Living in a Postcard: Week 5

I have been in Estes Park, Colorado for a whole month now: a beautiful, challenging, adventurous, long - and at the same time very short - month. My whole perception of the YMCA of the Rockies, of Colorado, of my future has shifted slightly and I already know saying goodbye in August is going to be extremely difficult.

Week 5 was ridiculously awesome.

Monday 

My gallant steed RJ and Riley our guide

Return to Snow Mountain Ranch: Part 3. The other intern and I went over at 7:45 A.M. to get to SMR for an IRT (Innovative Readiness Training - Navy guys) ribbon cutting ceremony. They finished their first shade shelter they had been working on and just wanted a short video/pictures of it with the group. Afterward we went on a trail ride to take footage for promo videos of the stables and horses. I had a blast! I haven't ridden since last summer and it was great memories of my other camp the past couple of years!


 And Trail Ridge Road was, as always, absolutely gorgeous.

Action shots someone took during our second game

When we got back I grabbed dinner with friends then headed out to the sand courts for Part II of the Sand Volleyball Tournament. The Sand Monsters were ready - we were pumped, we had lots of people come out and make signs for us, it was fantastic. We won our first match against Podoh (their team name...not really sure), breezed through our second match against an Admin staff team, then held our breath to see who we would be playing in the Championship game. It was between the "Golddiggers" or "Cougars", and these two teams were so good. They both won a game and it was a close call to see who would win - the Cougars team pulled ahead and snatched the victory.


By the time we played them it was like 9PM, light was fading, and we were all tired. But we put our hearts out there and got close with 18-25. Their team would be no problem if they didn't have an international guy who does this crazy fast jump serve that kept killing us. They postponed the other game(s) - staying optimistic - until Thursday night so we'll see if we can beat them or not.

We went out with some friends afterward because we were starving. I don't care who you are, taco bell is always a good idea at 10PM at night.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a little slower in a sense, but still busy. Andrew is out on vacation this whole week and Laura was out sick today so it was just us interns. I had a job making a ton of signs to be used during World Council for the day trips. Type, print, change color, reprint, laminate, repeat.  Fun fact: there's only one laminator machine in the whole YMCA Estes Park Center. And it's a small, one-at-a-time machine. That likes to eat the papers you put in it. I learned a lot about patience. And I made lots of new friends over at Sweet Memorial. And it got me out of the Exec building for a little bit. So I can't complain.

I ate dinner with a few of my international friends. One of them had sprained her foot at Day Camp that day so I helped her get to the admin building and we just played cards and had a great time with some other friends.  I went to the LT service at 9PM again, and it was even better than last time. Not only was I with Whitney, but pretty much the rest of my volleyball team is in the LT program and we all sat together and it was pretty dang great. The guys on my team are some of the funniest, most real guys I've met.

Wednesday

Wednesday I finished the signs for World Council and started writing a few sundry stories for Snow Mountain Ranch, like one about a couple who met at SMR and got married and now their daughter works there. Laura was back in the office and it one of my favorite ladies in the Exec building brought her kitties in to work. So it was a pretty great day.


Wednesday night the Sandmonsters got together for a pre-championship game warm up, and it mostly turned into a goof around game, which was nice. The guys invited me to LT again, but Erica and I decided to visit our friend with the hurt food instead. Sometimes I feel the holy spirit moving differently in relationships and connecting with people than in a service. Both are good. Just random thoughts.

Thursday

More world council stories. Laura brought in salt water taffy. More blogging. More taffy. Lunch break was spent watching the USA vs Germany World cup game (which sadly ended 1-0, but we're still advancing to Knockout rounds!)

That night I ate with the usual crowd and then my friend Jenna and I decided to go for a walk down by the river. Gosh its so easy to take where you are for granted. I've just gotten so used to walking around Colorado, seeing the woods and mountains and rivers and big sky everyday and getting caught up in long work days that I forget the beauty around me. I'm so lucky to be here. We had a great walk and talk about life, and work, and everything.

Then: GAME TIME. We had a great pep talk and a great warm up, and we were ready for the Cougars. The game was really even until about 16-16 and then they pulled ahead. I was just super excited to stop the crazy guy's ridiculous jump serve. We made some silly mistakes, but we caught up to 22-23 and then they pulled ahead and finished the game. We were disappointed, but we had so many great friends come out and watch us play and decided we would get them the next time.  We played around then all went out for icecream at our favorite place in town, Hayley's. (SO GOOD).

Really bad quality ice cream selfie.

Friday

Friday was great for 3 reasons.
1. Um, it's FRIDAY.
2. Brownies. At. Lunch. Yes.
3. I found out several of my articles were published in the Estes Park News! (You can read two of them here and the other one here if you click June 27 edition)

Friday evening was great because there was this staff cookout, and after eating dining room food all week it was heaaaaven. It was also awesome to just hang out with friends and eat smores and enjoy the feeling of not having work the next day.  Afterward we went to the Rock Inn again with some day camp staff and some volleyball guys and had a fun night listening to gypsy folk music (I'm not sure what it is still but it was great) and dancing and talking.

Saturday 

Saturday we got up, ate breakfast, then went to town for thrift shopping and to see the Scandinavian Festival because my friends from Germany and Iceland wanted to check it out.

such a legit pic

Afterward we hung out in the Rustic Cafe, went to dinner, watched some Law & Order SVU. One of my friends was staying at a hotel in town because they needed her room at the YMCA for the World Council, so we went to her hotel room and ordered pizza and hung out. Chill day.

Sunday 

It'd been awhile since I had hiked, so I was dying to get out and do something. Luckily a friend was going to do Sky Pond and I was able to tag along. We left around 8:30 with two others, picked up our friend from the hotel, and drove into Rocky Mountain National Park to the Park and Ride. We took a shuttle to the Glacier Gorge trailhead and then began our 9.5 miles round trip hike at 10AM. 9.5 MILES let me repeat that. It was the longest hike I've done so far but it was by far one of my top hikes! It was SO beautiful.

The first 0.9 miles take you up to Alberta Falls, this gorgeous (and popular - lots of people go here because it doesn't take long) waterfall. After that is a long stretch of switchbacks and gorgeous mountain views for 1.3 miles, then a split. We took The Loch path, which takes you to this breathtaking lake. I'm telling you this day was perfect for hiking.

The Loch. No filters, no nothin.

After The Lock is another 0.9 mile stretch through beautiful forests and trickling streams from snow melt off. Finally you reach the base of a mountain and you look up and oh my goodness it's just this big steep snow hill you have to climb up (may I tell you I am wearing regular sneakers and shorts and a tshirt. We are not prepared for snow. Thankfully it's not cold outside, it's just hard to walk through) As we are trekking through the snow the National Park Rangers come up behind us with a bunch of gear and tell us they're on a rescue mission, which kind of freaks us out a little bit. We let them pass and keep going up until we reach the base of Timberline Falls, this waterfall with rocks all the way up that you CLIMB. I was so excited - it makes me feel like a pro when I have to scramble hands and feet up huge boulders to reach the top of a mountain.

When we finally reached the top and saw Glass Lake, it was super windy. The windiest I've ever felt in my life. Like putting my jacket on was a struggle because my jacket kept picking up air and wanting to carry me off. It was crazy. We ran into other YMCA staff on top and said hey, then ventured on for the last 0.4 miles to Sky Pond - we got there at 1PM. Sky Pond and Glass Lake are very similar (and I can't quite figure out how one is a pond and one is a lake when they're the same size) and I loved them both. They're not my favorite lakes, but they're part of one of my favorite hikes now so I love them. At the top we saw the Park Rangers again and watched them figure out a plan to rescue someone who had climbed beyond Sky Pond and got stuck. We ate lunch and took pictures and hung out for an hour, then began descending at 2PM.

Sky Pond Panoramic

Going up the snow hill was hard, but going down was even harder. You had to go super slow so you wouldn't slip or fall down the wrong way, because it was a pretty steep hill will huge boulders at the bottom that would not be fun to hit. That took the longest, and once we were down it was pretty smooth sailing all the way back. We reached the trailhead at 4:30PM, waited for a shuttle and then drove back to the YMCA in the car. (My poor friend Jenna who had driven dropped her glasses down a crack on top of Sky Pond and had me drive back for her since she wouldn't be able to drive well without them!) We ate dinner and then  visited our friend's hotel again (and their hot tub...shhhhh) It was a great end to the weekend.

I seriously can't believe some of the things my eyes have seen now. I feel like I'm living in a postcard or a calendar. It's so beautiful here and I wish I could just share it with everyone, all my friends and family and the whole world. COLORADO IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

One of my friends back home asked me "Love it more than Texas?" And I'm sorry Texas I'll love you forever and ever I promise but Colorado has a special place in my heart that your flat lands aren't able to completely fill.