The Parent's 50th Anniversary Trip to Colorado: Day 3 & 4

Day 3 started out early with Pam and I joining forces to go for an early morning walk around Lake Estes. The site was breathtaking with the steam rising off the lake and sun coming up and reflecting some amazing colors off the mountains. Everywhere around town there are signs posted warning of the elk being aggressive this time a year because their calves are newly born. Like any proud Texan tourist, Pam and I ignored all the signes until we met an elk on a trail. At first the elk seemed to care less we were in her vicinity. Pam declared that she was precious and wouldn't bother us at all mind if we continued on our journey. We quickly learned the elk was the boss of the trail as she started toward Pam letting her know she really didn't care if we were tourist from Texas.

Since Pam is a world class athlete and has the ability to think swiftly on her feet, she was able to out smart and out maneuver the elk as she quickly hoped a fence to have a barrier between her and the overly agitated creature. The elk kept a close eye on Pam and made sure Pam walked quite a way back home before she was able to climb the fence and rejoin the trail!

After a qucik breakfast with the whole family, it was time to load up in the cars and head to the tram at Mount Prospect. Now, I am no fan of heights, but my newly acquired best friend Teag asked if I would ride the tram with him. I sucked it up and tried to control my total fear of heights so I would not disappoint my five-year old bestie.

We had an amzing time hiking, climbing rocks and going all the way up to the top Mount Prospect. It was a great family adventure had by all the cousins, uncles and aunts.

After a morning of family bonding it was time to meet up with my parents for lunch at a place called Chicago's Best. They serve the normal Chicago fare. Pam, Little D and I ordered an Italian beef sandwich while AK opted to have an Italian sasauge sandwich. The rest of the crew had pizza and hot dogs. The food was good but very slow coming out. The entire family had already been served their lunch and eaten their meals before we received ours. It took both Pam and I asking several times. The manager seemed to have cared ess and offered no apologies and was actualy rude about the tardiness of our meal. Instead of a solid score of four fork out of five and a good review in the Muddled Misadventures. The rudeness of the management dropped down the rating to 2.2 forks

We didn't let the manager ruin our fun and Papa declared he was buying the whole crew an ince cream. Nothings says family love like a good old fashioned ice cream cone. I could barely hold in my excitement as I anticipated my Rocky Road cone!

Papa was right, ice cream does make everything better and I soon forgot all about the mean manager from lunch as Teag and I walked around town enjoying our cones. Teag got smart and claimed he was tired so he could hitch a ride with Papa. Papa loaded Teag up and the two of the continued the tour of town.

We headed back to the hotel for awhile so the kids could go swimming and Pam and I could get in a nap. The nap was short lived as it started to rain. Pam decided we needed to head to the store so we could load up on snacks for the next day. We didn't quite make it as we made a quick detour when we saw a huge rock formation that looks two owls standing by each other.  Locals call it Twin Owls or Two Owls.  Pam noticed a trail and insisted we take a little hike. The problem was we were all wearing flip-flops and sandals with the exception of Little D who was wearing her "Chuckies". Pam was not going to allow the lack of proper foot attire to ruin our fun. She insisted we take the hike because we were from Texas and could handle anything. It didn't take long for us to realize that we might be just a tad bit underdressed as rocks and sticks started to get under our feet. We marched on under Pam's orders and reached our destination. We passed many other hikers who would pass us and stare at our feet. No doubt they looked at us with the thoughts of how incredibly brave and tough we were to hike the trail with sandals! Perhaps they should come to Texas and learn to toughen up rather then hike in boots!

With our bellies growing hungry and our feet torn up from our treacherous hike, we met up with the rest of the family for dinner at a local joint called the Other Side. Uncle Denny was forced to eat at the kids table since he usually fits in better with them with his loud voice and tendency to make a mess while he eats. The food was great and Little D and cousin Tally gave it a highly ranked 4.4 forks out of 5 as they took down their massive kids steaks and mashed potatoes piled as high as the Rockies! Aunt Susan didn't disappoint as she and Uncle Jeffie stuffed themselves with an order of nachos and a Mile High club sandwich. Pam and Auntie Katie shared some nachos while AK and I just had a small  garden salad--we had to do something to to keep all the other customers from staring at he massive amount of food that was on our table!

After dinner Little D, Cousin Garret, Cousin Hildy, Auntie Katie and I all went minature golfing. The place was really cool and run by and incredibly nice old man that went out of the way to make us feel welcome. The golfing was fun, but most of the excitement came at the end when Cousin Garrett and Little D both got a Hole-in-One to win another free round and record their names on the winner board for all of mankind to see!

AK and Pam opted for something a little more adventurous. Pam scored them some tickets to go on a Ghost Tour at the Stanley Hotel. This is the same hotel Stephen King was staying at when he wrote The Shinning. They both loved the tour and had an incredible time being freaked out. Each came back sharing many stories as they enjoyed their tour. AK took a picture of what appears to be a cat walking across a room. While in the room the guide told them their was spirit cats. The strange thing was Pam's allergies went crazy as she is highly allergic to cats and AK felt what seemed to be a cat rubbing up against her legs!

After a very long day of impressing Estes Park by being Texas tourists, lots of hiking, eating, shopping, miniature golfing, being spooked out by the spirit world and more family fun then what should be legally allowed, we declared Day 3 in the books and went to sleep to dream of what lay ahead for Day 4!

Day 4:

Day 4 started out a little later than the other days as we were just plain exhausted and needed our beauty rest. Pam soon made us all get up so we could eat breakfast and catch up with Uncle Jeffy and Aunt Susan for some more hiking and fun. Uncle Denny had to leave early to go to work, while Papa and Grandma and Uncle Tom and Auntie Katie also decided to head back to the plains.

After a quick meal and packing everything up we headed into the Rocky Mountain National Park. Our first stop was an area called the Alluvial Fan. It's an area that was flooded out years ago and made an amazing water fall you can hike up to. Pam and I learned our lesson from the day before and no longer wanted to look the part of the Texas tourists so we opted for good old fashion tennis shoes. They might not have been the hiking boots you see most people wearing, but they worked out just fine!

The hike was awesome and the kids had a great time. There was lots of rocks and a cool river to follow all the up to the waterfall.   Even though my hamstrings are still screaming, it was well worth the trip.

It was soon head back to my parents house. The plan was for us to stop in Thornton and grab a few Godfather's pizzas for dinner. We grew up eating Godfather's, and for some unknown reason, they closed them all in Colorado. In order to make Dion proud in our choice of pizza, we picked some up and headed to my parent's house.

Auntie Katie, Uncle Tom and Cousin Garrett came over for the feast of deep dish deliciousness. Everyone enjoyed treating their taste buds from the long ago flavor they had not tasted in many years. It was Garrett's first time eating the pizza. He enjoyed it so much that he named Godfather's in his top five of favorite pizza's of all time. Garrett said it was a tough call, but he removed Cici's Pizza to make room for Godfather's.

Papa enjoyed the pizza so much he said it even helped ease the pain of watching the Cubs lose to the Nationals.  Family time was awesome, and after the game, my dad shared with me part of my family tree.  That was really cool...and as most family trees....quite confusing!