I'm actually going to start with yesterday. Before I left, TK said, you should disconnect and turn your phone off. I thought that is a horrible idea, me without my phone? Yea Right!!! Well after spending about 3 hours at Rocky Mountain National Park, I soaked in the 'in room' Jacuzzi texting Edward (which was a bad idea - further blog post on why later) and I had a glass of wine in my system....and the unthinkable happened!
I dropped my phone in the Jacuzzi. So now I'm stuck without my phone and it's soaking in the bag of rice as we speak. At around 4:00pm tomorrow it will be 24 hrs since the 'incident' happened...should I turn my phone on or off? Because honestly I'm enjoying being disconnected. Enjoying not being on my phone, being on Facebook reading what other people are doing in their life now - whose married, whose having a baby, whose having a crappy day. I'm disconnected from the whole world and all I can hear are my thoughts and asking myself the GOLDEN question...'why after 9 years of being divorced I haven't found love?"....
So where am I? I'm on my first solo vacation in Estes Park, Colorado- being in a different city by myself where I'll be staying in a hotel by myself, eating by myself and just being by myself - this is what a solo vacation is all about - and I can't wait to experience it.
Let the excursions begin...
Rocky Mountain National Park --- The Beauty!
Yesterday I went to RMNP, I had the expectation of hiking for about 5 miles and see at least one waterfall - called the Alberto Falls and then walk to a lake, which would add up to 5 miles of walking/hiking. I go and visit the visitor section of Rocky Mountain National Park and I ask the Ranger what's the hike to Alberto Falls like? and he continues to tell me that there is a lot of snow. I didn't want to believe the Ranger because I didn't want him to ruin my expectation of visiting RMNP.
...Before we go further, let me tell you what I was wearing - my running capris, workout muscle shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweater and my running shoes...
I drive up and down the Bear Trail Road and I get to the George Glacier parking lot (where the Alberto Falls is), and I see a couple get out of their car and they have pants, backpack and most importantly they have hiking shoes on. (I did have pants in my backpack) I get out of my car walking down the trail and as I look ahead, there's a lot of snow! I say OK let's just see, I walk to the snow, walk about two steps and the snow is slushy and slushy means slippery! I turn around heart broken - I wont see the waterfall today :(
...Maybe another Hike? or maybe a Ghost? ...
Onto Bear Lake, which is a 1 mile hike. I get to the parking lot and everyone and their mother is there! Part of me was like wow, this is going to be crazy packed and another part was like, yea this place probably doesn't have snow. I get out with my backpack in tow, and I walk and there is snow covering the lake!! and the snow is slippery!! Again, disappointed I drive to hike Fern Lake. It's dry, YES! I'm walking and surprisingly enough, it's empty! I walked about 1 mile - no one is sight. I can hear birds make weird sounds and there are fences by the trail, after about one mile I felt like I was in Jurassic Park, and I got scared. I turned around and walked back. I took some great photos (see below) of the meadows, stream and snow topped mountains. As I was driving back I stopped by a stream and I saw the most awkward image, a boy and a bag on the other side of the stream, as more people started parking to get out and take pictures, this boy grabbed his bag and sprinted towards the mountains and then hid behind the hilltop - i thought was that a ghost or am I seeing things? very strange!As I drove back I saw bucks, deer and mountain sheep - they were all right by the road! As a city girl - this amazes me :)
