Joe, Amber and I just spent a wonderful three day weekend in Grand Lake, Colorado. If you've never been there you should go. I can't believe it's been so long (almost 6 years) since we were last there. I'd forgotten how special of a place it can be and this trip didn't fail to remind me of that.
The day actually started off with a trip to Johnson's Corner for breakfast. Yum! We had just received our breakfast when a large contingency of motorcycles pulled up into the parking lot. Not just any motorcycles mind you (that wouldn't warrant a notation in the blog), but a group of women who I'm sure put black leather, pink and bling on the map! They were so impressive that not one consumer in the place was focused on their food.
They were the "Women Who Ride". A group of extraordinary women who ride for breast cancer (Gowitheflo.org). When we met them they told Amber that they had raised $24,000 for Breast Cancer. You go girls! I'm in awe of all of you. Keep you eyes posted. They took a photo with Amber (showing her tattoo). We hope to see it on their blog!
The drive was beautiful and uneventful. No traffic, no accidents, no bad weather. Just a slight hold up on Trail Ridge where they are ripping up the road! Yikes! Plan on adding some time to your trip if you take Trail Ridge this summer.
We arrived at our hotel just at the end of the Main St. Grand Lake and unpacked for the night. Nice little log cabin type hotel. Nothing fancy. Just a place to crash. Then we went into town.
Pretty quiet since it was a Friday afternoon. We hit a few stores and then found a place to have dinner and a cocktail and to relax a bit from the drive. Nice dinner...very good food. Now on to more shopping!
We came across an amazing little shop...it had shoes in it! OK...not just shoes but shoes, bags, blankets, rugs, and jewelry. The shoes had handwoven stitching and leather on them. They were beautiful. The store manager, Omer, was pleasant and tried very hard to sell. Amber and I are easy targets for shoes but we were not quite ready to buy. But, the story doesn't end there. Stay tuned.
Just outside of Omer's store was an amazing set up of hand made garden statuary's, flowers, garden arches, parts of old fences, wooden boxes...well, look at the photo. You'll see. But we didn't know where it all came from. The store behind it was an interior designs store. Lovely stuff but not our style. So we moved on.
We cruised the rest of the small main avenue and saw one of the decorative garden stakes that we had seen in the garden display earlier. Now I was on a mission. I had to find out where those items came from. So we went back to where we started and Omer told us to go to the back of the interior design store and that's where we would find them. Bingo! There they were. Rabbits, pelicans, cowboys, lighthouses, butterflies, goats, chickens, roosters! All kinds of wonderful, whimsical outside decorative items! I was in heaven! OK...I was only in the "backyard" of the store but it was filled with so much fun!
We picked up a couple of items, a rooster and a rabbit. They are made out of old car parts and full of color. We couldn't resist. Now to plan a place to put them. Mental plan in the works.
While Joe and I were outside of the store Amber was inside chatting with the store manager. They became fast friends and Amber ended up telling her a little bit about herself and her situation. This is where the Spirit of Love and Generosity part of the story begins.
Amber's new friend, Marjorie, had an instant bond with Amber. She wanted to know more about her and invited her to spend a weekend back in Grand Lake at her Bed and Breakfast and for Amber to attend one of her workshops....for free. Marjorie is not only a talented interior designer but creates beautiful paintings as well. This put Amber on the moon. That someone she had just met would make such a generous offer. But, it continues on.
Marjorie took Amber next door to Omer's store and purchased for her a beautiful pashmina scarf and wrapped her in it. She also gave her a book called Heaven which was so appropriate. Marjorie was an angel sent to Grand Lake to be there to spoil Amber and that is what she did. Amber was so overwhelmed and surprised. None of us could believe the spirit and generosity of this women. We visited for awhile longer and went on our way. Amber (and Joe and I) were a little stunned by the moments we had just experienced.
We strolled a little further down the row of shops and decided we were a little tired and drained from the experience so we headed back to our hotel.
As we did, Omer stepped out of his store and asked us to step in. He asked Amber which pair of shoes sh had been looking at in his store. She pointed them out, he took them off the shelf and asked him to come with her to the register. He rang them in, wrote them up and gave them to her.....for free. OK...almost for free. That was his intentions but Amber wouldn't let him. She said she couldn't let him just give them to her. She asked how much, he said zero. She insisted, he responded. $10. That's all he would let her pay. This was a 90% savings for Amber and a 100% emotional boost. She was now over the moon and could not believe what had happened to her in downtown Grand Lake. Neither could we.
The rest of the weekend somewhat paled in comparison to our first few hours there but we still had an incredible time.
We moved locations to just outside of town to a place called Winding River Resort. Not as glammy as the name sounds but it's where we would spend the morning running ATV's up and down the mountain. It's a nice place for riding horses, renting ATVs, chuck wagon meals, and ice cream socials. We were to tired to participate after the morning of ATVs and going back into town so we stopped at the store, picked up some items to make dinner and crashed for the evening.
Sunday was a nice drive down the mountain to pick up Claire from her Grandparents and Taiko from my moms. It was nice to be home. The house is quiet, comfortable and...well, home. Aaaaahhhh.
