Sunday, February 21, 2010

A Day in Estes Park

Yesterday we took our friend Chris up to Estes Park for the day.  It's a great place for visitors, because they can see all the beautiful mountain scenery on the drive up, and then they can enjoy the town itself.

On the way up, we of course had to stop at the infamous Dam Store, where Chris was able to try on some Dam hats and buy a Dam t-shirt, and I got Aaron a Dam ring to replace the one he lost.  It's the best Dam store I've ever been to!

There was much slow driving and stopping along the way, partly because it was snowing like mad, and partly because we had to take lots of pictures, which of course never do the mountains any justice, but you always have to try because it is just so gorgeous. A friend of mine said that when she used to go to Estes Park as a kid her family would slow down and point out the windows toward the mountains then watch and laugh as people behind them got out of their cars with cameras looking for wildlife that wasn't really there.  I got a kick out of that!

Once we finally got up there Aaron and Chris took a western photo which turned out pretty great.  Instead of the typical cowboy hats and such, they wore bowler hats.  I love doing those old fashioned looking pictures.  This is reflected in the fact that the only "professional" photos we've ever had taken of our family were western photos.  It's a tradition to go when we have a new baby who is seven months old.  What will happen we we stop having babies?  Well, that will never happen!  Just kidding.  I suppose we'll just go every other year or something. 

After the western photo we took Chris to one of our favorite places, Snowy Peaks Winery, where you can taste five different wines for only three dollars.  They have their own winepress in the basement, and all of their other wines are from Colorado as well.  They also have this great wine flavored popcorn, which sounds disgusting, but is actually really good.  And they have a play area for kids with toys and such to keep them busy. 

It was getting late, and the snow was really coming down, so we opted to get off the mountain and eat at Cracker Barrell in Loveland.  Normally though, we might have gone to Bob and Tony's which is a great little pizza place up there on the main drag.

It was really fun day, and maybe if you are reading it will have given you a few ideas of things to do in Estes if you haven't done them already.  If not, well, I hope you at least enjoyed catching a glimpse of what a day is like with us when we go to Estes. 

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