We made it back up to our townhouse after loading up the truck at the Elks Lodge where our coach was parked. It is such a relief to have the coach parked at the Elks for $23 / night with full hook ups (not that we really need them there) and in a secured area.
Most of the following days Katrina filled her mornings with pickleball and I filled them on my bike. It seems that we get a lot of exercising in while up at the townhouse. To boot – lots of walking Bear up and down the hills and on some hiking trails. We let him run free on the trails which he loves.
Since I had tried the “Chicago dog” at Vertical the prior week and was somewhat disappointed I wanted to try them at a local place called Fraser Valley Hot Dogs.
I’ve been meaning to try that place for a number of years and finally did. Oh man, I have been missing out! A legit Chicago Dog! The owner hailed from Decatur, IL (Katrina’s hometown) and truly knew what he was doing dog-wise. Like the Terminator: “I’ll be back”!
Since we were up in Winter Park for an extended amount of time, we decided to try to go and see a play at the Rocky Mountain Repertory in Grand Lake. We saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. We went into the evening with very low expectations and we were really surprised on how good the actors were and how wonderful the venue was. We came to learn that this repertory is country (maybe even world) renown and that actors line up to work here. It really showed. We will definitely be back to see other shows in future trips!
One great thing about going up to the Winter Park area during the summer months is that each community in the Grand Valley has one night that they have singers / bands come and play for free. We stopped multiple times in downtown Winter Park and listen to the music. It’s pretty neat that they have folding chairs available for free! Just pick one up and find a spot and listen up. At the plaza called Cooper Creek, which is right down the hill from our place, they have their singers on Friday nights.
Local restaurants offer food and drinks for a price. We got to see a couple of acts with Larry & Bouraine Smith.
Very nice evenings.
Winter Park also hosts many events such as Tacos & Margs which Katrina and I attended.
There were about 20 taco stands set up all offering their take on the taco.
We had to purchase tickets where we could get the margaritas and the tacos were all free. We had a wonderful time until the rain came and then we ran into a restaurant and sat at the bar where we had to purchase the drinks. Oh well, sometimes that best laid plans do not mature.
The following day we drove down to Morrison to meet up with Ari, Matt and Rylan and check out Tiny Town & Railroad.
What a cute little place that had about 50 miniature houses that Rylan could climb into and walk around.
Each house had a theme and inside they had appropriate furniture. It was really cool! They had a number of engines for their train rides. Two of them were running on the day that we visited and one of them was steam running on coal. Rylan was a little bit afraid of the sound of that one and after some coaxing Rylan decided that the other one would be fine.
After riding it he loved the experience.
Afterwards, we all went to the Mac Nation Cafe for lunch.
All mac & cheese offerings with different add-ons like pulled pork, or jambalaya. They were fantastic (although a bit heavy) and the place was sure fun. They had a band playing that sounded pretty good. We sat upstairs so that we could talk and not get drowned out by them.
After saying our goodbyes to the Anderson family, Katrina and I drove back up to Winter Park. On the way we stopped for ice cream at the Dairy King in Empire.
We have driven past that place for years and finally decided that we needed to stop and try it. Good ice cream!
After a few days up in townhouse by ourselves, the Anderson’s came up to visit for an extended weekend. They had to wait until Rylan finished his second day of pre-school. Man, he is getting so big! We had such a nice visit just enjoying each other and watching Rylan – he is such a treat! We took the boat ride on Grand Lake where our guide really took his time – instead of a one hour tour it was 1.75 hours.
Afterwards we went over to the Rapids Lodge for a late lunch. Great food! The members of the Grand Lake Repertory were singing along side the river – what an added bonus! They sounded so good. We even met the person in control of the repertory and told her how much we enjoyed going to the show! One night we headed over to the music in the park but never made it to listen to the songs because Rylan had to play in the new outstanding playground. He kept going up and down and around the structure. We also took Rylan over to the Idlewild Park playground:
He thoroughly enjoyed it and we really enjoyed watching him! We got to see the lunar eclipse and got a fairly good picture:
Unfortunately, the Andersons had to go back to their normal life! We were so sad to see them leave as we didn’t plan on seeing them for months.
We always seem to wait until the last minute to take Bear to play in water. We got two chances: 1) in the creek and 2) one of the retention lakes along the river.
He enjoys playing in the water so much that we need to make a more concentrated effort to get him into it much more often when we have the chance.
As our time was winding down in Winter Park we had to meet up with our new friends; Mike and Barb Coumos for dinner. We had met them previously at the event called Crafts, Cocktails and Corks a few weeks back. We ended up at Deno’s Mountain Bistro for drinks and apps before heading over to the Ditch for dinner.
It was great getting to know them more and I’m sure that we will meet up with them the next time we are up in Winter Park.
As our days came to an end, we had to pack up the truck – poor Bear was squeezed into a very small space in the back seat. Good thing it was only an hour and a half until we got down to the Busse Bus II at the Westminster Elks Lodge.
We thoroughly enjoyed our extended stay at our townhouse in Winter Park. Our thoughts regarding buying it came to fruition on this trip. Cooler temperatures and seeing the Andersons – perfect!
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