After our long flight, we were happy to settle in for the night. Our hotel, the Renaissance Flatiron was just minutes from the airport (BJC). The boulder airport caters to some pretty impressive jets. When we arrived I wondered if we would be treated like second class citizens. I am happy to say our experience was 100% first class. Upon arrival we had been met and parked and the line guy hung out to help us unload and golf cart us to the the building.
The staff at the FBO (fixed based operator) even clued us in that the hotel would come get us saving us an Uber fare. She also helped us with our rental car woes. I had tried in vain to call the local Avis office from Kansas but they never answered and the national line was no help at all. The Signature FBO CSR had the secret cell phone number of the Avis manager. I gave him a call after opening time and he was able to work a car for us a day early, problem solved.
The next issue was where to? We had not planned to be there. Our room came with free breakfast so while eating, we started discussing our destination and the friendly staff gave us several suggestions. I have to say that people in Colorado were exceedingly friendly, I was unsure if this was related to Colorado Amendment 64 but we enjoyed the great hospitality regardless. We decided on a drive up to Estes, CO and visit Rocky Mountain National park. The hotel was nice enough to drop us at the Avis office and we soon had a car and were headed Northwest.
We drove up through Estes which is a quaint tourist trap and entered the park. The fee is $20 and well worth the cost. The ranger station equipped us with a map and we decided to drive to the Alpine visitor center which is the high point, literally. Along the way there are many great pull offs where you can take in the stunning views.
The park sports lots of mountains but also has some nice wildlife to view.
The creature above is a Marmot but I just classed it in family Varmit. We had a great time walking and sightseeing but we did feel the effects of the altitude. Denver at 5000 feet was no big deal but when we eventually climbed (see stairs below) up to 12,000 we both had to take it a bit slower.
You know we were really above 12,000 because the sign says so. I was a bit curious whether the elevation was at the base of the sign or at the level of the text. Just to be safe the other pictures are us standing on rocks above the sign. If you squint you can see the blue tinge from lack of oxygen. It was all downhill from here, we headed back to our hotel and dropped by the plane to clean it up a bit. It seems I hit every bug between Florida and Colorado. If you squint, you can see the Denver skyline over the left wing.
We met up with a friend for Vietnamese food (pho) that evening and after too much food, some additional local ice cream, she then took us on a quick walk in Chautauqua park. We finally learned why they call the area the Flatiron. You can see one behind us. It is a somewhat misleading name as it is not Iron rich but rather flat sandstone. I was not too disappointed by the deception and consoled myself with a spectacular sunset over the mountains
The next issue was where to? We had not planned to be there. Our room came with free breakfast so while eating, we started discussing our destination and the friendly staff gave us several suggestions. I have to say that people in Colorado were exceedingly friendly, I was unsure if this was related to Colorado Amendment 64 but we enjoyed the great hospitality regardless. We decided on a drive up to Estes, CO and visit Rocky Mountain National park. The hotel was nice enough to drop us at the Avis office and we soon had a car and were headed Northwest.
We drove up through Estes which is a quaint tourist trap and entered the park. The fee is $20 and well worth the cost. The ranger station equipped us with a map and we decided to drive to the Alpine visitor center which is the high point, literally. Along the way there are many great pull offs where you can take in the stunning views.
The park sports lots of mountains but also has some nice wildlife to view.
The creature above is a Marmot but I just classed it in family Varmit. We had a great time walking and sightseeing but we did feel the effects of the altitude. Denver at 5000 feet was no big deal but when we eventually climbed (see stairs below) up to 12,000 we both had to take it a bit slower.
You know we were really above 12,000 because the sign says so. I was a bit curious whether the elevation was at the base of the sign or at the level of the text. Just to be safe the other pictures are us standing on rocks above the sign. If you squint you can see the blue tinge from lack of oxygen. It was all downhill from here, we headed back to our hotel and dropped by the plane to clean it up a bit. It seems I hit every bug between Florida and Colorado. If you squint, you can see the Denver skyline over the left wing.
We met up with a friend for Vietnamese food (pho) that evening and after too much food, some additional local ice cream, she then took us on a quick walk in Chautauqua park. We finally learned why they call the area the Flatiron. You can see one behind us. It is a somewhat misleading name as it is not Iron rich but rather flat sandstone. I was not too disappointed by the deception and consoled myself with a spectacular sunset over the mountains
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