Thoughts on my mind

I have several thoughts that given time I would like to share. These include:

1. Reef Club Cozumel conditions and service (Reef Regency, Wyndham)
   
2. Promises to see whale sharks off Yucatan
3. Vacationing without the rest of the family
4. New 2009 Nissan Sentra (window tinting, Car Toys Alarm system, chrome wheels)
   

These are the topics on my mind.

Stanley Hotel - Estes Park Colorado

We waited until today to drive our new 2009 Nissan Sentra up to Estes Park, Colorado. We bought the car three days ago and it's rained every day since with really cool temps. We really lucked out and the choice to go today proved ideal. What a wonderful trip into the mountains in our new car. The car performed flawlessly throughout the trip and had no problems with the climb.

If you have never been to Estes Park you need to make plans now. This place is why we live in Colorado. The views going through the mountains are unbelievable, then you get to Estes Park and they become breathless. Needless to say, we went with plans to see the Stanley Hotel. We were not disappointed! This hotel, where Steven King spent a vacation contemplating "The Shining" is absolutely beautiful. Most people don't realize that the version of the movie "The Shining" starring Jack Nicholson was not shot at the Stanley hotel. However, they did everything they could to make it appear that it was used in the movie. Once you've seen the hotel and how it is nestled right in the town of Estes Park, you realize there is no maze in front of the hotel and something is amiss. A later version of the story, shot for TV, was actually shot at the Stanley hotel in Estes Park. Both movie versions of the story are available in the hotel's gift shop.

We had a really wonderful day in Estes Park, about an hour and a half North of our unincorporated Jefferson County home.

Must Be Fair with Cheap-O-Air

I really need to be fair with Cheap-O-Air. I checked for the cheapest airfares to Cozumel for our July 4 trip on June 30th. I tried everything I could think of including Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, CheapTickets, Cheap Airfare, etc. All of them wanted $650 plus per person round trip. Only Cheap-O-Air gave a round trip air fare of $381. After the Albuquerque experience I was leery, but low and behold they came through like a champ. Even exceeded their own expectations when they gave me some warning that some of the tickets were not electronic and had to be mailed. After clearing this up the night before leaving, we had all-electronic tickets round trip. Arrived at DIA sleepy and Continental said because it was a holiday (July 4th) we could upgrade to first class for $75/per person/per segment. We took that deal and really enjoyed the flight through Houston.

The only issue we had with the travel on this trip was our plane out of Cozumel airport was delayed more than four (4) hours! The delay was Delta's fault, not Cheap-O-Airs. If you've ever been to Cozumel by plane, you know there is not much to do at the airport so the delay was boring, and given that I was sick for two (2) days with stomach cramps etc., I was miserable. Our connecting Frontier flight out of Atlanta left two hours before we arrived. Delta in COZ told us that they would put us up for the night in Atlanta. However, when we went through customs and checked with Delta in Atlanta, they told us we had 15 minutes to catch our Delta flight to Denver. Rushing through the Atlanta airport we made the flight and a nice lady even gave me her isle seat. By this time I was feeling REALLY sick and developed shivers with chattering teeth. My wife showed her concern by demanding that I stop shaking because it was annoying her. Welcome to 37 years of marriage.