Denver Anniversary Getaway: Day 2 (Part 2)

 February 14:  Excursion, continued

We left the sledding area and continued along through the park, stopping from time to time for photo ops of the sensational mountains and the surrounding areas.....

Probably the "coolest" stop of the day - although they were all sensational - was when we arrived at Glacier Lake which was nearly 100% frozen over.  Will directed us to a path around the lake, and then he came bounding across over the ice and encouraged us to join him.  Once we were in the middle of the frozen lake he took photos of us from a 180 degree perspective to get all the backgrounds.  The best of which was the "hanging glacier" in the mountains.  Unfortunately because of global warming, scientists recently discovered that the glacier was now only a giant snow field.  Still, amazing to gaze at!

We continued on and again stopped from time to time to admire the majestic mountains; finally came upon some deer just before we left the park to head for Estes Park.

 

We reached the quaint, small town of Estes Park and the first item on the agenda was to grab some lunch.  I asked Will, "If this were the ONE and ONLY time we were to visit here, what's the ONE best restaurant for lunch?"  He named a few but said if he had to pick it would be Claire's and the dish he'd highly recommend was wild game meatloaf.  All seven of us sat around a big table and had lunch, Kim and I splitting the meatloaf meal.  DEEEEEE-licious!

The final stop was the Stanley Hotel.  Here was where Steven King stayed in the midst of a white-out blizzard and came up with the idea for the movie "The Shining."  The hotel complex was built in 1881 and it's said to be THE most haunted hotel in North America!

We concluded our day with a great dinner at the Gaylord Resorts' Old Hickory Steakhouse.  We were up at 6 am in order to catch our Uber and as we closed the door after dinner it was about 9 pm.  Caught up on the latest episode of "Celebrity Big Brother" and quickly fell asleep!