Almost everyone has heard of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo, right? It’s where Stephen King was inspired to write The Shining. Old, historic, haunted, yada, yada.
And as it happened, the kids took me to a Mother’s Day brunch in Estes yesterday. It was a gorgeous day, clear blue skies, about 70°, a light breeze, and the peaks, blanketed in heavy April snows, were at their most spectacular.
The most fun part of the day, however, was pure gaming geek bliss. The Son and DIL are playing Ingress, a new worldwide game from Google that’s still in closed beta (play by invitation only). It’s vaguely like electronic geocaching, where you use the GPS on your phone or tablet to find and capture locations designated as “portals.” There are two sides, or factions — the Enlightened (green, aka “Kermits”) and the Resistance (blue, aka “Smurfs”) — competing for control of portals and the areas between and around them.
Anyway, long story short, the Stanley Hotel is a portal, and when we arrived in Estes yesterday, it belonged to the Resistance, the other guys. Combining their resources, The Son and DIL attacked and captured the portal for “our” side, the Enlightened. Yay!!!! Three adults and two kids doing a victory dance in the middle of the Mother’s Day crowd on the Stanley Hotel’s front lawn. I’m sure people thought we were crazy.
I don’t know if I’d get out and about enough to play, but I’m sort of hoping The Son, when he returns from Google I/O at the end of the week, will have some Ingress invites to distribute … (but only to people willing to play as Kermits).
Dig it! Want to try out the game with my daughter, if she makes it through finals heh.
I adore the Stanley, although haven’t visited it or been in Estes Park for ten years.
Sounds like a blast. Thanks for passing this along 🙂
My DIL spent a night there about 6 months ago as part of some “ghost tour” package or something. $200 for the night. No ghosts. And no hot water!
Is that Stanley still needing renov? We stayed there one night when kid was really into ghosts – 15 years ago. The owner was strapped for cash and trying to get the city to help pay for renovations+ tax deals at that time.
It’s a great old hotel – but no AC (and that year it was 100 degrees). Love to sit on the veranda for drinks as often as possible. Just feels elegant. Hope someone decides to keep the old gal well dressed and in good repair. Definitely worth exploring.
What a great place for Mother’s Day ( and the game, too!)
We didn’t go inside (ate at Mary’s Lake Lodge). I’ve no idea who pays for renovations and upkeep on a place that’s on the National Register of Historic Places. I’d guess that retrofitting it for air conditioning would violate the historic structure in some way; and yes, I did notice all the windows upstairs were open. I learned some years ago that I can’t stay in Estes without A/C. Any building down in that valley with the sun beating down on it all day gets way too hot for me.
I did imagine sitting up there in the shade somewhere, looking out at that fabulous view, sipping on a tall cool something-or-other. It was relatively uncrowded too, compared to the main drag when we drove through there. I’ve never seen such crowds. Literally shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalks. Ugh! That’s why I usually bypass downtown completely.
Grrr, game is only available for Android? Was hoping to get an invite somehow but apparently that won’t help either. I sad. Imagined daughter and myself doing the same happy dance you enjoyed 🙂
I didn’t realize it was Android only. Maybe it’s just because you haven’t gotten an invitation yet? I assume at some point it will go into open beta and then be fully available to the public. It’s a fun game. While my son was driving, I was watching the map on his phone and could see when we passed by and picked up resources (complete with futuristic sound effects), which were later used to attack the portal and then set up a defense.
A belated Happy Mother’s Day to you PT. Sounds like you guys had a blast. I just love that Stanley Hotel image! 😀
Thx. As often as I’ve been to Estes, I don’t think I’d ever taken time to drive up and stop at the Stanley. Not surprisingly, the view from the front lawn is spectacular!
The minute I saw the image. I thought OH NO!! CREEEEEPY! LOL…wow, gaming sounds amazing, and it also sounds like a wonderful Mother’s day…happy belated Mother’s day 🙂
Thank you. The hotel didn’t look creepy up close (it was daytime, of course). More like an old dowager trying desperately to keep up appearances.
lolol!
Android rocks!! Sounds like fun, but not my kinda game.
We had fun together, but I’m too much of a couch potato to drive all over town to play the game myself.