Estes Park: Quite the Adventure.

From our front porch; my last view of the mountains.

Welp, I made it home from our vacation Estes Park, Colorado... It was quite the vacation. We started with a wild fire that burnt down just about the whole neighborhood of the vacation home where we were supposed to stay. Then we hotel hopped a few nights while we tried to determine if we were going to get in the house or not (we never did.) Then we were "lucky" to find a group of 3 cabins at the YMCA of the Rockies... but later found out they were quite literally the highest housing on the mountain, had no air conditioning, and had a bear. Yes, a bear. I told you I'd tell you about the bear...

Well, when we got to these rustic cabins we noticed quite a few of the screens on the windows had big tears in them (screens on windows are crucial when you don't have AC) so we called the maintenance guy to come and fix them. When he came, he mentioned that there was a bear around, but didn't really make the connection that the reason why there were holes in the screens was because of said bear. My aunt Kay woke up in the middle of the night to a strange sound only to find a bear clawing its way through the window screen. She screamed and the bear ran away but it had already ripped apart another screen on the house. The next night, the boys of my family were up late playing cards, and my cousin Cameron heard something on the front porch, and looked out the window, and a bear was staring right at them. Man, I wish I could have been there to see those boys scramble to shut all the doors and windows... The rest of the week we were just spooked. Any time you would walk from one cabin to another you would clap and scream and run hoping to scare off the bear. The bear(s) didn't show itself again but it did poop around the cabins each night to let us know that it was still alive and well. And that, my friends, is the bear story.

So, we've got fires, and no AC, and bears... add a trip to urgent care because we thought my aunt Cindy may have had a stroke (she didn't, no worries), a car that wouldn't start and had to be towed quite a few miles away (turns out there was nothing wrong with it), and other fun mishaps mixed in there, and it was quite the vacation.

Two things that remained constant... 1. My family's resilience and love for each other. 2. The beauty of the mountains. Here are some pictures of the latter.

The view driving down from our cabin.

Cascade Falls. (I think.)

Calyspo Falls. (Once again, I think. I don't remember the names.)

Driving into Estes Park.

A cool amphitheater/outdoor chapel that was a short walk from our cabins.

We saw a rainbow every night...