The Shining

While we're in Colorado, we'll be staying at a house called Kingstone, just above Estes Park. It was the mountain retreat of one Kenneth King, Denver industrialist and man-about-town. Since his death, it's been used for retreats, meetings, reunions, and so forth. That's the normal part. Now for the rabbit hole.

For all I know, Mr. King was a very nice man in person, but as an architect, he was insane. No two rooms are built in the same style. Log cabin alongside Southern plantation house alongside '50s ranch style alongside Victorian parlor. One room has blood-red carpeting and walls covered with Civil War memorabilia. Another has all the woodwork minutely carved with the insignia of King's college fraternity. Still another has a boulder coming through the wall.

All of that would be bad enough, but it also feels like Mr. King is still there. Despite being in heavy public use for fifteen-plus years, nearly everything is pretty much where he left it. There are things in the back of the pantry older than I am. I swear I found his yearbooks sitting on a shelf. And of course, several larger-than-life portraits of the man stare down at you from unexpected corners. It's as close as I'll ever get to staying in the Winchester Mystery House: it's like he couldn't stop building, without any plan, until the day he died.

I took a few pictures on our last trip; they don't really capture the full horror, just details here and there. But look at them all, then remind yourself that they're all in the same house. Oh, and lest I forget: this place is just a few blocks from the real-life hotel that inspired "The Shining". Isn't that nice?