Estes Park

We had lunch in Estes Park on a very hot day. Floridians are so used to air conditioning, we live with the (unrealistic) expectation that everywhere will have it also. We sat by an open window in the restaurant, but it was uncomfortably warm.

Walking around the shops was slightly better. And then it rained, which was nice, except for the lightning.

Check out the fly rod rack on this car.

It had been over 30 years since B and I had been to Colorado and we came to Estes then. But when I was girl, my family drove from Florida to Estes Park one summer. My dad had a conference in Seattle. We took him to the airport in Denver and the rest of us spent a week in a cabin in Estes Park. During that week, we came to the movie theater below and saw "True Grit" (the John Wayne version) when it was just released in the 1960s.

B and I spent the night at the YMCA of the Rockies, just out of town. The place is HUGE! And not a bad setting.

Below is the main lodge where we checked in. Our lodge was not nearly so grand or charming but it served, except that again, it was hot. There are also conference centers and cabins on the 860 acre campus. 

This is the lobby of the main lodge shown above. We just don't see much lodgepole pine furniture in Florida!

Below is the dining hall where three square buffets are served daily and they really do an excellent job of preparing good food for the hundreds (thousands?) of people who stay and work there.

In addition to serving overnight visitors like us, they also run youth summer camps and day camps. They seem to specialize in big groups. The grounds have many, many buildings where all kinds of activities are going on all the time. We did not partake of any of the activities, but ate both dinner and breakfast in the dining hall. In the next post, I will tell you how we spent our evening.