Aug. 23, 2003 - 21:40 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Revisited

At times soul searching bears fruit, even though a bit exhausting. Heather and I in talking about oldest daughter's upcoming birthday decided that because we are getting older maybe we should take daughter to a place she loved to go when in her teens before we got too old to do much.

Heather and I got our isht together this morning. Birthday packages to load. Three bottles of oxy - one on the cart and two to be loaded in the back of the VUE, wraps and as we were going to be in the great outdoors and in the mountains to boot, a nice large bottle containing DEET to repel the vicious skeeter that carries the 'out of place' West Nile virus which seems to be hitting here in Colorado more than ever. And a cooler full of cold drinks plus bottles of frozen water.

Our daughter likes McDonalds to the max, so we did not pack a picnic lunch but stopped at the Golden Arches a time or two and on the way home hit an Arby's. Which made daughter happy.

We picked her up at the assisted living home where she resides and we were on our way to Estes Park. It was sad in a way, we took the old route there but were overwhelmed by the housing developments clustered here and there in what used to be open country.

We were pretty well up in the hills before we saw bare ground, grasses and rocks -- from there on it was pretty much the same as it always was. It is good to get away from man's clutter and see it the way it was made to begin with.

Daughter has no speech, but laughed and smiled all day obviously enjoying herself. To top things off Heather suggested a ride on the Aerial Tramway (cable car in suspension) to the top of a crag which is 8700 feet altitude with a great view of the park that Mr. Estes vauled very much. It was a ride that she refused to take some years ago because she was afraid (at least that is what she said then). So daughter and I took that ride together. When on top we walked the paths, fed the little four leggers peanuts and enjoyed the panorama that is Estes Park. We watched rain storm coming through today and managed to be in the down cable car in the dry mode as it swept by. Afternoon rains don't last too long in one place in our mountains usually before passing on to the east.

Of course the ladies shopped up on top, naturally (twice the price for half the worth, but it is shopping after all). At least we didn't walk the walk through the scads of shops in town. Not one of the three of us are up to that strenuous activity. They didn't buy too much, Heather got daughter a glass pendant with wildflowers pressed in between the pieces, nicely it looked too. Pictures were taken, both of people and scenery too.

All in all we had a very pleasant time of it today. So much so that we brought daughter to our apartment on the way home to open her presents here, as it was too dark to do so in a nice bit of park (of which there are many in our area).

So we passed a quite peaceful and pleasant birthday trip to the mountains with daughter to her favorite place and witnessed her joy of once again making it to the top of the aerial tram, and with both Mom and Dad as well as spending fun time up top.

Once again we all marveled at the Stanley Hotel up on its hillside (Where the Shining was filmed) and other points of interest from an eagle's eye view.

Did we enjoy ourselves ? Oh, yes we did, seeing the joy in daughter's eyes and the smiles she bestowed on the two of us made it well worth while, that trip to Estes Park today, paradise Revisited . . . . . . . . . . .

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