Santa Fe and Estes Park

Sunday, December 19

We woke up to freezing temperatures. Our water bottles left in the car were frozen but thankfully the beers didn’t explode. I had the best cinnamon role of my life at the Holiday Inn breakfast. Driving into New Mexico we entered into the wide, dry landscape with yellow grass and spiny bushes that Carl and I are more familiar with. We even saw a couple tumbleweeds! I decided it was time to use our Marriott gift card that we got for signing up for their credit card (this isn’t a paid promotion but I would love to be sponsored by Marriott if the opportunity was presented!)

We checked into the beautiful and historic La Posada and were instantly wooed by the free candy. The hotel is organized like a little adobe village where sets of rooms are scattered throughout the property connected by brick walkways. The interior was Spanish-style with white walls, exposed dark wooden beams, and so so much art. We walked from the hotel to the square, passing souvenir stores filled with silver, textiles, beads, stone and wood carvings, and other wonderfully kitschy objects. On the north side of the square under an awning there was a line of Native Americans selling their handmade jewelry, displayed on blankets. The temperature was about 35 degrees so everyone was dressed bulkily with many blankets wrapped around them.

We walked south to Santa Fe Brewing’s Brakeroom tap house, a small, historic building with a dark wood bar and dim lighting. The building is actually an old cabin where railroad workers used to sleep. We had the 7k and Happy Camper IPAs. Then we walked west to a different commercial area and landed at Second Street Brewery. We had the Sloppy Sloth hazy IPA and the 2920 IPA which was a gluten-removed beer (although it turns out that I missed that gluten). It was at this point we realized we were at a high elevation. We felt especially winded and drunk after two beers and were grateful we booked a hotel within walking distance. We then skipped our way back up to the restaurant Paloma. We had delicious mezcal cocktails (that we nursed), chicken sopapillas on blue corn tortillas, and braised short rib in a mole sauce with sweet potato purée and blackened onion and sweet potato garnishes. Drunk as we felt, we savored the buttery meat and then shuffled back to the hotel cursing at the cold. We explored the hotel property and found…the hot tub! After the hot tub we had to chug a bunch of water and went to sleep at like 9 while watching Law and Order SVU.

Monday, December 20

Despite being a beautiful, luxurious hotel they did not offer a free breakfast like the Holiday Inn’s that we have come to love. So we scuttled over to Tia Sofia’s which boasts famous chile stews. We had the Christmas breakfast burrito (both green and red chile) and the pozole with pork (which was…fine). Then hopped in the car and drove north to Colorado!

We met up with more of my coworkers – Erin and Jordan – at Joy Hill in Denver for happy hour and an early dinner. We shared a healthy salad, pizza that had purple potatoes and chorizo, and the house IPA. Then we headed up the hill to Estes Park. My coworker, Devin, kindly let us stay at her place. Devin’s St Bernard, Bear, is the biggest, cutest dog of all my life. We sampled some of the beers we had gathered from across the country, chatted, and cuddled bear.

Tuesday, December 21

The wind was crazy, violent all night but we decided to see what the tree-covered hiking trails felt like. Devin recommended Bear Lake and the short hike from there to Bierstadt Lake. The wind was still fierce at Bear Lake but lessened on the trail. We hiked about 5 miles to Bierstadt and around and then headed back to town. We stopped at Rock Cut Brewery and had the Galactic Portal, a hazy, and the Interference, an American IPA. We also got some dank tacos from the taco truck parked outside.

On the way down the mountain our car was squealing especially bad (we got a new belt before the trip) and the check engine light came on so we took it to the local shop. They were able to look at it immediately and tightened the belt, asking only for a tip for the guy who worked on it so quickly. Then Carl and I got COVID tested which was across the street and took about 5 minutes. So efficient!

That evening we went up to the Stanley hotel (the inspiration for the Shining) for dinner and a spooky tour. We had spinach artichoke dip and deviled eggs to start and then shared some beef and buffalo short ribs and a meatloaf with all kinds of meat including elk. The cocktails were real good and were Shining themed (Red Rum). The spooky tour took us to the men’s workers quarters, the billiards room, and even the tunnels under the hotel. Stephen King and the Stanley Hotel have a symbiotic history – the hotel inspired King but he also apparently saved the hotel by inspiring its historic preservation status. The tour guide spoke of several ghosts and spirits and showed us some photos of sitings but we did not see any ghosts or spirits of our own. There was a kid- about 7 years old- who kept asking good, thought-provoking questions throughout the tour. Then at one point the guide mentioned there were no children allowed on the tour. We realized the kid did not appear to be there with any parents and then…we didn’t even see him anymore.