Colorado adventure under way -

I spy with my little eye - pine trees, birch, a hot tub, and dancing bears.

Can you guess where we are?

Oso Cabin - in Dripping Springs - near Estes Park, Colorado.
This area has bed & breakfast places lining every road - but it's not tourist season yet, so we're enjoying the quiet. We have a whole crook of the river to ourselves, as there are no other guests around till Friday.

Here's a paragraph from the book in our cabin:

"History of Dripping Springs Resort"
"Clyde and May Cameron, with daughter Roberta, came to Estes Park to build a home in 1926...One summer around 1936 May went to California to visit a sister and upon her return she was dismayed to find that Clyde had built 5 "cabins" in her yard. We heard she was very upset about the situation, what with all those tourists that would now be around. But Clyde wanted to stay home and make money, the area had just opened to tourism with the new road through Big Thompson Canyon. Now tourists could easily come to Estes Park. "

We arrived here yesterday and loved it instantly. The hot tubs, not from 1936, helped us forget all we've been doing in preparation for this moment. By this morning I forgot what day it was!

As it turned out to be Monday, we took our first opportunity to secure a marriage license. The clerk of the court, Bethany, was friendly and efficient - and now we have an official Larimer County seal on the document in our back seat.

Then we ventured into town and stopped first at Kind Coffee, where we picked up a wonderful warm cup of chai. We found a walking path behind the stores and listened to the river that is flowing under patches of ice. Then of course we had to check out the Estes Park Brewery.

Now we're back at the cabin - and we haven't even had to grocery shop, thanks to the gifts and leftover food from our party Saturday night! My Denver housemate Rhonda was gracious to let us take over her house - and spend the whole day cooking and cleaning so we could gather with our local friends all at once. We even got to playing some music with guitars, bouzouki, mandolin, percussion, three fiddles, and bandura. I'll post some pictures as soon as I get them.