Saturday…
As much as I’m dying to tell you about yesterday’s fun at the ranch and Interweave and SnB I think I should probably start at the beginning of Liz‘s visit, which for me was Saturday morning…
Saturday was deemed tourist day. I headed to Snow‘s house for breakfast (which I must say G did a wonderul job of cooking) and then we piled into the car and headed towards the Big Thompson Canyon and Estes Park. I have to confess that Snow and I weren’t thinking too hard when we planned this. See, poor Liz is from sea level, as in really sea level. Ft. Collins/Loveland is at roughly 5000 ft and Estes Park around 7500-8000 ft. Liz came in Friday night. When we headed through the windy and ever higher Big Thompson Canyon we hadn’t given any thought to the fact that in well under 24 hours Liz was rising 8000 ft in elevation. Our time in Estes was cut a little short due to a case of altitude sickness and we didn’t make it into the actual park. Now this also wasn’t helped by the two large cups of coffee and some greasy sausage that were a part of breakfast.
Liz, I still say if you plan to arrive a few days before the Estes Park Wool Market that you’ll do just fine because you can aclimate to the 5000 ft elevation and get full hydrated and such and then the additional 2500 ft to Estes probably won’t make much of a difference to you! I would recommend this tactic to anyone wanting to attend the EPWM who is from lower elevations. Not everyone is susceptible to altitude sickness, but it will make the market experience a bit more enjoyable if you are unaccustomed to higher altitudes. And water, drink much more of it than you think you need, as it is dry here and often altitude sickness can be attributed to dehydration.
We did get to meander around Estes Park a little and window shop in the tourist traps. I have to say what made my day was pulling into the parking lot and seeing a big coach bus from my HOME TOWN in Minnesota! Small, small world. And no, I did not go over there and see if I knew anyone. Truthfully, while a small town, Willmar is not so small that you know everyone not to mention I haven’t lived there in a decade.
We captured some views of Estes and visited The Stichin’ Den, then we started to head towards the park. But, the guys at the visitor’s center were having fun playing with Liz. They pulled out a topographic relief map of the park and were showing us some of the best places to get photos and describing the elevation changes for each one which made Liz a bit more green, so we turned around and headed back down.
1. Lake Estes, 2. The Stanley Hotel, 3. Longs and Meeker, 4. Big Horn Sheep in Big Thompson Canyon
We did stop at The Stanley Hotel, made quite famous by The Shining, and took some photos of the architecture (G had an assignment for one of her history classes) and the scenery. Then it was time to head back down the canyon and get Liz to a lower elevation. On the way down we got to see some big horn sheep grazing on the steep rocks of the canyon wall. I’ve lived here nearly 7 years now and that was my first sighting of big horn sheep, believe it or not!
The rest of the afternoon we sat around and knit and forced peppermint tea upon Liz until she felt better and could contemplate eating dinner. We called many restaurants in town until we found one that served elk steak and took Liz there as that was one of her requests of food she wanted to try while she was here. She said it was wonderful, aside from the juniper berry sauce. Everyone’s food was wonderful and the atmosphere lovely and the service was also great.
