Drink, eat and be merry

To every Family Reunion there must come the Group Meal. When the destination for the vacation is a locale where nobody in the gang resides, that adds to the inherent challenges. Who likes what type of food? What time does everybody prefer to eat? (Don’t forget to factor in the time zones everybody involved started…

What’s in store for us today?

I’ve joked about the T-shirt-iness of the downtown stretch of Estes Park. Surely, the shop owners have set up racks of Rocky Mountain-loving wear daring you to plunk down your 20 bucks and call it your own. What tourist town doesn’t? Truth be known, on the grand scale of Where I’ve Been, this destination for…

Feeling at home in the blue cottage

First-timers that we were, my dear wife Karen, daughter Elisabeth, boyfriend George Three and I did not know what to expect out of anything in Estes Park. When we pulled the rented SUV into the short, weed-filled driveway of the blue cottage with the white 330 on Virginia Drive a little before check-in time that…

And the valley below

We could not let me dear wife Karen’e five-day Family Reunion in Estes Park go by without heading the rented SUV back up the mountain to that pull-off on Route 36 with the big rock sign and panoramic view. Yet the two times we drove past the majestic point going back down toward the village…

A wild time at the Denver Zoo

When my dear wife Karen put a Sunday baseball game on her Family Reunion group page on Facebook, nephew Drew from Alaska quickly indicated that he’d love to join his aunt, the Uncle from Syracuse he’d not yet met, and new cousin Elisabeth and her boyfriend George Three on the excursion to Coors Field to…

Take a hike, gladly, ride a jeep with the gang

The first day we walked around the town of Estes Park, outside a storefront my wonderful daughter Elisabeth spotted a bunch of people hopping aboard a big jeep. We wondered about the adventure awaiting. The next day, we ducked inside, grabbed a brochure, and talked turkey with the woman behind the counter. Well, elk, actually,…

I’m glad there’s crying in baseball

My Mets lost last night, but even during a pennant race, that wasn’t the big story. Wilmer Flores got tears in his eyes. On the field. During the game. He couldn’t hide it from the TV cameras. There is crying baseball, Tom Hanks’ crusty manager Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own. And that…