Lunch@Penelope's

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Downtown Estes Park---a complete dive, to be sure, with mediocre service and not-cheap food, but it is the only place I know in the world with photographs of both Isabella Bird and Marilyn Monroe on the wall.

I was just about to head out of town when I realized how hungry I was after showshoeing, and I just had to visit my favorite hamburger joint. The place was crowded for lunch. I ordered an elk burger and fries and took one of the only tables left, all by my lonesome, while I waited for my order. Fortunately it was the one right below Isabella, where I always prefer to sit.

I was feeling a bit guilty about hogging up so much space, but then after about five minutes who should appear but my new friend Jonathan, who had come there independently.

While we waited for our food, I pointed at some of the old photographs on the wall. Jonathan is from Wisconsin and just moved out here last year. He asked me if I knew much about Colorado history. "Probably more than most people here," I said.

It was an unexpected pleasure, sharing lunch on a sunny winter day after so much exercise. I might have even said that it was the whole point of it all.