1000 gifts: end-of-summer fling

Continuing my list of gifts, blessings that I write down to remember all the wonderful things that God gives me along life's journey (from Ann Voskamp's book and her blog, A Holy Experience).


We like to take a trip at the end of August - one last fling before school and fall activities start. This year we drove to Estes Park, Colorado and then across the 12,000 ft Trail Ridge pass down to Grand Lake.

338. Old wooden lodges with interesting themes.
The Bald Pate Inn in Estes Park, Co  is a beautiful old lodge with uneven floors and fireplaces and a neat theme: keys. Based on The novel Seven Keys of Bald Pate Inn, The collection boasts over 20,000 keys including examples from the Pentagon, Westminster Abby, Mozart's wine cellar, and even Frankenstein's castle. Here's my daughters holding one of the biggest keys in the collection.


339. Mountain views from the middle of a lake
We rented a motor boat to zip around Grand Lake. A great way to admire the mountains and all the fancy houses built around the lake.





340. Sailboat races
A bunch of sailboats setting up for a race makes for a beautiful sight on a lake. 










341. Porch swings.
Especially when the porch has a beautiful view overlooking Estes Park.

 











342. Eating dinner outside with hummingbirds.
Grand Lake has a flower pot every 3 feet almost any direction you walk, and all the outdoor cafes are surrounded by flowers - which means lots of hummingbirds. Sometimes you almost need to duck, they zip so close by you.

343. Flower-filled canoes. 
Lots of these around the cabins were we stayed.

344. Stream jumping 
There was a beautiful stream running into the lake near our cabin, with lots of rocks to jump around on.















345. Private beaches
We stayed at Lemmon Lodge in Grand Lake, which is several acres of cabins along the lake with its own private beach. It reminded me so much of Lake Kameninskeg and Chipewa Lodge in Ontario, where we spent a week or two every summer when I was growing up.

346. The riverwalk in Estes Park
I've been to Estes Park many times, but the Riverwalk was a new discovery. A bunch of shops and many outdoor cafes alongside the river.

347. Climbing on statues
The riverwalk included lots of different statues for the girls to climb over (in addition to these bighorn sheep, there was also a mountain lion statue, and beaver statues in a fountain that the girls had to climb all over too.

348. Acres of flowers
On our way home we stopped at the experimental gardens at Colorado State University, which has literally acres of flower beds. I remember my mom dragging me to gardens like this when I was a child, now here I am dragging my mom and my kids around gardens, too.