Momma's Visit

So it's Sunday and my mom left Friday around noon. We had a pretty full week.

She arrived on Monday around 1pm and had some lunch on the ranch. It was so nice of my boss to let her have guest lunch. And I started introducing her to people. And then I had to keep working so she went off and hiked a bit in Rocky Mountain National Park by herself to stretch her legs and get a bit used to the altitude. Then she came back and around 5pm we headed out of town. Our plan for the next 24 hours was to drive to Glenwood Springs, stay overnight in a nice hotel, then get up the next morning and hike to Hanging Lake, and then head back to the ranch. And that's pretty much what happened.

It was a nice drive to Glenwood Springs. We got a bit off track in the beginning, partially my fault, as the navigator. But it wasn't too bad, we didn't lose much time. And the drive was quite pretty.

We got to the Hotel Colorado when it was dark and even though we were both kind of tired, I convinced her to go with me to get a drink at the bar. So we just sat at the bar and had a drink and then explored the hotel a bit. And that night was the best sleep I've had in a while. The bed was so comfy and I didn't wake up once during the night, which happens quite often here at the ranch because the crazy people in my house like to crank the heat in the middle of the night.

But the next day we check out, grabbed some breakfast, and drove to the trail head for Hanging Lake. The hike was "strenuous" but we managed. And it was SO worth it. Hanging Lake was breathtaking.

We stayed for a while and just looked at the lake and took pics and explored a bit, then we headed back down. It was only like 2 miles, but so steep. We were glad to get back to the car. From there we drove back to the ranch, and luckily Mom was so nice and was okay with my night time plans I had with friends from the ranch. So she dropped me off and went back to the hotel, and I cleaned up and had dinner at a friend's house. And that was a lot of fun too. Less people than at last Tuesday's dinner so more cozy and personal. You know, it's easier to get to know people when you're in a smaller group. So I got to talk to Paul and Corey more. Corey was so nice too. It was nice to see him open up outside of the ranch. And I helped Jess feed her horses and I got to see Jimmy and Corey's house for the first time. It was nice and cozy. We ended the night inside basically falling asleep by the fire. It was nice.

The next day, Mom and I headed to Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked Little Yellowstone. It turned out to be like 11 miles of "moderate" trails. It seemed like forever. But it was pretty and we saw a good amount of people on the trail. Then we headed back into Granby for dinner.

Thrusday, we went back to RMNP and hiked the Onahu and Green Mountain Trails. That was like 6 miles I think. Really pretty, a diverse terrain. But we were both kinda tired by then. And a bit sore. But we headed back to mom's hotel after the hike, cleaned up and headed to Winter Park, to a restaurant I wanted to visit.

See, I had two reasons for wanting to visit this restaurant, Deno's Mountain Bistro. Mom worked in Winter Park the summer she was 22. I knew this. And I had been doing a bit of research before she got here to try and find the restaurant. I emailed my aunt and got the name of the restaurant. From there I did a Google search and found that it might have been called Deno's Swiss House. And from there I found that there is currently a Deno's in WP, but now the Swiss House. And the address looked different. I talked to some people who have lived in the area for a while and they seemed to think it had closed a while ago and was now just a building where a family lived or something. I posted a message on the restaurant's Facebook wall asking if they were the old Swiss House, but nobody answered. So I kinda gave up. But the restaurant still looked good from the website so I still wanted to go. So yeah, we went.

And we get there and my mom sees a tiny sign above the new sign that says "Ye Olde Swiss House." WHAT?! We found it?? We found it!! I was so excited. And my mom started piecing things together about the location and stuff and it turned out her old boss, Deno, was there that day! They didn't remember each other, but they talked and stuff and it was so cool! I was really glad I was able to do that for my mom, because, honestly, I'd want my kids to do that for me.

So we had dinner and then went to go look for her old apartment complex, which we also found. It was a cool trip down memory lane.

Then next day we only had a few hours to hike and stuff since she had to leave to fly back home. So we tried to go to a place I've been before that's not too far: Lost Lake. But  after a few mishaps we ended up only being able to hike along a flat gravel road for a bit. So we drove back to the ranch and I showed her the reservoir and then she headed out. And I went back to work.

It was a nice week. Kinda tiring, but I didn't mind hiking that much. I got to see some cool parts of Colorado that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. And it was nice to be able to show my mom around the ranch and introduce her to some of my good friends here.

That night, Courtni and I got Chinese and it was nice to get back into the groove of my normal schedule here.