Estes Park, Colorado
Hi All!
I’m sure you received or have seen Marcy’s email about Estes Park, Colorado for the family reunion.
After doing a bit more research (thank you, Rita!!!) it seems that Elkhorn Lodge is a bit down on its luck and probably a bit more “rustic” than we’re looking for… YMCA of the Rockies is extremely kid-friendly and has tons and tons of stuff to do.
Below is Marcy’s email with a bit more of my editorializing after!
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Hi Family,
As an alternative to the places proposed for the family reunion 2010, I would like to propose two additional locations. They are in Estes Park, Colorado, available in July 2010 (at this time) and have sufficient space for a large family reunion. They are:
1. Elkhorn Lodge and Guest Ranch, Estes Park, Colorado. http://www.elkhornlodge.org/groups.html
2. YMCA-Rockies at Estes Park, Colorado. http://ymcarockies.org/home/what-we-offer/reunions-Colorado/family-reunion-university
Why am I proposing these options? I thought if we could find a place that could accommodate the amount of people in our extended family, easier to get to for those traveling great distances, a location that allows us to visit like we did at Ft. Robinson, has plenty of activities, then this might work. If you look at the websites you can see what each facility has to offer and the cost of staying there. It is really hard to do a cost estimate without having all the data on the number of people, ages, etc., but roughly, the Ekhorn Lodge would be $500-600 (excluding meals) for each family unit. They charge by buildings like Ft. Robinson. The YMCA-Rockies would be about $800 for a family unit of four (includes 3 meals a day). They charge by individual so harder to estimate. Take a look at their rate sheets posted on their sites. They are both located in the Rockies so altitude is approx. 8,000 ft.
If you think either of these places might be a viable alternative, please post your responses/comments on Tim Dineen’s website: http://dineen2010.com. Deadline is August 2 – this Sunday. Thank you.
Marcy (Dineen) Medeiros
Vacaville, CA
Travel Times (Google Maps):
It takes 8 hours and 24 minutes to drive from Omaha to Ft. Robinson.
It takes 8 hours and 17 minutes to drive from Omaha to Estes Park.
It takes 4 hours and 47 minutes to drive from Denver Airport to Ft. Robinson.
It takes 1 hour and 18 minutes to drive from Denver Airport to Estes Park.
It takes 17 hours and 57 minutes to drive from San Francisco to Estes Park.
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Current Poll
From looking at the poll numbers, it appears that there’s not as universal desire to head back to Nebraska for a fourth time as I first thought – the poll right now is:
Fort Robinson/FR prefer: 22 votes
Lake Tahoe/ LT prefer: 21 votes
There’s still another 36 or so hours to vote.
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Travel Time
Travel time is going to be an issue for almost everyone regardless of where a reunion is held. In her email, Marcy lists some very real travel times for westerner’s heading east, as well as from Omaha to FR and Estes Park. Victor and I have the option of either flying for 5 hours, renting a car and then driving for another 5 hours or flying into Denver, getting a hotel room for the night, and then renting the car and driving 5 hours. Neither option sounds really pleasant, right now…
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Omaha Reunion
Okay… I have to admit that when I first heard Tom mention Omaha, my initial response was thinking everyone outside of Nebraska would just stay with everyone in Omaha and there would be no hotels to deal with (If someone wanted to stay at a hotel, that, of course, would be their personal choice). That would be incentive for the west coast folks to make it all the way back there. However, after reading a few more posts, I think I may have been wrong in that assumption.
Without the Omaha relatives literally hosting the rest of the family in Omaha, I don’t see an Omaha reunion as being feasible.
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Square One?!?
So… it appears we may be back at square one – but with the two options now being Estes Park and Fort Robinson – or the third option of just saying we tried.
We will come where ever the reunion is. Colorado would be great too. We love it there. We just want to see everyone so where ever the most people want to go, that’s where we will be. Love you all, Colleen