A Visit to the Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, CO)

John and I made a trek up to Estes Park, CO - hungover and sleepy the day after our Halloween party last month. 

I'd been to the Stanley Hotel once before (probably 10+ years ago, before I moved to Colorado), but I didn't do a tour at the time, and I've always wanted to!  Especially since I saw the Ghost Hunters episode where they did an investigation there... and of course, The Shining (about a million times).

It was a pretty rad tour, and really educational!  I learned so much about the family who built it, their lifestyle, the history of the area - it was fascinating.  Oh, and of course - all of the GHOSTLY claims! 

He looks quite mischievous, doesn't he?

This is one of my favorite photos of the day - I loved the big ornate mirrors and the creepy portrait paintings in this hallway!

Close-up of us in the mirror.  I'm such a nerd. ;)

The grand staircase.  I didn't know that they filmed some of the hotel scenes from Dumb & Dumber here!  The part where Jim Carrey races the girl up the stairs - yep, that's this staircase!  I knew that when they pulled up to the hotel (in the Ferrari), and all the gift boxes fall out - that was out front of the hotel!

No, those aren't evil ghost-eyes on the right side of this picture - they're just light from an old-fashioned lamp!

John is a very scary ghost.

The infamous room 217!  This is the room where Stephen King stayed, and inspired him to write "The Shining".  Apparently he was so shocked with what happened to him while staying in this room, he pumped out the book in just a week!

According to our tour guide, a lot of activity happens on this staircase.  She said that people often lose cell reception, or their phones shut off completely.  I love this photo because of all the illuminated phones!

One of my most favorite photos of the day... I love that the people staying in the room below opened their door at just the right moment...

You may have to click on the photo above for a closer look, but it's up to you to see if I caught a ghost!!

A little prank with the doorway leading to the upstairs attic.

Going down?

Another one of my favoritest pictures of the day! :)

I LOVED this old-timey elevator handle - can you imagine this being how you got from floor to floor?

Oooooo - the basement.  Spooky!

What a gorgeous hotel, huh?  This is the main lobby.  You don't see many places this grand these days, that's for sure!  So beautiful!

What a breathtaking view!!  I can see why the built the hotel here - it's so gorgeous!

Those aren't people down there (bride & groom) - they're scarecrows in pumpkin heads gettin' married.  Ha!

Look at that!  Isn't it amazing?  I think the best word to describe it is "majestic".  Really - it's such a beautiful place.

Some elk came by to say hello to us while we were leaving!  I guess that'd be "goodbye", but whatevz.  Pretty neato! 

All-in-all I would highly recommend taking a tour.  It was such a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, and the little town of Estes Park is absolutely charming!


I'm still getting caught up on all of my other pictures, and with Thanksgiving coming up, I've been a bit preoccupied!  :)  I'm out for the holiday for a good 5 days starting tomorrow (WOOHOO!!), so I hope you all have a VERY Happy Thanksgiving!! 

XXOO

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! (And our Stanley Hotel tour)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!  It needed to be said twice. :)

We threw a pretty EPIC Halloween party over the weekend - don't worry, pics are coming soon!  John and I were pretty pooped on Sunday, but we still managed to get our butts off the couch and head up to Estes Park, CO to attend our tour of the infamous Stanley Hotel. 

It really is a beautiful hotel - inside and out!  It was fun learning all of the history too, and all of the ghost stories.  

 
I just got these images from a Google search, but we did take a lot of pictures while we were there.  We didn't see any ghosts, or get any kind of eerie feelings, so maybe they were all taking a break for the day.  The tour guide said you pretty much can't stay one night there without hearing strange noises or being woken up in the middle of the night!

It made me really want to read The Shining by Steven King.  I knew that the book was based by his experience at this hotel, but I didn't know how crazy of a circumstance it was.  I guess he was teaching at a college at the time, and had writer's block.  He stayed the night in Room 217 and had some pretty wacky dreams and experiences there.  When he got home, he wrote The Shining in 7 DAYS.  Wowza!  I've always loved the movie by Stanley Krubrick, but I know he took a lot of creative license with the story.  I would love to read the original and get my own take on it! 

Tonight John and I are having our FIRST Halloween Trick-or-Treaters this evening, which I'm SO excited about.  I think I'm going to throw on my Minnie Mouse costume that I bought for a party a couple of years ago just for fun.  I can't really wear the costume I wore on Saturday - it's not really "kid appropriate".  HA!  

HAVE A WONDERFUL (and safe) HALLOWEEN!! :)  

Halloweenie!

I'm LOVING this time of year, BIG TIME!!  

Remember last year in this post when I talked about all of the fun ways I was celebrating Halloween in 2010?  Well, here we go again for 2011!

Firstly - I rented pretty much every classic horror movie I could find.  Friday the 13th, Halloween, Poltergeist, Aliens, The Lost Boys, The House on Haunted Hill, Nightmare on Elm Street. Some I've seen, some I haven't - so I'm getting all caught up!  Last night I watched The Lost Boys, as it's been a while, and I had to revisit my favorite 80's vampire flick.  

 

You know what's creepy too?  I totally used to date a guy who looked exactly like Keifer Sutherland in this movie.  It's really weird.  And kind of awesome.  Needless to say, he was a bit of a "bad boy".  And kind of a dick.  Maybe I actually DID date this character??

A bunch of my friends and I are headed to a big HUGE Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch this weekend out in the boonies, and I can't WAIT!!  There's going to be hay rides, a petting zoo, mazes, (or maizes?  I'm hilarious), pumpkin picking, and hot apple cider.  LOVE IT! 

Speaking of apple cider... 

I stopped at the Market yesterday near my work, and picked up a steaming hot cup of apple cider to read our fantastic book club book "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  It's a strange and eerie novel, but beautifully written, and I absolutely love the characters.  I'm so excited to talk about this one at our next meeting! 
 

Oh, and they give you a whole cinnamon stick with your cider when you get it at this place.  Isn't that rad?

Coming soon (ie - next weekend) will be the Zombie Crawl, which I'm definitely attending - then the Zombie VS Vampires roller derby bout which I'm excited to watch!  I've still been on a bit of a hiatus from derby (takin' a big ol' break), but I'm excited to cheer my girls on. :) 

The weekend after that is HALLOWEEN of course!  We're doing some pumpkin carving, then having our big party!!  I'm so excited.  On top of that, we're also going to drive up to Estes Park and check out the Stanley Hotel - the inspiration for Steven King's book The Shining.  

I have actually been here once before, but I didn't get to take a tour unfortunately.  This time around though, we got tickets to go on a "Ghost & History Tour" which I'm SO excited about!  I love learning about historical locations (huge nerd right here), and ghosts too??  So fun! 

Hopefully we can avoid this guy while we're there.... 

I need to keep working on getting my costume in order, which has been a bit of a challenge since I've been on such a serious budget.  But hopefully I can make it work!  I can't wait for you all to see it. :) 

HAPPY MONTH-OF-HALLOWEEEN!! :D

Halloween PARTY - Decorating Ideas

I know - not for another month... well more than a month.  But I LOVE Halloween!  

This year me and my fella are throwing a big party, which will be a ton of fun.  I really want to go all out without spending a bunch of dough, so that means I'll need to get pretty crafty.  

I found some great ideas on Martha Stewart's website (which about half of the pictures below are from).  Any more ideas??  Anything would be helpful! 

I think this is a fantastic idea - and so simple!  All it would take is some black paper, a bit of time with scissors, and some tape.  And it looks almost pretty if you ask me! 

This idea would be awesome... if I still drank milk.  Well, I do drink Almond and Soymilk, but those cartons probably wouldn't work quite as well.  Darnit!

 

I kind of LOVE this idea.  On Martha's website she wants you to make the "mirror" yourself, but I bet just cutting out paper eyes and sticking them to the bathroom mirror would work just as well. 

I love the look of these fake ravens everywhere.  The only thing is that fake birds can get pretty pricey.  Maybe I could create a similar effect with cardboard birds?? 

 

This is great if most of the light for your party is coming from candles - any other light in the room wouldn't make the shadows.  It's a neat idea though! 

I think this is absolutely hilarious!!  

 

 

I think my favorites in this one are the owls.  You'll have to check out Martha's website on how to make 'em though! 

I think these apple "shrunken heads" are a total riot.  And pretty darn cheap to make too!  

OH, and just so you know - this is who I'm thinking of being for Halloween.  It's going to be quite a challenge, but I think I'm up for it!  What's even more hilarious is that John might be going as the exact same person.  Which is even more awesome. :)