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. 😢😢