Vacation - Day 2

After a rough night of going to bed late, Macyn getting up 5 times, and then waking up at 4:30 for the day, we decided to hit up Estes Park and go hiking. It was about a 45 min drive to Estes, and about another hour or so up to the moutain - about 11,000 feet!
On the way to Estes Park we drove past this massive white hotel called the Stanley Hotel and I instantly recognized it from the Travel Channel. I remembered this particular hotel because 1) It was in Colorado 2) Its ridiculously huge 3) Impossible to forget 4) Its haunted! Yep, it sure is! It was featured on the Travel Channel as one of the most haunted places. Upon further research, the hotel is indeed haunted, but it was also the inspiration for Stephen King to write The Shining after he had stayed there. More research showed that some scenes from the movie Dumb & Dumber were also filmed there. I wish we would have stopped to get a picture, but the internet stock photo will have to do.
Shortly after we saw the hotel, we entered Rock Mountain National Park where we proceeded to drive up to an elevation of 11,000 feet. We stopped early because of all the switchbacks and my DH's crazy driving I was finally starting to feel carsick. The air up there is super thin and really hard the breath. The crazy thing was, that we saw tons of people riding bikes and even some skiers in the mountains! I don't know how they do it. It had an amazing view and were able to snap some photos.
There was tons of snow up there and fun to see in the middle of June. The big pole DH is standing next to is a marker for how deep the snow is. How insane is that?! They use those so they know where the roads are.
Once we caught our breath's back, we went to Bear Lake to do some hiking. It was a pretty easy hike that was full of snow. I should have definitely wore some snow boots! Once we were finished hiking around the lake, we decided to hike up to Alberta Falls. Macyn was doing so well this trip, but started to get hungry and crabby half way up. It also started to rain. A hungry baby + down pouring rain = one stressed mama! We gave her some mum mum crackers to keep her occupied until we got to the top of the falls, where I finally gave her a bottle. We also decided to stick her bare feet into the snow thinking we would get a funny face - no way Jose! Just laughs from Macyn!

After that we stopped downtown Estes on our way home and did a little shopping. We found a cool candle holder thing made out of Aspen wood - a great souvenir from Colorado. Shortly after we got back to Ft. Collins it was time for supper - PIZZA!Beau Jo's pizza. Delicious. Scrumptious. All of the above. Soooooooo good. The restaurant was in old downtown and had outside seating. We decided to sit inside in the air conditioning. Now back to the pizza - its huge! The crust is sooo good and you eat it with honey. It has kind of a sweet sauce and lots of cheese and toppings. The picture isn't our pizza we ordered, but we had Beef, Bacon, Pepperoni, Mozarella, and a side of garlic sauce. We also got an appetizer of cheese sticks.

After that we stopped again at Walrus where my sister and I got a pint of ice cream. After that, back to the place where we were staying - and getting into the hot tub. Boy did that feel good on achy muscles! What is tomorrow going to bring? Whitewater Rafting....to be continued.