  What more could we ask for?

On the way back to the lodge Joel had his quote of the trip:  "I just saw a sign that said 'You are going to die!'  Long pause.  Then he said,  "Or maybe it said 'You need some pie', I'm not sure."  That kid cracks me up.  It turns out it said "You Need Pie" and was all over town, posted by the Estes Park Pie Shop and Bakery.

The Stanley Hotel nestled in the hills, famous
because it's where Stephen King had the idea for The Shining!

I had a good cry abut my physical woes when we got back to the cabin.  But my parents convinced me I needed to take it easy and enjoy just being in the mountains.  And when I finally stopped feeling sorry for myself long enough to think, they were absolutely right.  The point of this trip is to be with each other in this special place.  This place we have come to know so well on our 3rd visit here.  We walked down to the playground with the kids to watch them play shuffleboard - something I don't have any pictures of even though they went there each day we were there.  They got a game in and it started raining.  Joel was having trouble so Jav stayed with him so he could practice, even in the rain.(my little competitive sweet pea).

We decided to drive the Trail Ridge Road after lunch.  My parents have done it so many times they decided not to come with us, which we understood.  The road had barely opened when summer started due to the huge snowfall they experienced in the park in May.  The snowplows kept trying but weren't getting very far and it was too dangerous for them to try to navigate the roads at times.  The Visitor's Center and Gift Shop/Restaurant at the summit were completely buried under snow on Memorial Day!




                  

Never seen this sign before on any of our trips!

We got to the Visitor's Center and everyone was disappointed to find the steps leading up to the Summit that we always climb were closed due to ice!  But people were sneaking around the ropes and park rangers were having to follow them up and bring them back down.  Amazing how stupid and selfish people can be.  The kids were disappointed but we did some shopping.  About 5 minutes after leaving to head back down there was another spot people were stopping and walking up to a lookout point.  So Macy and G headed off, and Jav and Joel were quick to follow.  The rest of us waited all bundled in the cars.  The amount and ice and snow was truly amazing and it never fails to blow my mind how quickly the weather goes from sunny to cloudy to raining that high in the mountains.

When we got back we were hungry but didn't want to cook.  Jav and Philip went to pickup food from Smokin' Dave's BBQ.  They had a big variety of food, not just BBQ, and the food was really good.  My parents had not come down that night, so we decided to team up and play Cranium.  Some of us are really bad at drawing with our eyes closed, but I won't name any names.  (It's not me that's for sure!)

Another full and beautiful day.

ESTES PARK 2019 Day Three - Town trip, Gem Lake and Password

Even though we thought we should get up early to hike due to the crowds in the park, with teenagers we thought it would be a battle.  So every morning we had a nice big relaxing breakfast.  My brother makes incredible coffee.

Some of us went into town to get fishing licenses.  The rest of us went on yet another grocery store trip.  The mountains make us HANGRY!

Finally our first hike - with possible weather approaching.  Gem Lake is on the very edge of RMNP but technically still in the town of Estes Park.  I'm not sure why we had not read about it before.  Cade and Philip were hoping to fish at the Lake, even though it looked tiny on the trail map.

When we were driving to trailhead, Joel thought the clouds over the mountain made it look like a volcano!

We were pleased to see the parking lot at the trailhead wasn't full.  It felt wonderful to hike, but we had to do lots of stopping and resting.  The altitude was kicking some of our booties.

Stopped to get a snack and Cade said his asthma was bothering him.  So he and Phil turned around to try to fish at Lake Estes.  We pressed on, watching the sky for signs of bad weather.

We reached the beautiful view of all of Estes Park and took amazing pictures.

Then we started to climb again, and a HUGE clap of thunder stopped us in our tracks.  We saw a cloud approaching us.  All of us tried to get a signal to see the radar but no luck.  We did pull up that the lightning was 13 miles away.  So we turned back (sadly).

We were making good time, the clouds were darkening on us and it started to rain here and there.  All of a sudden I had heart flutters.  They were so bad I had to stop even though it had started raining hard.  We all put on our waterproof wear and kept going.  Of course then the sun came out and we were sweltering by the time we got to the car.  I still felt a little woozy so Jav let me and the kids in while he was putting all our gear in the back.  Macy said she saw lightning then we all heard The BIGGEST CLAP of thunder ever and it made the hair on our necks stand up.  We were all so glad to be grounded in our car.

We made a plan to do another easy hike the next day to see if the flutters showed up again.  But I was pretty bummed.  It was a scary feeling.

Oh a happier note, we finally saw some elk on the way home, all female.

Got back and started dinner :  Beef and chicken tacos, rice and beans, fruit salad.  Delicious!

Then we played Password after dinner.  With my grandparents' actual game from the 50's.  You can really only play with 4 people at a time, so we switched out people every once in awhile so everyone could play.  The kids had a great time playing, and so did all the adults.  And as what usually happens when we all get together, the laughter was abundant and wonderful.

Cade's deep in thought!  The Thinker 😹

Laughter, the BEST MEDICINE!

Joel's happy he's on a team with Mamaw, the smartest
person in the room!  After this we realized he could
handle playing by himself and he did really well!

We all decided we need a muzzle for Poppy!

At one point while waiting for Jav to either guess the word or give me a clue (I can't remember now), I made the comment:  "I might as well go to bed as exciting as this is."
Poppy guffawed and said,  "Jav you really need to up your game!"
followed by Macy squirming and saying she wanted to leave the room, and something about trading in her family, Gabriel getting the gist of it and looking really uncomfortable, the rest of us laughing hysterically and Joel wondering what was so funny.

I love my crazy inappropriate family!

ESTES PARK 2019 Day Two - Arrival

Raton is so beautiful to wake up in.  Temps in the 50's, and that smell of pine trees that just makes all of us unbelievably happy.  We all met in the hotel restaurant for breakfast and set out.  Then stopped five minutes out of Raton for Colorado pics!

This drive seemed like a quick breeze compared to the first day.  For one thing, there are beautiful mountains around on and off for most of the drive, especially from Colorado Springs on in.  The traffic can get dicey at times, but we were heading to Estes Park, so who cares?  I was reading this amazing book and didn't even stop to get a spelling bee ready on this leg of the trip.


And...even though the drive did not seem bad we still had much bickering from the back seat, screen time taken away, and then I turn around and see this:

Just when they have made me the angriest, they pull stuff like
this and I melt.

We had decided to find the burger place in Boulder that we chanced upon last time we came through for lunch.  We did a search for Burger restaurants in Boulder and FINALLY remembered the name of the place we'd been reminiscing about since we ate there the first time:  Larkburger!  We found you and this time we're bringing more people!  My brother and Cade and Macy kept amazing driving time with us and we pulled into Boulder a couple of minutes behind them, so they met us for lunch.  Such. Good.  Food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The drive through Lyons, and into Estes Park is one we LOVE so much.  Lyons is a cute little town with lots of shops and restaurants much like Estes Park (and Fredericksburg) and we need to explore more closely one day.  Then you start climbing with the Big Thompson River following along the highway on and off all the way into EP, and that moment when you crest over the hill and see the whole town below just takes our breath away every single time.  We were listening to the playlist I made for G last time we came, and there's a song called Road to Boulder by a bluegrass band called The Infamous Stringdusters (Bruce Hornsby plays the accordion with them!).  That song came on on this part of our trip and it was perfect to go along with the somewhat rainy drive.  Then we had Joel asking the entire drive, and even after we arrived in EP, "Are we gonna climb THOSE mountains?"  And pointing to the highest peaks, over and over again.  "What about THOSE?"

We rolled into town around 2.



When we arrived at Castle Mountain Lodge we were a little worried to see if any big changes had been made since last trip.  They are under new management.  But we were so glad to see little has changed.  The playground and shuffleboard court were still there in the same place and the kids (even the teenagers) whooped with happiness to see it.  We met the new very young manager, who wanted to hear all about how many years my parents had been coming, and how many times we had ALL made it back and loved it.  (Good idea to have repeat customers!)  But good old Wanda has been there from our first 2014 trip, and there she still was to check us in.  We later met the new also relatively young owner and his daughter, a six-year-old spitfire.  He is a grad of Texas A&M and has a huge Aggie flag flying alongside the Colorado and US flag at the entrance.  She asked Macy at the playground if she was an Aggie fan and punched her in the arm when Macy said no!!!  Not maybe a good way to have repeat customers!  But funny.

Mamaw and Poppy had their same old cabin to themselves, but the rest of us had a new cabin setup  and it was so great.  Three joined cabins with connecting doors that we left open the whole trip.  Jav and I had our own room, Cade and the boys shared another and Philip and Macy shared the biggest room (diva that she is - lucky to be the only girl sometimes).  But it made me so happy I cried when Macy said she was super happy that we were all back in one house (last trip they had a cabin farther away from ours and my parents).  The part we slept in had the kitchen and living area too.  A small but functional kitchen for Phil and I to cook meals in.  We work very well as a team now that we are adulting all over the place. 😁😂

And..even though we all brought tons of food we still needed a few things before we could cook dinner (sigh), so Philip and Macy and I headed to the Safeway and braced ourselves like they do on Game of Thrones (well almost).  It wasn't too bad and was definitely more fun because Macy was along.  We discovered we have the same favorite snack - cranberry juice and graham crackers.  We unloaded and started that night's menu:  Spaghetti and meatballs with sauce, salad, store-bought cheesecake.  Mom and dad came down to eat with us, and the hilarity that always ensues when we get together was there from the get-go.  Of course just being in the mountains makes you hungrier and we all chowed down!  Yummmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyy

And in the strange but true and we want to remember category:  We were finishing up dinner when Philip looked out the window and saw what we now think were a large group of 7th Day Adventists moving into the cabin next to my mom and dad.  The men all had on light blue button down shirts and overalls; the women had bonnets, long dresses and really long hair.  They were in cars and trucks, one pulling a trailer.  Not something you see every day!  First we wondered if they were Amish, which really wasn't smart because they obviously were not Amish with the cars and trucks.  Poppy started making inappropriate jokes about them trying to convert him, so much so that he felt the need to apologize the next morning, making a big speech to the kids about how he believed in freedom of religion.  Good save Poppy!

Mom and dad were tired from the drive in, so decided to turn in before games that first night.  But before they left my dad mentioned that this was the best Father's Day gift ever.  I have to agree even though I'm not a Father.  We all felt like we'd been given a gift.

The kids and I played Apples to Apples after dinner, just like old times from last summer.

Before bed we started considering hikes we might want to try.  I was so in my happy place it was ridiculous.








I thought it would be fun to insert here a comparison of the kids from our 2014, 2016 and to this trip.  Good. Grief. 😢😢

ESTES PARK 2019 Day One - Departure

We knew getting ready for this trip would have its challenges.  Gabriel was away at boy scout camp in Oklahoma all week and didn't return until the day before we left at 3pm.  We said our goodbyes to Marlin that day at 11 because the vet's not open on Sundays so Gabriel didn't get to see him and he was BUMMED.  But he got to hang out with Tucker all evening because the pet sitters were picking him up just after we left.  He also had a nice loooooooooonnnnnnnng shower and a great night's sleep in his bed on freshly washed sheets.  My kids aren't spoiled or anything I promise.  I REALLY missed him and was so glad to have him back home.  Even though I had to empty his trunk of all dirty clothes and throw them in the washer, dry and pack them up over the course of 3 hours.  😳

Marlin was NOT happy about us packing for a trip
and not including him.

Been reading through this for weeks trying to pick out a hike

My letter to Gabriel mentioning our upcoming vacation.

I am also a little psychotic about leaving my yard, because in my head all the birds and animals that we feed and water are our responsibility like pets.  And our plants.  It had not rained all week for the first time in months.  So I hand watered the pots and flower beds the day before we left.  And ran the sprinkler system.  While I finished packing the non-cold food.  And finished packing for me.  My feet were swollen by the time I went to bed because I had been on them all day and then some.  Went to bed around 11:30 and had to get up at 5:30.  To the sound of pouring rain and thunderstorms.  Oh well.  Also, to me this day was "leave for vacation day" but I forgot it was also Father's Day.

We had planned to set out at 7 to meet my parents for breakfast, and we thought we would never make it.  We were so tired we were moving slowly and then I was trudging around in the wet muckety muck filling up birdbaths and hanging bird feeders.  I was supposed to wake up the boys by 6 but I knew they would be excited and driving me crazy so I waited until 6:30.  We normally don't take any food or drinks but the stuff for the car.  Which means when we get to Estes Park the 2nd day we have to go to the one grocery store in town to stock up.  In years past we have been so tired, and the store is crowded and too expensive.  It is a beating.  So this year we brought food which leant a whole nuther level of stress to takeoff time.  Jav went to get ice as the boys followed me around trying to tell me stuff (especially Gabriel with camp stories) and I kept getting last minute stuff done.  We said goodbye to Tucker and I still can't believe we made it by 7:15!  We had a great breakfast and set off by 8:30 for Raton, NM where we stay the night.

My brother and niece and nephew had left from Weatherford so travel a different route to Wichita Falls.  This will be our 3rd family trip to Estes Park.  It has been a bit of a rough year (a total understatement) for Philip and the kids, having gone through his 2nd divorce that took a big toll on them all, (but it was for the better), and to say nothing of the stresses of being teenagers and all that entails.  We weren't sure Cade was even coming until the couple of weeks before the trip, and I'm so glad he decided to come.  My theory is that the best medicine for some of the emotional turmoil they've been through is to be in a beautiful setting, surrounded by calm family who love you no matter what.

Every time we go we find a new and prettier back road!

This trip has become familiar, but it is always so exciting to be heading back to the mountains, where I for one feel at home.  It seems to take less time each trip.  The "Two Bumps", as we have been calling the two tiny hills that signal the beginning of mountainous terrain since we were kids, still make my heart race with happiness and anticipation.  And now they make my kids' hearts race, which is just so cool.  We made good time and all stayed relatively close together.  Pulled into Raton around 4.

THE TWO BUMPS!!!💖

We had beautiful, cloud-filled skies
on the entire trip.  More to come!

Mount Capulin, inactive New Mexico
volcano

 

Our first Spelling Bee of the trip!  G
had made a list for me too this time.  Joel won
this one.

We met up with everyone at the indoor pool, and the boys got to swim!  Macy swam for a bit but they were all tired and went to their rooms to rest up for the drive the next day.  Jav brought back Sonic to the room, and we watched Toy Story 2 then turned in for the night.