So we took a little trip a few weeks ago. My parent’s live overseas (Malaysia for now, Brazil in 6 weeks) so any trip home means a fishing trip for dad. This year we decided to meet them in Colorado, since I’d never been.
Todd and I flew up from Corpus rather than attempting to drive it. Naturally, after I’d bought the tickets (totally non-refundable) Todd informed me that he had jury duty the same day that we were scheduled to leave. I should mention that this is the sort of jury duty that if you don’t show up, federal marshals hunt you down and drag you to the court house in handcuffs just so that they can make a quorum. So, realizing this, we spent a month scheming/trying to figure out how I could kidnap him from the courthouse and hide out until our flight left. Thankfully, it was a slow day and they let him out early-no scheming necessary. We were off on our merry way!
At the airport was saw another example of how Steve Jobs is slowly taking over the world.
It’s an Ipod vending machine. I’m sure people thought we were a tad nutty for taking pictures of it. What can I saw, we’re Mac-happy people. It’s probably the only form of absolute brand-loyalty exhibited in our household. (Warning: never-ever ask Todd what he thinks about PC’s…it’s not pretty.)
So, we flew to Denver and stayed the night in a rather nice hotel room with a rather awful bed. Got up at the crack of dawn and drove to where we were staying in Estes Park. The Stanley was a nifty old Edwardian hotel, although we didn’t actually stay in the main building. They’ve recently built a bunch of lodges behind the main hotel and we rented one of those. I’m not sure I dug the rustic moose-inspired decor (why moose? the place is surrounded by elk), but I did like having a full kitchen.
We did have to be very careful driving through the parking lot though. Apparently, a big front was coming in and driving all the elk down from the high country-directly into the parking lot of the hotel. I kid you not, a bull elk and maybe 20 to 30 of his nearest and dearest lived outside our hotel room for the duration of the trip. They have the weirdest scream (though Dad protested this term, it still sounds too high-pitched to be called a bellow or call).
The first day we ran around finding things, the hotel, the fly shop, etc. Then we drove through the national park. We definitely weren’t in South Texas anymore. It was beautiful-even the pictures can’t show it all.
The next day we went fishing. My dad’s really loves fly fishing, so he normally tries to fit in a day (or more) whenever he comes home. So we hired a guide to take us out one day. This was my first attempt at fly fishing, so I really wasn’t expecting much more than to freeze my toushe off. I was kinda excited to try though.
Unfortunately, I think I was branded as “one of those” kind of women the instant I walked in the shop. I don’t think I had a chance once they asked what sort of sandwich I wanted for lunch. (big sigh) Enter the long explanation about what it means to be gluten and casein intolerant. Unfortunately, since lunch was included in the fee they kinda seemed insistent about offering it and finding a suitable option for me. Could I have a ham and cheese,oh wait…that has cheese…and bread.What about a tortilla wrap? No, the tortilla is wheat too. Then the kiss of death, they offered just the lunch meat…and so I had to explain to a group of outdoorsmen who like fishing and hunting that I’m a vegetarian. I should be used to that look by now, you know…the one that says I’m the biggest freak on the planet. Oh well. I told them not to worry because I’d already packed my own lunch ahead of time. Problem solved.
So, I spent half the trip trying very hard not to be “that sort of problem female” because I really do like outdoorsy stuff like hiking, camping, fishing, biking, scuba, etc. and I really wanted to learn fly fishing. This can be a hard thing to do if the instructor/guide thinks you’re a worthless human, besides I learned when I was small that staying on the guide’s good-side meant you saw more (like the bear tracks..so cool!). In truth, I probably tried too hard. Knee high water for your standard guy, meant hip high water for little me. At one point I got so cold that I stopped shivering and couldn’t feel my toes any more. The guide dragged me out and wouldn’t let me go back in until I had toes again. In the end, I think I did better than I thought I would.
I’m glad it wasn’t a competition, because 5 minutes later Todd caught a monster. (You’ve got to love that goofey grin.)
The guide was so excited he kissed the fish. What can I say, he was excited. Apparently this was the fish that got away…several times. When removing Todd’s hook, they also removed several others.
The next day we decided it was too cold to fish, and went shopping instead. We saw so many beautiful things in the shops, I only wish I had remembered to take a camera. Todd did manage to snag a picture of these glass jelly fish. I couldn’t convince myself to part with the cash. (big sigh)
The morning we left it snowed as we drove down the mountain. So perfect!
