Estes Park Fun

Here are the highlights of our short stay here this time. The day after we arrived was Sunday, so off we went to our little Wesleyan Church which meets in the Masonic Lodge building. The music is mostly contemporary which some of my siblings would not enjoy. However, the worship leader and praise team select music with a good message and seem to be led by the Spirit during the service. We were in a worshipful attitude from the moment we entered.

A highlight following Thanksgiving was the "Catch the Glow" activities and parade on Friday afternoon evening. We ladies did some shopping downtown in the morning. We discovered a couple of new shops that I, at least, had never visited. One of them occupied no more space than our living/dining room at the condo but had the most unique items in it! I plan to go back there in January to pick up a couple of the baby gifts she has made. I would tell you about the unique Christmas gifts I picked up there, but I don't want to give anything away till after all gifts are opened.

About 4:00, we went back downtown with our canvas chairs to claim a good spot from which to watch the parade. It didn't begin until 5:30 so Dee and I did a bit more looking around. The parade was really pretty, but I should have had worn long johns and heavier gloves.

Estes Park is always beautifully decorated with lights on lampposts and trees along Elkhorn Ave. some of which you can see in the above snapshot of Bill and me. The two shots below were taken from where we sat, first towards the west then towards the east. The crowd was numbered near 25,000 and was stacked four and five deep along the parade route. The guys had let us off downtown and then had to park about a quarter mile away.



The photos following are of some of the floats. The lights on them were powered by small generators that were donated by some of the citizens.

A patriotic float which drew plenty of applause

"A Victorian Christmas" was the theme of this float.

"Twas the Night Before Christmas"

The last highlight I will mention is the bazaar on Saturday morning that took place in the Holiday Inn Conference Center. All proceeds go to the Estes Park Medical Center. I found a few Christmas decorating items, some Dr. Seuss books for my grandkids, and another gift item that will remain undisclosed. During the bazaar, the E.P. Community Jazz Band was performing in the lobby, refreshments were on sale in another area, and raffle tickets were being bought and sold for merchandise donated by area merchants. It was a very interesting thing to Dee and me, but Bill and Rich were not quite so enthused.

Following the bazaar, we enjoyed brunch at the Mountaineer where they serve breakfast all day. They were quite busy on this weekend of activity in E. P. Back at the condo Rich and Dee packed their truck and left for home about 1:30.