Day 4...

Sorry I haven't been able to write for a while.. so now I'll update for several days..

Anyway day 4 we woke up in beautiful Estes Park. Our room here was really good at Estes Hotel. But this morning it was raining...for the first time since we came...We were gonna drive over the Rockies, cross the continetal divide,  and elevations close to 12000 ft..( around 3700 m), on the highest main road in the States. It's amazing nature here! Unfortunately it was very foggy up over the mountains so we couldn't get any pictures of the peaks at all... In higher elevations like this its common with high altitude sickness and I can say I felt little weird up high..dizzy and like you have very low blood pressure. I don't know how the kids felt, but I kept an extra eye especially on Jamie,  but she was happy and played around so I guess she wasn't so affected. Mom didnt like it up there...but as soon as we got down to around 3000 m or lower it felt better!

We packed food with us and had lunch close to Irene Lake inside the National park. Sooo beautiful.. pics can't describe it.. Since the weather was bad ( even though it cleared up after lunch) we didnt walk around so much. Instead we took a backroad to Walden ( very scenic rd 125). In Walden we had a nice coffe break "fika" at a very cool place. Their chocolate cake was so huge we didnt even finished it between me, mom and Jared. Walden itself was a typical small western mountain town.. very charming!

Shortly after we reached the state of Wyoming! Around 5 o'clock the girls usually starts to be tired of driving so we've tried to stop and find somewhere to sleep before dinner. ( those fruit smoothies for babies like Ella's kitchen are important to always have handy!) ...

We slept in Saratoga..(Riviera Inn) not such a pretty town.. but you could see that they tried to make the downtown area prettier with small shops and a few restaurants..

Totally driving Estes Park (CO)- Saratoga (Wy)...280 km.

Pics Colorado...

Just a few...will write more and put up pics from my real camera later...little rain yesterday when we drove over the Rockies... but still amazing nature!!

Day 3...

We started early morning i Colby, Kansas,and today we had a long drove ahead (to Estes Park, Colorado).  Northwestern corner of Kansas didn't surprise us so much. The scenery changed a little bit with more hills and rougher ground with Sagebrushes. First stop was a little town, Haigler, (Nebraska) so we could let the girls run around. The town only had a postoffice, a family market and a café. Different little mini town.. Unfortunately the owner of both the market and the café was on vacation.hehe..but we had brought food with us!  We only drove 10 km in southwest NE before we reached Colorado and a new timezone!

In CO we tried to drive smaller roads to avoid the Denver met. area, so we stayed on highway 34. The roads in the States are named odd numbers goes north/south starting with Highway 1 in California, and even numbers goes West/East. That way ita easy to tell your direction.

Colorado scenery changed pretty quick. The easter parts still has big plains, and we passed several huge feedlots for cows. It started to rain alittle when we got closer to the frontrange so we couldnt see the mountains from far away. A clear day you can see the Rockies from Kansas!
We were trying to reach Estes Park in the afternoon so we drove as much as we could, had a quick lunch at Pizza Hut, Yuma. And then drove to Loveland right at the front of the mountains.  Loveland is a big city with everything you can wish for and a lot of "money", with nice houses... We had a coffe and homemade Peach cobbler (smulpaj) at Cracker Barrel. It's a national food chain with country cooked food and the also have a store with very pretty things, alot of small decoration and kids stuff. I bought two new Yankee Candles from their fall collection. "Harvest" and " Apple Pumpkin".. I know they are alittle more expensive at Cracker Barrel but total 40 dollars for two large candles.. I think that's what I paid for one medium in Sweden..Anyway, before we reached Estes Park, we drove into the mountain and the truly amazing Big Thompson Canyon. I hope to show pics soon, but it cannot be described with pictures-you are really driving in to the Rockies...an amazing drive up to our goal for today!

Around 5 we reached Estes Park. It is a beautiful place for all outdoors lovers,right by Rocky Mountain National Park entrance.  We stayed in a very nice room at the Estes Hotel. Good place for kids with nice views and a pool. For dinner we bought home deli food from the nicest grocery store I've been to over here, Safeway. All fresh, very good selection of ecofriendly food. A couple of beers later it was time to sleep and get ready for tomorrows adventures!

.. Totally we drove about 600 km today..