We had another early start (left at 7:30am) so that we could get to Estes Park, Colorado as soon as possible. Grams and Pop arrived there the night before and we couldn’t wait to see them. Within a mile of the Goodland KOA there was a giant replica of Van Gogh’s Sunflower on a huge easel sitting on the side of the road. Lily spotted it first and excitedly told us she saw the Sunflowers painting. This past year in school Lily made her own replica of this same painting and speaks of him often (she refers to him as the really good artist who cut off his ear).
As we got closer to our destination the Rocky Mountains came into view. The closer we got the more spectacular the view became.
As we were driving up to the campsite (around 12:30pm) we got a call from Grams to tell us they saw us drive by while they were sitting at the pool of the Mary Lake Lodge. We were lucky to have a two minute drive between their hotel and our campsite. The campsite was surrounded by the gorgeous mountains and we all agreed this was the most beautiful site to date.
Shortly after we got set up Grams and Pop came over to the campsite and we were all elated to be together. We decided to go back to Mary Lake Lodge to eat lunch. The restaurant sat up on a hill and we sat outside in the beautiful mountain air surrounded by family and the splendor of mother nature.
Next we went over to the Aerial Tramway. We rode the tram to the top of the mountain and started at the lookout point. It felt like we were on the top of the world. It was an amazing sight with a view of mountain ranges every direction you looked and as far as the eye could see.
We started out on our hike and shortly into it noticed an adorable chipmunk with both cheeks stuffed to the gills. Lily loved finding the pinecones both on the ground and in the trees. I loved watching as she and Pop worked together to find them.
We were at a pretty high elevation and Ella wasn’t feeling that great but she was a trooper. We thought we may try to walk to the summit. As we were on our way we came across a picnic table and sat there to take a rest. Grams shared her jellybeans with the girls.
There wasn’t any signage saying how much further the Summit was and the next portion in front of us was up a very long and steep hill. While we were trying to decide if we should go on or not we realized Lily no longer had her water bottle. Adam went back and retraced our steps to try to retrieve it, but he had no luck. Since Ella wasn’t feeling well, we had no idea how much longer and the slope of the next portion looked challenging we decided we had gone far enough. As we were walking back to the tram I spotted Lily’s hot pink water bottle up a small hill on the side of the trail.
Our next stop was the Estes Park Visitor Center. Grams and Pop went there the night before and found out about the Pica hunt they offered. So we went to get the booklets to begin our family search for the Picas. All through the center of the town little statues of picas were strategically placed and the booklet gave a map and clues to find all 12 of them. Even though this was designed for kids it was quite challenging to spot these tiny statues at times. We all enjoyed strolling around the streets to solve the mysteries and locate the elusive Pica statues.
Once we found them all we went to the Watusi Bar and Grill for cold drinks and snacks for dinner. Grams was very excited because the hostess knew her. She also worked at another restaurant she was at and was genuinely happy to see her again.
We then continued to stroll the streets and stopped at one of the many ice cream stores. Ella wanted to go to the one that made homemade waffle cones. She picked cinnamon ice cream to go with her homemade chocolate chip waffle cone (there were several varieties of cones to choose) and thoroughly enjoyed it. This now began our quest to find Grams frozen yogurt. Along our walk we were all sure we saw a sign for yogurt. But when it was time to get it, we couldn’t find it again. We even searched on the internet and came up with no results. We strolled along a little longer until we were all tired and ready to head back for the night without having found frozen yogurt.
