Destination Estes

I love this web cam.
Whenever I get homesick, I can look at my web cams around my home.

I love the web cam because it updates every 10 seconds. I thought I had saved two photos of a sequence, the first being the family getting their picture taken, the second was supposed to be of the photographer giving the group their camera back, but somehow in my rush yesterday, I got two of the family getting their pictures taken. Ratz.

Estes Park is around 50 miles away from where I grew up. Dad and Mom used to drive us there once in a while.

I loved to walk around the shops with Dad. He was an inventor at heart, and he would look at the gag gifts and say, "I could have done that. Someone is getting rich off that invention." He did end up inventing and producing a novelty gag gift that sold for years. When I find a picture I will post on that someday.

My memories of Estes park include caramel corn and Salt Water Taffy. This is no ordinary salt water taffy. It comes in fabulous flavors such as Texas pecan with real pecans, cinnamon, mint, vanilla and other flavors, but those are the ones I get. If you click on the link, you can see the old fashioned taffy puller still working in the window. We always got those two treats when we went to Estes. The whole town was filled with amazing shops that sell souvenirs, novelty gifts and many useless things but it is a lot of fun and it was a beautiful mountain town and a resort for many visitors.

I have watched this Riverwalk web cam for several seasons. I have seen the sun rise and set, I have seen the rain and the snow fall, the lamp post turn on, the people resting on the bench, talking on the cell phone, giving a baby in a stroller it's bottle, joggers hurrying by, bicyclers swishing past. There is drama going on all the time.

When I visited home last time, I was determined to find this web cam. I had not even known about Estes' Riverwalk, and neither had my mom or her out-of-town cousin visitors who happened by while I was there. We all caravaned to Estes, each with a destination in mind. Mom just wanted to be with us and come for the ride.

That sweet little Lady used her cane and braved the whole 4 blocks up and down. The California cousins had their own agenda so we exchanged cell phone numbers and split up. I wanted to find the web cam, so I left my sweet husband with Mom and hurried east along the river. I was looking for that lamp post, that flower box and that bench. There weren't many like it so when I finally saw the lamp posts that look like the one in the picture, I knew I was near.
The web cam is on the corner of the deck, the lamp post, the bench and the flower box all match.

I stood under the web cam and took photographs of what the web cam sees. I guess if someone I know had been watching, they would have seen me. I should have called on my cell phone and had someone click print page and saved it. That would have been planning ahead.

Anyway I found it. That was my whole goal in Estes Park, besides getting some of that delicious salt water taffy.

I enjoy the web cam even more now that I have seen it in person. That is an amazing river running beside this walk. I think it is the Big Thompson River.

We were treated by Donna, our cousin, to a lunch in an outdoor restaurant along the Riverwalk and watched the people pass by. I enjoyed getting reacquainted this wonderful lady and her grandson who is actually my second cousin once removed. Donna would be my first cousin-in-law once removed. How fun to find family. We really got along well and had a nice visit. We exchanged emails and I hope we continue to keep in touch. In the end, we walked back to our cars and they were on their way to another tourist attraction, and we went back home. What a sweet and unexpected bonus to my visit to see Mom.

It was a fun adventure. I love Estes.

~a

ps
for some reason, looking at that river makes me so thirsty. Every time I see it, I jump up and go get a glass of cold water. Now I wish I could have a sound cam as well, I want to hear that water rushing by. There is nothing like a Colorado mountain stream. They are so amazing.