Honeymoon update part 5 - image heavy

July 14, 2009

OK, last honeymoon post, I swear! Thanks for playing along. :)

Our last full official day in CO was spent in Estes Park. I remember going to this place when I was a kid, and again in 1997. It's a beautiful little tourist town, very clean, nestled in the mountains. Tons of cute shops.

Every place we drove in the mountains, there seemed to be a beautiful little river or creek running along side the highway. OK, so we have water here in Missouri, I promise you this, however, we don't have lots of cool rocks, and houses on the river banks, mini waterfalls... GOLD. *sigh*


It's kind of a magnet, I can see why ppl would want to live near them. I would worry however, about spring, and my house floating away.

This is what Estes Park residents get to look at *every single day*. Lucky them.


Back in '97, I was a bear maker. No really. I made teddy bears for a "living". I have to put it in quotes because even when you do well at it, you're still making minimum wage at best. But it's a fun job, and you get to meet a lot of people and go to beautiful places.

And speaking of floating houses, there's a cool places there called Estes Ark. It's a teddy bear store and back in the day, it was one of the places you wanted your bears to be. It must still be one of the places to be, because it's one of the few teddy bear stores that have made it in the downturn of the industry.

Oh, maybe because it looks just like Noah's Ark. Here's some smart people, that took a play on words to the extreme, and made a landmark out of it. No photos allowed inside, but the bottom floor is packed with bears and critters. The stairs (which are just as you'd imagine in an ark) are filled with other animals and noah's ark collectibles.

Even tho I don't collect bears anymore, once in a while, something comes along that makes me pine for a bear, and this was it. I bought a little bear that "spoke" to me, but nowadays he wasn't a $250 bear, he was a $9 bear.

Yes, I own teddy bears that cost $250.

It's a long story.

I love the clouds against the ark. It makes you wonder what is coming around the corner.

40 days and 40 nights?

I commented as we checked out, how they had the absolute best view in all of Estes Park. Their front doors looked out over the mountains.

*jealous much*

Yes.


On the way in, we stopped at this little overlook. You see, I have a vacation rule, if I want to stop, I will, and we'll not complain about what time we "need to get there" or be in a rush, because we're on V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.

Hello...!?
Carry the 9 kids.

So anyway, the instant we stopped at this overlook, I had a serious dejavue moment.

I had been there before.

Yep, minus 29 years, I had been in that exact spot.

It was ground zero for ground squirrels!

I remember when we went to CO when I was a kid, there was a place where you could stop, and feed the ground squirrels, they'd come right up to you and sit in your lap as you fed them.

I also remember that this was one of the few times (only time?) that my dad was ever excited enough to pick up the camera and shoot a photo himself. He took a photo of me feed the squirrels.

This was back in the day, when most ppl didn't take a roll of film feeding the squirrels, that one would have one, or two rolls of film for a 2 week vacation, and one EVENT had *one* photo.

I also remember getting home, and my mom being so excited about the photos from the vacation, and when she got them developed EVERY single photo was blurry. Her camera lens was filthy and it basically ruined every photo. :(

I think this trip ended up with me kind of, hmmm... reliving my childhood trip. I don't know, was it my way of missing the lost photos and memories?

We retraced many of my steps back then, and instead of doing it in a '74 impala at 55 mph and film 110 camera. We did it with a 2010 Ford Fusion and a pro DSLR.

Both are much more comfortable.

I'm fairly confident, that Gene is the squirrel whisperer.

These little critters will love you as long as you have nuts. And they will pack them away until they are freakishly imbalanced. At moments I wondered where they would store them all.

Besides their cheeks anyway.

I'm sorry, but that's freakishly huge.
And I'm talking about the squirrel btw.

In the end, I got my photos of me and the squirrels. A little late, a little older, a little more road traveled, but I have them nonetheless.

A couple videos for you, with my new flip. I didn't do the greatest job, it was the first trip I'd ever taken it on.

FYI, I laugh a lot.

I kinda like that part.

And this is how we ended our vacation:

I thought it was kind of a fitting end.

*the end*

{kinda - I have other pics some other time lol}

Honeymoon update part 4 - image heavy

July 6, 2009
P.M.

Thanks for humoring me, with all the photos! Some of this is just for me, to remember the moments because I didn't think to take a travel journal with me!

After we went to Royal Gorge in the morning, we set out in the direction of the Garden of the Gods. We originally wanted to go to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, but decided that we didn't have enough time, and also that we were spending a lot of entrance fees that day. Looking back, I wish we would have went ahead and gone there.

Either way, Garden of the Gods is beautiful, it's much like the Red Rocks Park. There's a large visitor center and a road that you can drive through the park. There's also a trading post, which we did not stop at. I'm assuming the typical souvenirs were there.

In 1997, the ex and our kids and I drove to Colorado Springs. That's back in the day when I used to make bears and I had a show there. We ended up staying at Garden of the Gods. It's a really pretty place to drive through, and there's no cost at all.

I just read, that there is NO COST, to have a wedding in the Garden of the Gods! That's wonderful! You do have to fill out a minor event form, which makes me laugh. We need to start calling this a major event, trust me, it is.

From the Garden of the Gods website:
"It was August of 1859 when two surveyors started out from Denver City to begin a town site, soon to be called Colorado City. While exploring nearby locations, they came upon a beautiful area of sandstone formations. M. S. Beach, who related this incident, suggested that it would be a "capital place for a beer garden" when the country grew up. His companion, Rufus Cable, a "young and poetic man", exclaimed, "Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the Gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods." It has been so called ever since."

We actually left in the middle of the tour, Gene didn't get that the route led right back into the city, so we stopped and ate lunch, then I gently "coaxed" him into finishing the route. heh.


Off from there, we went to Pikes Peak!

We debated (briefly) driving to the top, and man I'm glad we didn't do that. Instead, we chose to take the Cog Railway. If you choose to take this route, be sure to check for coupons on their site. Because of this, we reversed the order of our day, and went late. I wouldn't recommend the 5:20 that we took. It's a 3 hour trip, and when we got back, sun was setting and it was getting very chilly (even for July).

I'm not complaining, the up side was the train was only 3/4 full, so we were able to spread out.

The trip up took about 1 hour 45 min, approximately. The conductor was very informative and showed us tons of landmarks I don't remember from when we rode the train in 97.

This is Pikes Peak's sister mountain. It is steeper and so the tree line is much lower than Pikes Peak.


I was so excited! I told Gene when we left the bottom, I better see something other than ground squirrels or bunny rabbits. I really wanted to see something that ate meat for a living, but no such luck I did see these tho:

Big Horn Sheep.
Complete with purdy lil' collars.

Elk.
Complete with purdy lil' antlers.

They look little. (the antlers and the elk)

At the top, it was raining below, and we saw a rainbow from above.

This picture may look boring, but I'm hella impressed with it. You see, it kind of symbolizes two modes of transportation to the top of Pikes Peak. On the left, you can see the cog tracks. On the right, those faint lines, those are not run off, or creeks, those are the actual tracks from wagons from a hundred years ago!

The grass at this altitude grows at a rate of 1" to 3" per *100 years*. It can grow up to a foot tall. This is why you can see foot traffic from so long ago. It could take in theory, up to 1200 years to disappear.

This is why also, don't pick the grass at the top of Pikes Peak.

I'm so impressed with the colors of the skies at the top, in fact, I look at them and don't know how to process them as they are so deep blue. This pic, I barely touched it.

Here I am, feeling like passing out. I had a really hard time breathing up there. It was 40 degrees outside, and I had on flip flops, but I did remember a jacket this time! In the past, going into the gift shop really helped me, but this time, walking in I just felt super light headed and did much better outside.

I was very happy to head back down the mountain.

When I was at the top, I saw these young ppl talking. They were looking at an energy bar package. The girl said "Look at this! At the bottom, it was tight around the bar." It was completely puffed up, and about to pop. That really got me to thinking about air pressure and the effect it has on your body. I said to Gene "imagine what it does to your eyeballs." to which he pointed out he'd woken up with bloodshot eyes every single day.

We'd bought a package of chips in Denver to have on the way home. It was puffed up and looks like it was about to burst. Half way across Kansas, it was very deflated.

I never realized how much I wanted to be pressurized. ;P

I also wonder how much less I weighed at the top of Pikes Peak. I'm rethinking this Missouri thing.

Honeymoon update part 3 - image heavy

July 6, 2009
A.M.

When we went to Colorado as a kid, one of the places we visited was Royal Gorge. The only things I can remember about it were:
1. Holding my mom's hand as we walked across.
2. A sign that said "No fishing" that I thought was hilarious.
3. Looking over the side.

I think we drove across (yes you can do that!) but my dad wouldn't get out. I'd have to ask mom, I don't remember very well.

We went again, and this was our busy day, we were up early and drove an hour to get there. yay for tomtom. First we walked across the bridge and this is when I was the most scared. You see, I'm scared of heights. I've said that right? I'm also scared of things high up that move around. Yep, there's movement, but by golly I was gonna do it regardless. I didn't realize that the planks were WOOD, and there's big gaps in them. It was scary looking at my feet and seeing almost 1100 feet down. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I could have looked up while I walked.

There are several things you can experience at the park for free. You could easily take your family and spend the whole day there.

One of those things is the tram. The tram will make your heart flutter and your knuckles turn white. I dunno, maybe it's just those pesky four wires holding all your body weight (and 17 others) that leaves you a little uneasy, and questioning if that's sweat, or if you didn't just pee your pants a little bit.

But once I got on, everything was cool. It's a fast 4 minute ride to the other side, and I was much less scared than walking across the bridge. Weird.

But, you really get to experience the whole thing.


There's also this weird little train that will take you to the bottom. Apparently it's been there since the 60's, but we did not ride the train to the bottom back when I was a kid. No idea why if it was included in the cost. Maybe it wasn't.

Or maybe mom ditched me and I don't remember because it was so tramatic.

That one I could believe.

These are weird "trains". Not really trains at all, but more like wire boxes that you stand in. It's at this point, I should also point out that I'm clausterphobic.

Man, I'm a mess.

It also makes you contemplate getting back on your diet. Oh, and hoping you remembered deoderant (and everyone else too) because you will become close friends for the next 5 minutes.

The best view is the front car, but we didn't get it either time, so our view was limited to the top of the car in front of us, and the walls of the canyon.

This gives you an idea of what the cars look like, and how steep of a climb it was!

A view looking up, praying no one spits over the side.

A few crazy, psycho white water rafters.

There's even a train that follows along the river.

It was fun, and definitely worth the price ($22 with a coupon from online). We went on a Monday to avoid all the crowds, and I think that was a smart move as it was HOT, and waiting in line was bad enough for 15 minutes, we would have never made it hours.

Honeymoon update part 2 - image heavy

July 5, 2009:

This day was our loose day. Meaning, we (we meaning me) had to scour some travel brochures to find some interesting things to do.... oh, and they had to be near to each other. And we couldn't drive very far. *sigh*. MEN!

I really wanted to go to crested butte, and I even volunteered to drive, through the mountains, all by my lonesome, but I couldn't get him to play along. Crested Butte is the wildflower capital of the US. I'd be in heaven.

*next time he goes to Crested Butte*

We started off the morning at an art show where I did some shooting from the hip. I didn't even look to see what images I captured til the end of the day. It was fun, and odd, and I had a whole lot of overexposed headless ppl. LOL. I thought it ended up with some interesting pics.

The art show was interesting. and huge. and hot. I totally had to laugh at one booth. The place is filled with hundreds of artists, painters, fiber, mixed media, sculpture, etc. One booth was sculptures, but some of them were yard sculptures, many bunnie rabbies with flowers. Now, it seemed very "crafty" but you could tell they were created by an artist and not a crafter (there's nothing wrong with crafters! they probably make more money than artists to be fair).

As we passed by the booth I heard some guy say "Oh, the bunnies are *interesting*." I had to stop myself from pulling him aside and saying: "Ok, so a miniature body, covered in wire, hanging on a black canvas is normal to you, but a bunny is weird?" LOL. wth?

After we didn't buy one single thing, we left for Morrison. Now it was supposed to be pretty cool there, as there's a place called Dinosaur Ridge. When we get there, we see that there's a 1.5 mile walk. Uphill. The whole way. In July.

Um. OK, maybe not.

Instead, we went to the visitor center, paid $2.00 to see a few displays, use an icky bathroom, bought a couple souvenirs and then left. To be fair, we could have paid $3.00 to ride a trolley to the top, but decided that it was cutting into valuable time and probably wouldn't be worth the trip.

If you ever get a chance you should go to Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. Gene doesn't know it yet, but our next vacation is going to be to Utah. lol. That has been one of my favorite places on earth.

Ever heard of Red Rocks Park?

Well, it's a beautiful place. Craggy rocks jutting up out of the ground. You can tell something big happened at some point in the past and I'm glad I wasn't there when it happened.

In the middle of this park, is a natural amphitheatre that was built in the 40's. I never knew this was there. It's kinda scary looking! No way could I go to a concert here with my fear of heights. And stairs. And stairs with no handrails.

srsly, I freaked out just watching ppl jog along the seats. Freaks.

It was here that I realized that it must be hard to be fat in Denver. Really, everywhere is uphill, everyone exercises and rides bikes everywhere, and the air is definitely thin. I know this because I felt like dog doo most of the week.

The plan to walk to the top, totally nixed by me.

It was right around here, that Gene started to lose his patience. He was hungry, and so was I, and you never wait until 2:00 p.m. to eat lunch because no one will feed you. Really. Take an energy bar and eat at 12:30 like normal ppl or you'll be eating hotdogs at a convenience store just like we did.

After we got some food, and then drove and did a little shopping, Gene said he was sorry for being grumpy, which was ok, because I get grumpy when I'm hungry too.

Advice: I've learned something with Gene, and girls, this will work for you too. When he's grumpy, just keep quiet and work on a solution, instead of defending. Arguing about being hungry really would have NEVER fixed that situation, it would have only escalated into a big blowout fight. Instead, we settled on whatever we could find, let our bellies get full and then give it time and everyone calms. Then he apologizes for something I never asked for an apology for. (he knew he was being a shit). In the end, it meant more to get an apology when I wasn't expecting one.

Having said that, I have a line.

Don't cross it.

;)

My point to all that, was that after we got done shopping, and was going back to the hotel, he was totally ok with me stopping 47 times to take pictures of water, flowers, weeds, the clouds, sky, trees, etc. He didn't complain *one time*

I should let him get hungry more often.

I practiced a lot with taking water photos that look like they are "moving" and will share a momtographers tip for you soon with the technique!

I'll share some of the other day's later. I've spent all morning on updates and going through pics and I have so much work to do!

Honeymoon update part 1 - image heavy

I really want to share some photos with you from our honeymoon. To be fair, I have 804 photos, and part of me would like to just upload them to a gallery and point you to a link, but then you'd see tons of repeats and 473 photos of flowers and then yawn and pass out from boredom (moreso than you do while reading my blog now).

So instead, I'll flip you the highlights so we can all move on to something interesting again. Like tomatoes and crabgrass. yeah baby.

July 3, 2009:

Our first day officially we spent the majority of it driving. This was really the only time that Gene got irritated. You see, men have a tendency to want to get there, get there fast, have some imaginary schedule that they must keep. Gene, being the absolute WORST at this ever. Probably because he spends at least 1/2 of his day driving (and speeding). We had a whole discussion before we left that if I saw something I wanted to see, or that I thought was interesting, we would STOP THERE. No arguing about it.

*puts foot down*

When I suggested the scenic route into Denver, he about popped an artery in his forehead. Later he admitted that he caught himself and adjusted his attitude.... but I already knew that. ;)

We arrived at our hotel and it felt soooo goooood to be there. We stayed at a *very nice* Marriott. Can I let you in on a little secret? We paid less than a motel 6! No really.

How?

Priceline.

Me and William Shatner, we named our own price. The hotel's normal rates are $139/night. We paid...... *drumroll*..... $55/night.
I think there were several factors that got us such a good deal.
1. It was short notice on a holiday weekend. We bought it one day before we were ready to travel - I'm sure they were desperate as the hotel was very quiet those 6 days.
2. We were willing to stay in many different parts of Denver. The bigger the area you're willing to stay in, the more likely your offer will be accepted.
3. We were very flexible on our dates (this had more to do with the car). We arrived on a Friday, but left on a Wednesday, instead of say, Sunday. So the we stayed twice as long as probably an average person.
4. The economy sucks. Better to have something than nothing.

I will use priceline again.

After settling in, we went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill. This picture was taken after an embarrassing series of photos of Gene. I'm getting the stink eye. I won't share the others (shhh.. maybe I will. lol)

July 4, 2009:

We woke up on our anniversary day and had some breakfast in bed (see 365 post) and then headed out for our first stop of the day, which was Idaho Springs. We got there around lunchtime, and decided to buy some sandwiches and have lunch in a park next to a creek.

Along that creek, there were many white water rafters. I really want to do that some day, you know, when I go clinically insane.... which is soon.

Since this is Gene's honeymoon too *heavy sigh*, we went on a gold mine tour and panning for gold. It's something that he's always wanted to do, he's definitely a gambler and a treasure hunter.

You can see the gold just LAYING in the water! See all those little specks? Yep, that's gold. I can see a gold miner going insane trying to pick them up. They told us you can make about $200/day with a snifter (??) (sqeezy eyedropper thing) picking up gold dust. Cost to pan: $5 Someone is losing money I tell ya. Or their sanity.

I told you Gene was a gambler. He's been pacifying his love for video poker for a long time with a couple scratch off tickets every week. Central City, CO is a gambling town with like 40 casinos. We hit one, and he got the big Pffft. I think he'll go back to scratch offs at this point. And FYI, that's the first time he's played in well over a year.

We hit the road again, and set our sights on Frisco. There was supposed to be an arts and crafts show, lots of shopping and fireworks over the marina. Sounds romantic eh?

Wrong.

It wouldn't stop raining. We shopped in the rain for a while. Went to Walmart and spent 45 minutes trying to find a jacket because we had none. (duh). This walmart had coveralls, snow suits and bikinis. No lie. Sure, if I wanted to spend $40 on a "Colorado" hoodie (I didn't) I would have been all set.

Finally we decided that we were NOT going to sit in the rain to watch fireworks, even with a huge golf umbrella we toted along, so we went back to Golden where we were staying.

This is the Eisenhower tunnel. It is the highest vehicular tunnel in the world, located at an elevation of 11,013 feet at the East Portal and 11,158 feet at the West Portal. The Tunnel traverses through the Continental Divide at an average elevation of 11,112 feet. The facility lies entirely within the Arapaho National Forest and is divided by two counties, Clear Creek County at the East portal and Summit county at the West portal. (can you tell I copy/pasted that? Yeah, I thought so).

The tunnel is close to 2 miles long, right through a mountain!

(I wrote that part myself)

On our way back, we stopped at the grave of Buffalo Bill Cody. You know, I've been there like 4 times, but Gene never has. It overlooks Denver and you can see forever. Many people were waiting to watch the fireworks from above. I would have liked to, but neither of us was all flippy about sitting outside waiting for 3 hours.

We're old like that.

In the end, we went back to the hotel, changed our clothes, went to target and bought our favorite ice cream (edy's loaded butterfinger) and spoons, took our bottle of champagne and just started driving. We ended up in downtown Golden on top of a parking garage. It was fun, and dry, and we had a close up view.

Happy Anniversary! I can't believe it's been a whole year!

{worst Anniversary photo EVER! LOL}