Woodland Park with The Faerber's

We LOVE discovering new, cool places in Colorado, and Woodland Park is one cool town!!!  It's just 30 mins West of Colorado Springs, in the Pike National Forest.  Gorgeous and just the right size (which means plenty to do, but not a big city)!  Add to that, decent prices, great weather, a dinosaur museum, farmers market, and cheap bars and we were in heaven!  We would have loved being here under any circumstances, but making things 1000X better was the fact that our friends, Chelsea and James and their sons, Tobin (3) and Quay (1) lived there for the summer (another traveling family of sorts)!!!  They let us park our RV in their driveway and we were "neighbors" for a week.  The kind of neighbors that mess up your house all day, while your husband works in the RV and ask if they can use your shower. 

Standing in Tobin's front yard

Tobin is one of Loralai's best friends and they can play together for hours.  Juliet loved trying to play with Quay, but in fact scaring him and making him cry.  We spent a lot of the our time just letting the kids be together at the house.  I had some real estate deals to work on anyways and was able to catch up a little on the blog too.  Chelsea had some work and canning to do, so it worked out that the kids kept each other busy.

CAN!

Highlights of our time here included...

Florissant National Monument
This is a cool place about 30 mins from Woodland Park that is a monument mainly due to petrified redwood tree stumps that were found there.  They also focus on all fossils in general.  We did a little hike and looked at the stumps and fossils and got Loralai's final Jr Ranger Badge of the trip!  And Tobin got his First!



At this point in the trip, Juliet got very into "Ring Around the Rosies" and everyone around her had to do it alot.  She calls it "Pocket" (Pocket full of Posies).  So if you even mention the word Pocket, she will MAKE you do the song and circle.

Tobin and Loralai running the trails.


We made a day of our outing and took the kids to a nearby playground to run and eat lunch after we left. 

This was posted on the fence at the playground.  Hahahaha...

 



Date Night
Chelsea has some great ideas!  One of which was to take turns watching each others kids, so we could each go on a date night.  Yes, and thank you!  Joe and I went to a sushi restaurant and it was GREAT!!!  Yay for dates!  Something that was a rarity on our adventure.

Farmers Market
Woodland Park has by far, the best Farmer's Market I have ever been too!  And it takes place EVERY Friday!  I took our crappy stroller and the girls and we racked up!!!  Everything from slushies to grain fed rack of lamb!  I bought way more produce than we could eat and then left half of it with Chelsea when we left.  But it was fun!!!

Alpaca's

Have to stop to climb this big rock, of course!

Climbing Pike's Peak
Check that one off the bucket list!  I CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN!!!!  It was awesome, and terrible, and great, and hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be and TOTALLY worth it!  It's kind of a big deal that I did this, so prepare to be bombarded with photos!  They also help tell the story.  My dear friend, Chelsea, is and outdoor expert!  She and her husband own and operate Outdoor Wilderness Adventures (OWA), which is why they were living in Woodland Park for the summer.  She's done all kinds of amazing things, but since having her 2 boys, hasn't done anything super outdoorsie.  So she told me we were going to climb Pikes Peak while I was there.  "Um, OK.", was my response.  Well, she meant it.  We picked our day, Joe took off to watch the girls, and we left for the trail head by 5am.  EARLY!  Here is our story...with LOTS of pics!

After almost leaving our (old lady) hiking poles in the car, we started our hike UP the mountain.  We were so full of energy and excitement here.  Plus we had just peed on some rocks, so we were feeling pretty good!

This is what I looked at for most of our hike....The back of Chelsea, that's when I could even see her.

Two pretty girls checking us out.  There were actually a TON of women doing this hike to our surprise!  They way out numbered the amount of men we saw!



The views were breath-taking and probably the BEST I'd see on the entire trip!



A few snickers bars and coconut water and we're still going strong!



At this point we had done hours of what I consider to be "serious uphill hiking" and Chelsea turns to me and says, "Look, we're almost there!"  She was referring to the top of the mountain way off in the distance that I'm pointing to.  Somehow I was NOT comforted by how "close" we were!

Happy Chelsea! 
Honestly to her credit, she was trying not to be TOO happy, as to not piss my tired ass off too much at this point.

Our hike did start out very wooded, but the last 3/4 of it was above the tree-line and very exposed.  The trail also followed close to the road, which went to the top, for most of the hike.  It might have crossed my mind to just catch a ride up more than a few times.



The last leg of our hike was over this!  There was NO trail.  Chelsea called it "rock hopping" or something like that.  I did admit that is was kind of fun picking my path as I hopped UP the rocks, AFTER it was over.



We MADE it!!! 
5 hours and some minuets and we had climbed from 10,000 feet to over 14,000 feet!



We are Mountain Climbers!!!!



James had predicted it would take us 7 hours to climb to the top.  He had greatly underestimated his wife's pushy, no stopping to rest ass!  So we sat at the gift shop/donut shop and ate terrible donuts and the worst hamburger I've ever had in my life (And I was a teacher who ate school food!), and we LOVED it!

Here's where I would play "We are the Champions of the World" if I knew how to do it!

Climbing Pikes was the best possible way for us to end our trip!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Chelsea for recommending we do it, and putting up with slow, grumpy, quiet cause I was trying to breath ME!  I love you and love that we shared this adventure together and love that our kids got to see us do it and our husbands supported us and watched the kids while we did it!

Estes Park Colorado



Taken at Bear Lake in RMNP

Our drive to Estes Park was eventful to say the least.  Joe noticed a bubble in one of our trailer tires Sunday morning on our way to Estes Park.  We needed some supplies too, so we stopped off at Walmart to get those and a new tire. I got what we needed, minus the tire in under 2 hours, and unloaded into the RV.  I even had to go back into the store for an item I forgot to purchase the first time.  I tell you this, because after all that, we were still waiting for Walmart to mount our tire.  Joe went to check on the status and was told, "It will take awhile."  It was then that I got the bright idea for Joe to put the spare on the trailer, so when we got the tire from Walmart all we'd have to do would be to throw it in the back of the truck. 

Well after another hour of waiting and being told, "It's still going to be awhile." we just collect our rim and cross our fingers that we make it to Estes Park on the spare.  We made it 70 miles.....and it blew.  Strange, since it appeared to be in great condition.  So Joe changes his second tire that day when he put "the bubble tire" back on. 

Back on the road again....but this time with no spare.  Joe wants to stop over night in Fort Collins so we can get a new tire in the morning before driving into Estes Park.  I start calling around to find a place for us to stay and learn that they are all outragiously priced ($80 nightly RV parks, and $180 nightly hotels).  No thank you!  So I convence Joe to just drive up the canyon, through remote National Forest, at night for an hour to get us to Estes Park!  We were both sweating bullets and looking for places we could pull off the road the whole time.  But, WE MADE IT!!!

Manor RV Park was a nice place and we had a spot on the river for most of our stay there ($52 a night for river).

It's late when we arrive, so we settle in and go to sleep. 

Estes Park is where I was born and I have returned there often in my life time.  My parents lived there for 8 years in the late 70's and early 80's and consequently, my sister and I were born there.  I have very few memories of  my early time there, as we moved to Texas when I was just 5 years old.  And yet, the town calls me to come visit.  It's a beautiful town, set in the Rocky Mountains, with The Rocky Mountain National Park surrounding it on 3 sides.  And because of my parents history there, we actually knew some people!

Sadly, this is the best photo we got of Ron and his wife and was taken by my 4 year old who was running around the restaurant with my phone instead of eating her dinner.

In addition to just being in Estes Park, our good friends, Hilary and Phil, met up with us for our last two nights there and stayed with us in the RV.  It was so nice to have some friends come and visit us!  We love you guys!!!!

Estes was a lazy place for us.  I knew it well and had already done much of the touristy stuff there in past visits and we were just getting off of going full force in Yellowstone, so here we took it easy. 

Although, easy for us, doesn't mean we didn't do anything!  Here is what we did...

I took the girls to the park one afternoon while Joe worked.  We had fun and the girls made some 20 min friends while we were there.

A couple of nights, we went out with some old friends of my partents, Ron and Hydie.  They were great, and one of those nights, invited us over to their house, where the girls were able to run around in their gorgeously landscaped yard and play with their dogs!   


I'd say they liked being at the house!

One day, when I especially needed to get away, Hilary and I went shopping down Estes Park's main drag.  Tons of cute stores!!!  And what was the last place I took my pregnate friend.....A Bar, of course!  But not just any bar, The Wheel Bar.  The oldest and bestest bar in Estes Park!  And a place my parents frequented when they lived there.  Funny story, I'm up at the bar ordering a drink and this guys next to me says something.  I smille, and he says, "You know you are in the old-timer bar of Estes."  I say, "As a matter of fact, I do.  My parents lived here in the 70's and 80's."  He askes what their names were and then jumps back from there bar when I tell him.  Then he tells me he's, Kent Summers.  I've heard that name so many times when I parents tell old stories of their friends and times in CO.  I couldn't beleive it!!!  Small world, and a very cool half hour!

Kent and his wife at The Wheel Bar

While I shopped and bar hopped, Joe and Phil took the kids to Fun City to ride Go Carts and have FUN!

Even Bean got to ride the go-carts!

Allenspark is a little town about 30 mins up the mountian from Estes Park, and was the actual town we lived in when I was born.  Besides just coming to the town to for memory sake, I crave the omletes from a little cafe in Allenspark.  My only regrete, is that I did not eat here EVERY morning!!!

Meadow Mountain Cafe

Rocky Mountain PLEASE!!!



In Allenspark, you can also find Crystal Springs, a free flowing spring where you can collect water.  My parents didn't have running water for much of there time here, so this was a well visited spot.

 We spent two days visiting Rocky Mountain National Park.  Really, we could have spent the whole week here, but we were a little National Parked OUT at this point.  We didn't even make it to a ranger program!  (I know....shameful.)  But it was beautiful and we enjoyed our time there.


Ridding the Estes Park FREE shuttle into the Rocky Mountain NP.  LOVE the shuttle!!!

 

We saw these boys driving down Old Trail Ridge Rd another day.



Me and my girl

Can you guess what we're doing here?  Bean had to get in on the Ranger action too.