the rockies up close and personal

Big day yesterday. We had a fabulous cookout friday eve, thanks to our hosts, Sean and Laura. Sean smoked some ribs and chicken all day; Laura made bacon brownies (which is no easy task in a mile high city), and we ended the meal with some of Laura's home made cheese. Yep, blue and cheddar...was amzing and delicious. i am inspired to try it myself. So nice to stay with foodies..and so much for my healthy eating habits-they went out the window this week.
All of us got up Saturday morn and headed to Estes Park. We followed Sean, who shared a most beautiful drive to Nederland..a small mountain town on your way to Boulder. Very hippie and strange..they are the ones that celebrate Frozen Dead Man Festival every year. They have a large parade of hearses, followed by a hearse race. All in honor of the frozen dead man that lives in town-cryogenically. Yes, really.

Estes Park is the gateway to Rocky Mountain State Park-very touristy, but we made a quick stop to the Stanley Hotel, where Stephen King stayed and was inspired to write the Shining. Known to be haunted. Especially room 217.
Then the highlight-a climb up in Rocky Mountain State Park. We climbed to 12000 feet feet, which in itself was a scary endeavor. Alan drove as i clutched the seat and tried to breath so i wouldn't hyperventilate. At the very top, we finally saw elk, who happened to lope across the road in front of us as we headed back down, How lucky were we! Too bad we left the camera at home...sigh...
On th
e way back to Denver, we made a pit stop at a cute blues bar where the owner has an entire room of old pin ball machines. Great thing for the kids..as in all of us.
More tomorrow..just finished a great day in South Dakota. Way tired..