more from the last blog....

After a few hours there (Shambalah Mountain Center), and a scrumptious meal of brown rice, beans, kale and salad, we left for Estes Park. When we arrived it was rather cloudy and rainy but it quickly opened up to reveal some beautiful snow capped mountain peaks, a bavarian style downtown, a pretty rainbow and the historical, and picturesque Stanley Hotel.
The Stanley Hotel was a neat stop because it was more than just the inspiration for Stephen King's story "THE SHINING". It was built by F.O. Stanley, famous for the Stanley Steamer (which is not a vacuum - as I had thought when I remembered the advertisement, "tough on dirt, gentle on carpet." That's me for ya.) Stanley settled in Estes Park in 1903 when he believed he was sick and near death. He decided to purchase the gem of 160 acres the Stanley Hotel sits on today and build what you see here. The main building took 2 years to build and was built with timber from the nearby Rocky Mountain National Park. F.O. Stanley died in 1940 (a bit later than he'd originally planned) so he got to see the town blossom as he helped develope a sewer, power and water company, as well as Estes Park's first bank. Apparently room 217 is the best place to be because Theodore Roosevelt (1915), Stephen King (1973), Jim Carrey (filming Dumb & Dumber), and the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown Titanic Survivor all stayed there. We thought it was sweet.


So of the 300 days a year of sunshine Colorado boasts, i am pretty sure we have seen at least 7 of the rainy/cloudy days. And, would you believe we still think its fabulous?