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Best Friday the 13th (& Valentine's Day) Ever

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By Sarah
Dan & I have been saying we should spend a night at the Stanley Hotel for years and we finally pulled it off this weekend! My wonderful parents held down the fort at home taking care of our girls. Kaelah handled being left much better than the dog did! Perhaps because she got to call us on the phone Saturday morning??? Meigou was so pathetic my dad went to PetSmart and bought her a new toy, if that tells you anything. And I was rather proud of myself for handling a night away from Kaelah for the very first time so well.
View from the hotel. The Stanley is turning 100 years old this year and is nice & old & creaky. The weather was a little overcast too, and all this combined made for a great ghost tour on Friday the 13th. Our tour guide, Joshua, did a fantastic job and totally freaked out all the believers in the group. I got locked in Room 401's closet where Lord Dunraven's ghost lives. Joshua explained that the ghost didn't bother me because my wedding ring is impossible to pick pocket & because my husband is almost 9' tall. lol. I must admit the hair stood up on my arms just listening to what a sleaze the guy was. The Stanley's Dining Hall is named after the man who got Lord Dunraven sent back to England. Take that, Brits! (:

I highly recommend a trip to the Stanley Hotel. Great R&R and everything you need right there. We had a couples massage on Valentine's Day (the first time for both of us) and I can tell exactly what Dan wants for Father's Day: another massage! Oh, but do avoid the antipasto at the restaurant (unless you already know you love that stuff). I accidentally ordered it as my entree and hated it so much Dan switched plates with me half way through dinner. He still amazes me at how caring & wonderful he is all the time!!! We even had one employee ask us if we were on our honeymoon. Awww....
Famous Room 217 (on the ghost tour). Theodore Roosevelt, the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown, Jim Carey, and of course, Stephen King stayed in this room, now haunted by Maid Elizabeth Wilson. The Stanley Hotel was the inspiration for Stephen King's The Shinning back in it's more run-down days in the 1970s and was where The Shinning's mini-series was filmed (sticking much more to the book than the movie did b/c King wrote the screen play & produced it). Here's the TV in our room showing off Jack Nicholson. The movie The Shinning plays 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at the hotel. Too bad I don't watch R rated movies unless they are edited, eh? It was a great place for history and imagination to come alive. I'm so glad we went!

P.S. Here's a Wiki page for those of you who are interested in knowing more about F.O. Stanley and the hotel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Hotel

Comments

Kelly said…
Sounds like you were quite spoiled, and had a lot of fun. The first night away is pretty hard.
February 15, 2009 at 5:53 PM
Anonymous said…
That's my home town! :) The pictures make me miss it up there. I really didn't appreciate the beauty of Estes until I moved away. I've never stayed at the Stanley, but we had our prom there. Neat place! What a great Valentine's Day idea!
February 16, 2009 at 8:51 PM
Reggs said…
NO WAY!! I watched the tv version of The Shining when I had my wisdom teeth out and it scared me sooo bad!! It gave me the shivers knowing you were in that same hotel.
Of course, it's also pretty freaking cool!! Even though we live for our children, every now and then its nice to have a break and enjoy the spouse. :)
March 7, 2009 at 2:03 AM
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