7/22/11

Friday! Kristin gave me the day off to do things with my family. We got up this morning and traveled to Georgetown, CO a colonial town in the mountains. The town is situated right in a valley between the mountains and has charming buildings for the most part on one little block. There is also a local old fashioned train that we decided to try out, so we spent some time wandering around downtown Georgetown peeking into stores and googling over the architecture of the buildings with the mountain background before driving back to the train station where we had bought our train tickets. My dad accidentally backed into a wooden pole while parking so now there is a little dent on the back of the van! Accidents happen :)...but as my dad says, its the problems you had on the vacation that you look back and laugh at, not how everything went perfectly. Below you can see my dad at the Hotel de Paris. It's a quaint hotel situated right downtown. My mom wanted to go inside but we didn't have time to scope it out.There were beautiful hanging and potted flowers in bloom everywhere! Looking down the street was quite a sight to behold.

After we finished our time moseying around downtown we headed back to the train station for the Georgetown Loop Railroad with our roundtrip passes. Our train left at 12:10 PM. We brought our lunches on board so we could eat while we rode. The conductor had to move the front pulling part of the train to the other side since there wasn't enough room for the train to turn around! We got to see beautiful views of the mountains and rivers high up on the train tracks that ran over bridges and through mountain paths.
The train stopped in the small city of Silver Plume. We got off and looked in the visitor center, but there wasn't anywhere else we could get to without a car so we hopped back on the train and got the very back seats while the conductor once again moved the front portion of the train to the former back (in effect turning the train around!) We got prime view looking out the back of the train as we rode along with nothing in the way!


After our train excursion we headed back to Georgetown in search of ice cream. We heard that there was an old soda/ice cream parlor from 1901 in town and easily located it. The owners were so nice! Nelson and I got root beer floats, my dad got a malt, and the other three family members got homemade ice cream! My root beer float was so delicious! They had the old style soda fountains where the sugar component of the soda is separate from the carbonation.

Next we headed to the beautiful Mount Evans. The road to the top of Mount Evans is the highest paved road in North America! We started seeing snow and knew we were getting closer!
Near the top we encountered some new friends, little shedding billy goats...or something of the sort all over! Mom and Megan wanted a picture with our new friends!


Nelson and I climbed to a precariously positioned outcropping of rock! If you look carefully you can see Nelson, that little dot on the edge of the cliff. It was so much fun rock climbing, even though it was a little bit scary and very draining, especially at such a high elevation!!
My mom climbed all the way to the tippy top! Look at her waving :)

Absolutely breathtaking views from atop Mount Evans.

Sista sista picture! On that outcropping. Nelson also took one of Megan "holding" me! Trick of perspective from afar.

This pictures don't even do justice for how beautiful God's creation in Colorado is!

On our way back down the mountain we saw a deer and mom and dad were trying to take pictures of it. It disappeared into the brush but we pulled over and mom and dad went on a little trail that lead to some old trees. In the meantime the deer reappeared RIGHT in front of our green van and attempted to eat the gravel in front of it! It was so funny how excited my parents were to take a picture of the deer and then they disappeared down a path right before the deer approached us! When other tourists slowed down to take pictures of the deer in front of our giant green van, the deer would scamper off for a moment, but always come back to the same place giving us a front row seat to watching him attempt to eat. Mom and dad finally got back to the car and scared the deer off! At least they got to see him for a moment!

After our escapades at Mount Evans we headed over to the Whiteside's house for a BBQ dinner! Mr. Richard grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and we had deviled eggs and salad. It was a delicious and filling dinner after our intense hiking. We played frisbee with Lucky (their dog) and then Nelson, Megan, Marcus, and I played a game of Munchkin (the card game we got Nelson for his bday). Following our game we went downstairs and watched the movie "The Adjustment Bureau" with the parents.