Bob and I had visions of getting moving early in the mornings to go for walks (or, even more delusionally, runs) but for the most part that hasn’t really happened.  But today we at least managed to get out for a short stroll around our resort complex, along a shallow rushing river.

For today’s main adventure, we headed north a bit to Fort Collins, for a white water rafting trip on the Poudre River.  Unfortunately this outing was mostly unphotographed.  (Or rather, it was unphotographed by us.  We didn’t have our phones with us, for obvious reasons.  The rafting company did have a photographer stationed at various key points along the route, but Bob and I elected not to pay the $75 price tag for their photo package.  Our devotion to our blog followers has some limits.  You’ll have to rely on our powers of description.)

Anyway, it was a pretty fun trip.  We all managed to stay in the boat, despite some touch-and-go moments.  Our guide perceived the girls’ love of adventure and offered to make the trip more “spicy”.  This included running the last rapid while spinning the raft in circles.  Cole the guide said his record was five circles, but we only got to four.  None of the other rafts in our groups did any circles at all, so we considered it a win nevertheless.

The scariest part by far was the bus ride.  On the way there, I was a little concerned by the speed at which the bus driver was taking the very curvy road.  (I kept my rafting helmet on and hoped that would protect me in the event of the bus plunging over the guard rails.)  On the way back, when we were approaching a small traffic circle, the guides on the bus all started chanting “DO THE LOOP!  DO THE LOOP!”  We discovered that this meant doing an extra lap around the traffic circle, at relatively high speed.  At one point the bus went slightly over the curb into the center median.  But we survived to tell the tale.

Next stop: the beautiful and historic Stanley Hotel.  The main claim to fame of this place — and what saved it from bankruptcy — is that it is the inspiration for “The Shining”.  Stephen King stayed here one winter night in the seventies, and much of the plot of the book was based on his experiences here.  Many people (including, previously, us) also believe that the movie was filmed here.  Actually, that was not the case — but Stephen King hated the original movie version, and later shot his own miniseries here at the hotel.  (Apparently “Dumb and Dumber” was also shot here, and Jim Carrey had some kind of supernatural experience on his first night here that led to him decamping to the Holiday Inn in town.)

In any case, the hotel has fully embraced this history, and offers Shining-themed tours several times a day.  We heard lots of interesting stories about the history of the hotel, various haunted tales, and stories about Stephen King’s visit and subsequent filming.  Apparently the hotel also got tired of dealing with disappointed guests — and realized which side their bread was buttered on — so they recreated several features from the movie, even though they weren’t in the book.  This included a hedge maze and several exquisitely-reproduced rooms from the hotel.  It was an interesting tour, even if you weren’t that familiar with The Shining.  This was good because some of us had read the book and seen the movie long ago, some had only read the book, and some had not done either.

Dinner was in downtown Estes Park at Mama Rose’s, an Italian restaurant that had been recommended to us by a local.  We all greatly enjoyed the big plates of pasta (and for some of us, big glasses of house wine).  The girls managed to save room for a subsequent stop at Dairy Queen before returning to the cabin.