Geek will NEVER be thy name

I've been called a lot of names in my life time, but Geek has never been one of them.  This really hit home when I had written and posted my blog, only to accidentally delete it :(  Then managed to lock myself out of my blog.....so while I will go by many names in my life, Geek surely will never be one of them.  I wish it would be, wouldn't mind being more computer savvy.

So what had I posted?  Well my trip to Colorado last week of course!!

Vacation started out with a baseball game.  We went to see the Rockies play the Tigers on Tuesday, which only happens once in a really blue moon as they are in different leagues normally.  I'm a Tiger fan, even thought I don't really follow them all the time.  So I donned my Tiger shirt and hat and we found our seats with our hot dogs in hand (you gotta have a hot dog at a baseball game) and watched my beloved Tigers lose :(  They had won the day before and they won the next day.  It was a good game, a couple of home runs spiced it up nicely.

Wednesday we will just skip over, as it was a work day for me and what I do for a living bore most people to tears.  But I did have a quick visit to a local needlepoint shop and found my thread that I needed to finish up my tooth pillow!!  I was so totally blown way, it was a different dye lot, but it was dyed by the same person, so the colors are very close.  I stitch a length of it today and it looks perfect to me!!  Will post a picture next week after I finish up the background so you can see.

Thursday I told hubby he had no choice that we were going up to Estes Park to see the Stanley Hotel.  I've been wanting to go there for a very long time.  We had a nice but over priced lunch and then went on the great but again really overpriced tour of the hotel.  The history was wonderful, loved hearing how the hotel came to be and why it's so special now.  If you are Steven King fan, you know he got the idea for the Shinning while visiting the hotel.  But even better are the ghosts that supposedly haunt the hotel, told hubby we needed to book a room, but he just wasn't into it...wonder why?   the room I would love to stay in has a 3 year wait,  so maybe I should book it now and take the next 3 years to talk him into going ;-)

So a little history - the Stanley brothers did not make their fortunes inventing the Stanley Steamer..and side note the mystery books that take place in MN - can't think of the name, but the main character is Betsey something,  her depiction of the car is pretty accurate based on the short film they showed  and I'm going to be looking for Jay Leno driving his around LA now LOL.

So back to the history - they made their money developing a the gel plate used for taking photographs, reduced the time from 45 minutes to something like 45 seconds.  They made even more money when they sold their invention to Kodak.  We have talking $$$$$, even in today's standards.

So how did one of the brothers end up in Estes Park CO?  Interesting, he had TB and the doctors gave me 6 months to live, of which he decided to spend 3 months up a cabin in the mountains.  At the end of those months, his doctor expected to find him either dead or at death's door, but instead he had put on something like 30 lbs and was hiking up to a nearby peak.  So someone who should have been dead at 62 lived to be 92...good reason to go up into the mountains wouldn't you think?

So Ms. FO Stanley wanted her hubby to be healthy, but wasn't into outhouses and cabin living, so she got FO to build her a nice house, but it wasn't big enough for family and friends, so he built the hotel. Which originally only operated during the summer months, and people came for the whole summer.  Interesting fact, the wives were expected to change their dress for each meal and also for any special events, so on average each woman brought with her 270 to 300 dresses for the summer.  I don't think I have more than 3 dresses in my closet!!  I suppose Iw ould have lost a lot of weight skipping all of the meals as your husband was thought poorly of if his wife wore the same dress twice.

So Ms. FO also was an accomplished pianist so FO built her a concert hall to preform in for family and friend.  The two lights are from that hall, the one that isn't lit is an original light, but it no longer works, but remains in the room, the other ones replaced it.

During the tour they said that we should take as many pictures as we wanted, but we couldn't record what the tour guild was saying and you were especially encouraged to take lots of pictures in mirrors, as this is where the spirits could be seen.  I took a couple of pictures, but decided I really didn't want to see any spirits in the mirror.  So the picture with the mirror is what is left of the original bar in what else, the Bar.  Because FO had TB, people were not allowed to smoke in the hotel except for the cigar room/bar.  This and the pool hall were there only two rooms that were actually trimmed in real wood.  The reason for the wood in those to rooms was to limit the smoke escaping into the rest of the hotel.  The rest of the hotel's trim is actually plaster that has been molted to look like wood.

The other picture that looks like a wall with wood trim is actually a row of benches which the women were allowed to sit on while watching their husbands or boyfriends play pool.  Note they were NOT allowed in the bar/cigar room at all.

The actual seats did not have any cushions (they were added later) and there was a chair rail that would hit about at the neck area, so they weren't comfortable at all.  This was to discourage the women from staying too long.  They were encouraged to go into their own room that had writing tables, which could be used to write letters, journal or maybe write a book.....I missed the desks as they were on the 3rd floor now, and we opted to take the elevator up and down.  Also in bar room is the flag, this was NOT from the original hotel, but it was gifted to the current owners by an Iraq soldier, who's hummer had been blown up by a bomb, and he was the only survivor.  If you look closely at the picture they say you can see FO Stanley face.   Look at the upper left in the red & white stripes.  Not sure I buy it, but something has defiantly faded the material.

Lastly, while we saw the outside of room 217 (the one that I would love to spend the night in, but hubby won't) and several other haunted rooms, we weren't allowed to go inside.  So I took a quick peek in a room that was being cleaned up on the 4th floor.  The rooms looked neat and I think it would be fun to stay there, even if it wasn't one of the prime rooms with their own spirits.

If you get a chance, I would recommend going and seeing the hotel, eating there is optional as the food wasn't all that great, but the tour was fun and while over priced, worth spending the money.  Oh last little fact - Jim Carey filmed Dumb and Dumber there, and stayed in room 217 for a whole 3 hrs. He came running out and refused to stay at the hotel.  He did film his scenes at the hotel, but stayed at the lodge next door where the single men stayed during the summer.  He also waited outside for his scenes to start, he would not spend one minute more than he had to in the hotel.  Oh also, the Shining was NOT filmed there, but the series was, need to see the series now.

I did do a little stitching while there, and had lots of family time, hated to have to come home.  Can't wait for my next adventure.

Sandy