We spent our wedding night back at home, figuring if we would arrive to a hotel so late that we likely would be too tired to enjoy it. We also wanted to take the opportunity with visit with all of our family and friends as well, which led to Sunday’s Brunch at my mom’s house. We were able to share some informal time playing yard games, eating yummy casseroles and opening our wedding gifts. We couldn’t have asked for a more relaxing day after the wedding.
After sharing in the family festivities, we made our way up to Estes Park. We had a night’s stay saved up at Mary’s Lake Lodge and thought Sunday night would be the best night to use it. We’ve also heard the stories from other newly-weds about the benefits of mentioning your Honeymoon, but wanted to find a way to mention it without sounding too forward. We thought of a sneaky way to do this at Mary’s Lake Lodge, by asking them if they had any restaurant recommendations for a couple on the first night of their Honeymoon. We quickly scrapped that idea when we realized they have two restaurants of their own. We cut our losses and tried to get into our room, only to find that the room key wasn’t working. I went down and had them re-key my card, only to find it still wasn’t working. Bethany and I went back down and while the manager was trying to re-key it once again, they jokingly made the comment “We want you guys to stay here, really”. Bethany responded with “We really want to stay here too, as we’re starting out Honeymoon.” Both desk attendants wished us congratulations and we went up with the manager to try this key again. After another unsuccessful attempt, the manager came back and said that rather than have us wait to fix the lock on the door, they’d go ahead and upgrade us to a suite (being that we’re on our Honeymoon and all). The room was fantastic!
We went back down to Estes to eat dinner at Mama Rosa’s, an Italian restaurant. Bethany had a trio pasta with a Riesling wine flight (a sample of three), and I decided to have lasagna and try scotch for the first time with their scotch flight. I’m not sure if I’m a scotch person, as it’s definitely an acquired taste. We ate and drank very well, and Bethany skipped the last glass of Riesling so that she could drive us home. We then spent the evening opening all of our wedding cards, reading every single one. We were blown away with the wonderful words and generosity of our family and friends!
The next morning we awoke to continental breakfast in bed and checked out of the hotel. Our friends Jamie, Dain and Sara gave us their week-long pass to Rocky Mountain National Park, so we drove out to Bear Lake. Bethany got some great pictures along the way:
When we got to Bear Lake, we found out that the parking lot was full (surprisingly for a Monday morning), preventing us from doing any quick strolls around the lake. We drove back into town and stopped for a quick photo-op:
Back in Estes we went to Penelope’s (a great burger joint) for lunch, then walked down to get some salt water taffy and made our way back home.
While this wasn’t officially part of the Honeymoon, this gave a great taste of what we get to look forward to later this week, and definitely a wonderful way to spend our second night as husband and wife!
