Denver recap, part 2

Going into this trip, I was interested in the makeup of downtown Denver. There are a mix of old and new buildings. There is some old school stone architecture and then there are modern skyscrapers a block away. Many buildings are vacant, yet as I saw the surrounding suburbs, it feels like Denver is growing quickly. As far as the people, many are thin, but there is a lot of ink on them. It's their choice, but getting a lot of tattoos is just not something I'm going to do. Fifty years from now, it's not gonna look so good. And I also find Colorado to be fiercely political. Between immigration and pot issues, people need to be prepared to defend their position on the hot topics.

Back to Day 3, which was Monday, not to mention Cinco de Mayo. We decided to spend the day in Colorado Springs, which is a little over an hour drive south from Denver. I bought everyone breakfast at Bruegger's (I went with egg whites, cheddar and sausage on a poppy seed bagel and an OJ) and we headed south on 25. The traffic was difficult getting out of Denver, but once we hit the burbs, it was smooth sailing. For the third straight day, we had amazing weather. 80 degrees and sunny. Couldn't ask for much better. Mom decided to arrange for us to take a cog railroad to the top of Pikes Peak. It was 9 when we arrived and we couldn't get in till 1:20, so we had some time to kill. 

First, we went to Garden of the Gods, one of the most popular parks in America. It's great for hiking, rock climbing, bicycling, strolling, etc. And it's free, which always helps. They also have a great trading post and gift shop. I wound up buying a Pike's Peak long sleeve t-shirt. It's black with a little orange and white. It just looks very fresh and very athletic. 

Lunch was approaching, so we drove five minutes to downtown Colorado Springs. We even passed by Air Force Academy on the way. We parked downtown and as soon as I got out, I saw a statue of Humpty Dumpty sitting on the ledge of a municipal building. I'm sure no matter how his summers go, he always has a great fall...Colorado Springs is also the home of the United States Olympic committee headquarters. Their building is right across the street from the place I had in mind to eat at. Since it was Cinco de Mayo, I wanted some Mexican food. Sonterra advertised themselves as having innovative Southwestern cuisine. And they made guacamole tableside. That sounded perfect to me. Only one issue, my father is 64 years old and has never eaten an avocado or a guacamole in his life. But he promised me he'd try out. We walked inside to a classy Mexican-themed atmosphere. We ordered the guacamole and our server, Brent, mixed 1.5 avocadoes with onion, cilantro, lime, and pico. All three of us loved it. I don't think Dad wanted to admit how much he liked it, but I could tell he was genuinely surprised by the look on his face. Needing a break from red meat, I got pollo asada, chicken topped with chimichurri and Mexican cotija cheese. It also had cilantro-lime rice, grilled onions, and a tortilla for doing. Just an excellent dish and I would be happy to order it again. Dad got an order of St Louis ribs topped with a pineapple salsa and tobacco fried onions. He really enjoyed them too. Safe to say, I opened my Dad up to liking Mexican food, if only a little bit.

We headed ten minutes west, back into Manitou Springs to board the train at 1. We climbed from around 6,000 feet to 14,100 feet in under 90 minutes. The entire trip covered 8.9 miles of land and we climbed at 24 percent upgrade at some points. That is a brutally steep climb. We had great views of waterfalls, mountains, ponds, grassy hills, and even the states of Kansas and New Mexico. For animals, we saw some sheep and groundhogs. I had been told it would be much colder at the top. Indeed it was; the wind chill was around 6. Now coming from Chicago, that's like springtime. I put on my new shirt and a gray thermal shirt as well and I was fine. We spent about a half hour at the summit before boarding the train for the ride back down. I actually slept most of the way back. As I woke up, I realized my ears had that popping feeling. I was pretty tired, as we all were.

It was 4:30, so we headed back north to Denver. We stopped in Castle Rock, a nice developing suburb and had dinner at Siena, an Italian restaurant. We sat outside, right near a fountain. A couple of times, the wind blew the fountain water on my father. I must admit, I found it pretty funny. Siena has excellent Italian bread, soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Dad got his typical order of linguini and white clam sauce with no butter and no cheese. I got chicken parmesan and wasn't too impressed. The marinara sauce was orange, probably from all the parmesan in it. The presentation was beautiful with the spaghetti under the chicken and a layer of cheese covering the chicken. As for Mom, well, she got the fish special. It was a Hawaiian butterfish and she said it was one of the best dishes she ever had. Coming from her, that is some seriously high praise. I also had my only dessert of the trip, a slice of key lime cheesecake with a tropical fruit compote and crispy macadamia nut brittle. I liked it, especially with the crispness of the brittle. We were all pretty happy until we got the bill and saw it exceeded $100. That fish dish cost $36 and we weren't told that in advance. It was even more expensive than the New York strip steak.

I admit during dinner, I checked in on the Rangers second playoff game in as many nights. What a joke. The Rangers couldn't score for the second straight game against Pittsburgh and fall behind in the series 2-1. And if that wasn’t bad enough, we had the Mets. Ahhhhh yes. The Mets blew a 3-0 lead in the eighth inning and fell to Miami 4-3. We got back to the room and knowing how early we were getting up, I didn't think any of us wanted to do anything. Both my parents were asleep by 8:30. I wasn’t at all ready to sleep, so I watched the last hour of Raw. The Shield vs. the Wyatt Family is always entertaining. I turned in around 10:30. I struggled to sleep, I felt dirty and I just could not relax. Maybe it was because I feel the need to start applying for jobs. Maybe it was just fatigue. Maybe it was the altitude. But I didn't even brush my teeth because I didn't want to wake anyone up.

I woke up at 4 and we were all ready to check out within an hour. Sidenote: A little organization helps reduce lateness. Anyway, we drove a half hour east on 70 to drop dad off at the airport, only to turn around and drive an hour west to Golden, home of the Coors brewery. Well we didn't go there, but that's ok. Mom’s just not a beer drinker. At six am, we didn't have many breakfast options. It was just Einstein bagels. This time, I had eggs, cheddar, and turkey sausage on a pretzel bagel. Excellent. With access to free wifi, I finally checked my email after four days away from it. And I still didn't miss much!

We went south to the town of Morrison, home of the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre. It is so picturesque between the colors and the sightlines. I would really like to go see a concert there one day, but I’d also like to attend one of their Easter sunrise services. We also visited the grave of Buffalo Bill Cody. We wanted to see the buffalo overlook so I could take some pictures of live buffalo, but we never could find it.

Without anything else going on, we thought we’d head back to the Denver airport early and try to catch the earlier plane home. It still amazes me how far from civilization this airport is. They need to finish building that train from the airport to downtown. Anyway, there were no good food options in the main terminal, so we headed towards security, planning to get food at Concourse A. Well, that took a little longer than we expected. Mom always is able to access through security through the employee entrance. She couldn’t find it this time. It was listed on a sign in tiny print, so tiny that we both missed it. So we got on line and even though there weren’t too many people on line, I noticed they were moving through very slowly. They basically had just two people handling the body scanners and pat downs. I have been through that scanning machine at least 50 times in my life now. I have never had to be inside it for more than five seconds. This time, I had to stand in the scanning machine for a full minute. I could only look outside at the other passengers waiting to get in and shrug. Even worse, we were so far behind that our items were going through security and we couldn’t get to them for a few minutes. This is an excellent opportunity for items to get stolen. The Denver airport is just very poorly organized, I’m sorry.

Anyway, we really wanted to eat some buffalo burgers and we went to Mesa Verde for lunch. We both ordered burgers with cheddar, bacon, and guacamole. I have to say they were delicious. The burger was big and juicy and it came with several slices of tomato, romaine lettuce, thinly sliced red onions, two slices of jalapeno, and a big pickle spear. Every ingredient was well planned. I was very satisfied. We also got these amazing onion strings. It is so easy to mess these up. But these were done properly. Not only were they not greasy, but they were crisp and well seasoned. That said, I need some serious time in the gym and produce and seafood back in my diet.

I am now on the ground and I can't wait to get off this plane and away from these two screaming boys in the seats in front of me. They’ve been going at it for the last two hours. I should have asked them if they wanted to go swimming in the water in the men’s room.