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<\/a>We should have known how the weekend was going to go when we arrived at our hotel.\u00a0 We belong to several hotel reward programs, something that anyone who travels frequently knows is an absolute must, and used points to book our room for the weekend.\u00a0 When we arrived at our hotel, we were told that our room was on the first floor, which is opposite of our preference as we prefer to be on the highest floor possible, we don’t like the noise of people above us.\u00a0 When we asked for a different room, we were told that we were in a smoking room and those are only located on the first floor.\u00a0 Our jaws hit the floor.\u00a0 We both have asthma and absolutely cannot stay in a smoking room, seriously didn’t even think there was such a think as a smoking room in this day and age.\u00a0 Then the next surprise, because of the holiday weekend, the hotel was sold out and this was the only room they had available.\u00a0 We were staying at a Hilton property, so we asked if there was another hotel in the Hilton family that might have rooms available, which there was, so they called and confirmed availability.\u00a0 However, since we were using points, we had to call the corporate offices, have our current reservation cancelled, redeposit the points, and make a new reservation, which was now not in a suite as we had originally booked.\u00a0 At least we had a room, so after an hour of dealing with the reservations, we were driving to our new hotel.\u00a0 Once there, the staff couldn’t have been nicer, they upgraded us to a suite and let us know that there was a complimentary shuttle to take us to the Pearl Street Mall, which is the heart of the shopping and restaurant district in Boulder.\u00a0 We dropped our bags off in our room and took advantage of the shuttle to go grab a bite to eat and enjoy happy hour at West Flanders Brewing Company, which was celebrating having just won two gold medals for their IPA at the Colorado State Fair.\u00a0 Maybe this weekend wasn’t going to be bad after all.<\/p>\n<\/a>The next morning, we woke up and tossed our camelback and camera into the car and headed off towards Rocky Mountain National Park.\u00a0 As soon as we hit the small town of Lyons, we should have known what we were in for.\u00a0 Traffic was at a crawl as we made our way closer and closer to the only light in town where the local fire department was collecting donations for the annual “fill the boot” campaign.\u00a0\u00a0 Once through the town, our pace picked back up and we thought things were back on track.\u00a0 As we neared Estes Park, the town just outside of the park entrance, we realized how foolish we were to think that we were going to get away from the crowds and get into nature.\u00a0 It seemed as though every other person in Colorado had the same idea as us.\u00a0 Another agonizing traffic jam as we moved through the main street of\u00a0Estes Park lined with an art and craft fair, there was still some slim hope that people were there to visit Estes Park and not Rocky Mountain National Park.\u00a0 Once through town, we stopped at the visitor center just outside of the park to grab a trail map and talk to the ranger.\u00a0 There was a large group of hikers situated at a bus station outside of the visitor center, which we assumed were there for some sort of guided tour, we were about to find out otherwise.\u00a0\u00a0 The ranger quickly informed us that there was no parking available at any of the trailheads and that they were busing\u00a0hikers\u00a0in to a single trailhead.\u00a0 Over a thousand hikers on a trail, not exactly our idea of getting into nature.\u00a0 In addition to going to the park on a holiday weekend, it was also the park’s centennial celebration and there were over fifty-thousand (we heard a hundred-thousand) people at the celebration the night before.\u00a0 We promptly got back into the car and headed back to Boulder.<\/p>\n<\/a>After dealing with traffic and three hours driving back and forth, we were ready for a glass of wine.\u00a0 We took the shuttle back to Pearl Street and enjoyed some oysters at Jax Fish House.\u00a0 Pearl Street Mall is an outdoor shopping area that is closed to anything other than pedestrian traffic, which has a wonderful variety of restaurants, but on a holiday weekend, finding a seat without a reservation isn’t easy.\u00a0 We were lucky to get to Jax at just the right time, so we were able to get a seat at the bar.\u00a0 Only moments later there wasn’t a seat left in the place and reservations were booked solid until after 8:30 pm, so we weren’t about to give up our seats until we were done with dinner, which was a wonderful special of shrimp and grits.\u00a0\u00a0It was time to adjust our plans, so we enjoyed some people watching and the street performers that are all over the mall and decided that we would find a place near Boulder to go hiking the next day.<\/p>\n<\/a>We talked to the staff at the hotel and they recommended a trail that only the locals knew about, so after a quick lunch, we were finally going to get our long awaited hike.\u00a0 We ended up hiking Sunshine Canyon Trail and then connected to Lion’s Lair Trail, which turned out to be just what we were looking for.\u00a0 Although there were houses on the surrounding hills, we only came across a couple of other hikers, so we got the tranquility that we were hoping to get.\u00a0 After several hours of hiking, it was back to the hotel and\u00a0one final visit to Pearl Street.\u00a0 We love the oysters at Jax so much that we had to join them for happy hour once again.\u00a0 We walked the streets and enjoyed our final night of the weekend, finally relaxed and fulfilled.<\/p>\n