Holiday Inn Rocky Mountain Park Estes Park

... get to: Spitsbergen, the Amazon, the Galapagos and Africa. So I headed to the Amazon and made plans for Spitsbergen and Africa.

I think it was when I was in Columbia that I started having feelings of wanting to stay in one place a while but by then I had made travel plans for Iceland and Spitsbergen so I pretty much bucked up and kept going, I was noticing that beautiful scenery, interesting archeology ...

... out for my big day I ran into some friends from high school! I had a quick chat with KM and JG, we agreed to meet up later, and the pointed me in the direction of the shops. The pedestrian mall reminded me a little bit of Gtown's M street with its central grouping of several shops within walking distance of each other except there was a fresh coating of snow and there were no cars. My shopping needs satiated I spent the late ...

Day 5

I missed a day (oh no...), but its ok because our trip has been extended a bit so there will be more posts to make up for it!

Day 4 was of course more of the same. Driving, driving, driving. This was only interrupted by brief stops for gas and a visit to pizza hut. LCB and Mshizz are likely to be proud of me for stopping at Za Hut, because they know its not generally my favorite place to get a slice. But...when you're road trippin' in the middle of ...

... sea and on the other side is a private kiddie water park. We visited for about 20 minutes then moved back to the big pools so my son could swim. I would reccomend this hotel to people traveling with children. The food wasn't bad and the rooms are comfortable. However, if only adults are taking this trip, don't bother.

Another thing we did was visit the Isla Mejeures were we swam with dolphins. That was my son's favorite part of the ...

... and music and I thought I ought to take advantage of this cultural offering...and I'm glad I did. The opera was Tales of Hoffman (I'd never heard of it) and the production was quite enjoyable. The costumes were fabulous! This photo appeared in a review in the Denver Post and described Olympia's robot costume as weighing 75 pounds! Her performance was incredible.

This picture explains why I'm heading south!

This was my first time trad climb. The climbing area called Boulderado was located about 8.8 miles up the canyon from Boulder, CO. There is a large turn out on the left side of the road at the end of a sweeping right hand turn. The rock is directly across the road ...

Yes, we finally made it. We planed on doing a lot of hard-core driving. So, Ram was always happy to finally reach our destination.

The funniest thing happened though.... We ended up getting a room for the night only because the great Rocky Mountain National Park was closed for construction!?!?!?!?! huh?!?!?!?! ha ha ha....

It has been a large jump from sikeston mo to Ested park co. It has been but, this is the first real place that we have stopped sence my last entery. It takes some time to get on line to make an entery. But here we are the rocky mountains. Thoes of you that have been here can picture the peace i've found here. We've now have been in this ...

... and nibbling on the tree and bush leaves. They were so close, I could have walked up and touched one of them. They didn't pay attention to any of the people. They continued to eat and walk around like none of us were even there. I took my share of pictures and then headed back to the campground to get some dinner. I just can't imagine why but I was hungry again. I made some Bratwurst for supper and popped in another movie. More hiking tomorrow, don't know where right now though.

... really interesting part begins. Choosing a great wine from an extensive wine menu is difficult enough. Now translate those same descriptions (nutty, with a maple-finish) to loose leaves sitting in hot water. Not the easiest choice, but one worth forcing yourself to make. (James went for the, of course, Earl Grey. I can personally vouch for the House Green tea. Just don't sniff the loose leaves-boiled spinach.) Next Stop: Rio Grande National Forest