Sweet Life With Mary

This trip is funner than I thought!

My first idea for a travelogue of our trips was to have it ala Food Networks “Feasting With Asphalt” minus the motorcycles— a chronicle of the trip with philosophical insights, local people adding to the flavor, showcase of the food along the way.  I thought the travelogue for this trip will include Mary’s endless barrage of “Are we There yet?”  (Mary’s version includes: “How long does it take to get there? Has it been 10 minutes? Are we close? When are we going to get there?”), descriptions of our food stops, and blurred photos of the elusive elk.

It turned out to be magical! (Jack’s term and I agree.)

No More Are-We-There-Yets???!!!

Jack and I nipped that right in the bud. Mary started asking questions- Where are we going? Estes Park, to see elk.  How long does it take to get there?  About an hour but we are going to stop for food and also, at that place where you can feed squirrels (we had brought along a bag of stale pecans for this purpose).  Is it far to the restaurant?  It will be about 20 minutes to Lyons.  How long has it been? At this point, it was time to shut down the questions.  Mary, just enjoy the ride, you’re with your family, it’s a beautiful day. If you are going to ask all these questions all afternooon, we will just turn around and not go on this trip.  It is not fun for Mommy and Daddy when you constantly ask.

What is great about Mary is that even at only five years of age, you can reason with her and as long as she is not overly tired or hungry, she would listen.

But we also helped her by:

• distracting her with what we see out the window, pointing out the scenery to her, encouraging her to tell us what she finds interesting
• playing games — we usually play “I Spy”. For this trip, I had her thnk of 10 words that start with a certain letter
• letting her know of an added treat for this trip. We will stop at a “glass” store where Mary can choose a glass animal.  “Can we buy it?,” Mary asks.  “Of course,” we say.  “This trip is funner than I thought!”

At least, the Soda Was Great!

Our first stop - for food, it was lunchtime after all since we headed out for out trip after picking up Mary from kindergarten.

The roadside eatery was not as good as we remembered. Jack had ordered a double cheeseburger, fries and Pepsi for himself, Mary was going to have a corn dog and a baby chocolate cone. I could not have anything from the menu as I cannot eat anything that has been deep-fried or fat-full (I am suffering from a recent intolerance of fat, makes me violently sick). Mary had always liked their soft serve cones and Jack had never had a bad sandwich from this place before. This time, the burger patties were burnt, the fries overcooked, the corn dog overdone. Surprisingly, the fountain soda drinks were good— it could have been worse, it is so easy to screw up the mix of syrup and soda water— just observe the next time you order from any fast fodd place.

Our next stop is a photo opportunity for tourists.

This Time There Were Lots of Blue Jays

Also, this is a great spot to stop and feed chipmunks. Jack’s eldest daughter had driven this road to Estes Park numerous times and knew of this added attraction so we were prepared today and had a bag of nuts. The other time in 2004, there were a lot more chipmunks but this time, it was bluejays!

And finally,

We found elks!

Without even looking. As soon as we hit Estes Park town proper, there they were, right in park by Lake Estes,for every tourist’s viewing and photographing pleasure. We parked, went running towards them and took dozens of photos.

From what Jack told me, the way it is with elks, during the rutting season, one dominant male will gather a whole group of females for himself and all the other males wait around in the sidelines.  Only this one dominant male gets to have his way with the females.  Lucky dog! (or not, so lucky- it could take a lot of work— oh, I’m sure he enjoys it…)

So that whole group of females belong to that one elk bull— he has an impressive antler.  None of the other males around has an antler with as as many prongs— he deserves to be the dominant one.  Every so often, we would hear these screams (much like the squeeks and squeals my mom (or any unsuspecting female) makes when my dad (or any other male), its called bugling, sounds that the male makes to establish dominance among the other males and to attract females.   National Geographic has a good audio.

So, we’ve found elk but our trip did not end there.

This article is the first article of a three-part series, Road Trip to Estes Park
Part Two - Unexpected Pleasures
Part Three- Scenes From My Window