04_03 to 04_ 2014 Dad in Town for Visit

Dad came to town to visit for  a long weekend. He said he hoped for snow and he got it as I woke up to 6" of fresh slushy snow the morning he arrived. Day one consisted of sitting around and watching JackAss Season Two. Pretty good laughs there!

Then the next day we headed up to Estes Park. It would be the first time I've been in North Boulder and places further north since the big floods in Sept.

We headed to Estes via Highway 7.  Lyons was messed up as I'd heard (no photos).  Then we went a wee bit up Peak to Peak and got this photo.

En route to Estes, we passed Long's Peak - elevation 14,259'.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longs_Peak for more info.

Looks sort of small in our photo.

As we entered Estes, we were greeted by a huge herd of Elk. This is just a fraction of the beasts lounging in this small area.

We grabbed lunch then headed to the Stanley Hotel.

The view from the front of the Stanley.

You can read more about the hotel here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stanley_Hotel

We went on a 90 minute historical tour of the hotel. Perhaps it is most well known for it's role in Stephen King's The Shining, as well as where parts of Dumb and Dumber was filmed.

This should be familiar to anyone who has watched The Shining.

Cool

During the tour some of the attendees lounged.

The vortex of stairs

Looking toward the attic up some really steep stairs

The never-ending hallway. This should also be familiar to those who have watched The Shining.

This is in the underground tunnel. The hotel sits on bedrock.

This tunnel was prominent in a Ghost Hunters episode. Those on the show heard a little girl laughing and searched for the source of the little-girl-ghost. Turns out it was an employee upstairs laughing in a heating grate. When it was discovered what she did, she was fired. Not sure if the show ever shared with viewers that they were duped.

We headed to the bar then. The Stanley's hotel restaurant/bar is really nice. The bar is made of some sort of beautiful stone and quarts that is lit from beneath.

Dad got a Redrum Punch to drink. After finishing, we headed back to Boulder via Hwy 36.  More on that next....