The Durbs Blurbs: 11.04.2010: Our First Anniversary

For our first anniversary we had planned to return to NYC for the weekend. However, it just didn't fit well into our schedule, and it was an extremely expensive weekend to go there because of the NY marathon. So, not wanting to fight to extra crowds because of that....we looked for a great alternative. We definitely wanted to go somewhere cold since it was the first week in Nov and still warm in Phx. We had looked into flying on Allegiant Air out of the Mesa airport. Super small little airport that only goes to smaller out-of-the-way destinations. We picked Loveland, CO. It is Loveland-Fort Collins, which is about an hour north of Denver. We both LOVE Denver, and CO in general...so thought this would be a great choice. We were sooo excited to get there and enjoy some very cold weather. Funny though, because it was one of the warmest weeks they had had in months!! ARGH! Figures. We brought every bit of cold-weather clothing, and had to look for t-shirts to wear. Oh well, we enjoyed ourselves very much!!! Spent the first night in Estes Park, which is about 45 mins up into the mountains from Ft Collins area. This is where Rocky Mtn National Park is....as well as the "Great Divide". Amazing area with breathtaking scenery!! The city of Estes Park is pretty small...but we enjoyed exploring it!

We stayed at the famous Stanley Hotel for our one night there. It is very well known, and haunted!! It was built and lived in by the Stanley family (of the Stanley Steamers). It has rich old history, as well as interesting more recent history. This hotel is where Steven King stayed while he wrote the book The Shining. It inspired the entire story and he actually stayed in one of the rooms for the time it took him to write the book. Amazing! Definitely one of our favorite movies with Jack Nicholson as the main crazy character...if you have not seen it yet, go see it!! The actual movie wasn't filmed here (but the miniseries was). They hae a ton of memorabilia from it too. Anyways, when you turn on the TV in your room, The Shining is playing....it plays 24 hours a day on the hotel TV. Great....not like you need any help trying to get a good nights sleep there. Of course we watched it....twice that night! If they say the hotel is haunted, I believe them! It seemed like it was. Lots of noises all night...very creaky floors...old lighting & furnishings...wood everything. I personally didn't see any ghosts, but I also didn't sleep at all that night. It was a pretty amazing place though...highly recommend it for at least one night!!

Boarding the plane from the back...at sunrise in Mesa, AZ...you get to do that at little airports!

Brent & Alisa's house...the airport is like 5 mins from their place & we flew right over it on takeoff. This is even with no zoom on my camera.

The drive up to Estes Park...gorgeous river that flowed down along the road

Road construction....got held up a little...so I jumped out to take some pics.

"Downtown" Estes Park....river ran thru the middle of it. All the restaurants on both sides had patio, river front seating..even the Starbucks! During the summer this water level is much higher and people float in tubes down it right thru town. Looks very cool!!

Right before we went wine tasting at a tasting room across from this pic. The grapes are grown in Loveland, and the wine is produced there. It wasn't the best wine ever, but was a cool experience and made friends with the lady that worked there. They also had a pear flavored champagne that didn't start out as champ, but fermented in the bottle, and drank like champ. Very interesting....and yummy!