We had such a fabulous time on our vacation to Colorado this past Memorial Day weekend! Our trip to the Denver area – which we're considering our official first vacation – gave us the opportunity to visit old friends and some of the places we didn't get an opportunity to see before we left for Chicago. Here are some of the highlights:
After spending time visiting with the Butterys on Thursday, we headed out to Boulder and the shops at Pearl Street Mall on Friday. The town was abuzz with energy with the Bolder Boulder race coming up on Monday. Tons of people were out and about, and Brian even got heckled by a very entertaining street performer (at least I thought he was entertaining!). The next morning, we headed out to Estes Park. This drive began our safari adventure – over the course of the weekend, we saw tons of elk, bison, bighorn sheep, and even a chipmunk. Traffic was a little heavy going through town, so we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Once inside the park, we found a shuttle lot and took a ride up to Bear Lake. There were plenty of people up there, but it was still so serene and absolutely gorgeous. Snow and ice made it too difficult for us to hike all the way around the lake, but we made it about 2/3 around. The rest of Saturday afternoon we spent in downtown Estes Park, visiting the shops, a craft fair, and the Stanley Hotel (inspiration for Stephen King’s The Shining). On Sunday, we checked out the Downtown Denver Arts Festival at the 16th Street Mall, and had dinner with the Lopez family. Monday morning started with the best wakeup call ever – a fire alarm in the hotel at 5:20am. After trudging down 10 floors of stairs, we made our way to the lobby and were told it was a false alarm. Needless to say, we crawled back into bed! Later that day, we drove to Dillon Reservoir, passing through the Eisenhower Tunnel. Once again, serene and gorgeous. On our way back to Denver we stopped at Lookout Mountain and Buffalo Bill’s Grave, and then drove over to Red Rocks. Unfortunately, we couldn’t tour the amphitheatre because of the Stevie Nicks concert that night – but, we did see some very interesting fans to say the least. We headed out Tuesday and thoroughly enjoyed our 8-hour delay at the airport (we won’t get into that… too painful!).
All in all, our trip was wonderful! Colorado is a beautiful place – one we hope to be able to enjoy as residents someday.
Click anywhere on the slideshow to view it full-screen. Enjoy!
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