We had a great time in Colorado this past weekend. We crammed a lot of relaxing into four days!

Friday, September 22:

We arrived late Thursday night, took the shuttle home, and went straight to bed. Friday morning, we were greeted with a breakfast of peach and banana crepes, sausage, and eggs over easy on toast (fortuitously, my stepdad, Alan, happened to be visiting at the same time as us, and he fed us very well while we were there).

Later that day, we walked downtown and had lunch at Coopersmith's (yum, tomato mushroom bisque!). We walked around the Co-op with my mom and Alan. There was so much good stuff there, and a whole room full of bulk food bins! I wish we had a co-op where we live. It seems like we should.

We tried to go to Brave New Wheel to look at bikes, but as soon as we walked inside, the owner (I assume) followed us in and asked us if he could help us outside. It was very odd, since we just wanted to look around, which we could not do while standing outside. I think he was the only one working there, and he didn't want to leave us unattended inside while he helped a customer outside. Whatever his intention, we felt unwelcome, and so we left without looking around. Too bad!

Patrick and I went to Life of the Party (our local party supply and costume store) to look for something to wear to the Tour de Fat the next day. We weren't the only ones. There were a lot of girls trying on costumes (sexy referee, sexy pirate, sexy girl scout, etc.), but it was supposed to be cold and rainy the next day, so I decided to dress a little more warmly.

In the end, I didn't find anything that I wanted to wear, though I did find a cute knit hat that I want to try and copy sometime this fall. Patrick got some sweet Elvis sunglasses to wear the next day.

Once home, I rifled through our stash of old costumes and decided to stick some bunny ears on my helmet and call it good. We had a yummy dinner of lasagna with Boston cream pie for dessert.

Saturday, September 23:

Saturday was our busiest day; we had a good time! We started the day by riding borrowed bikes to Lucile's to have breakfast with my dad and Vicki (stepmom). I wore my helmet with bunny ears attached, which Patrick found amusing. It was a chilly morning, but we didn't have to ride far to get there.

I'd never been to Lucile's, but I'd definitely like to return in the future! It was small and full of people, and the food was great! We started by splitting an order of beignets, hot, golden and covered with powdered sugar. I had spiced tea, scrambled eggs, grits and a gigantic buttermilk biscuit with jam. A good way to start the day!

After breakfast, we headed for New Belgium Brewery, to attend the Tour de Fat! We were close enough to just ride over, which was convenient. Our accessories were nothing compared to the awesome costumes people had put together, but at least we weren't totally normal-looking. There were a ton of cool bikes to look at. I was especially impressed by five or so very tall bikes manned by well-dressed young men. They had to ride at the back of the parade, since they required a bit more effort to start and stop. We milled around in the cold for awhile, and then the bike parade started (very slowly, as there were hundreds--thousands?--of bikes involved).

The bike parade went around downtown Fort Collins, and it was great fun! We got to ride down College Ave (one of the bigger streets in town) while lines of cars waited for the parade to go by. The drivers seemed to be cool with the wait, for the most part. We enjoyed being a part of it. As we rode past Lucile's, we saw our waitress from that morning waving at the parade.

Eventually the parade returned to New Belgium, and the kegs were tapped (they had a semi truck parked there with taps protruding from the side of the truck!). We had to wait in line for a wristband and beer tokens (for Patrick; I'm still not a beer fan), but it didn't take too long. We ate lunch (burrito for me, brat and kraut for Patrick) and looked at all the costumes. My favorites were a girl dressed as Max from Where the Wild Things Are (a very good choice, given the frigid weather) and a couple wearing monkey and dinosaur vests. I tried to get good pictures of the costumes, but people kept walking in front of me (the nerve!).

I was very excited to see The Ditty Bops perform, and I was not disappointed. I would've liked them to perform even longer! They were both wearing oversized men's trousers with buttons on the front and suspenders attached, which looked totally cute on them. It was a fun performance. I didn't get any good pictures of them performing, but I did get this picture of them relaxing after the show (hopefully they don't mind people they don't know taking pictures of them). I especially liked Amanda's hat (turquoise knit hat with pearls) here. You see what I mean about people walking in front of my camera when I was trying to take pictures?

I bought one of their 2006 bicycle bikini calendars after the show. True, the year is almost over, but we can reuse the pictures and just ignore the calendar part. I was too chicken to go up to them and say hi. That happens a lot.

A little later, we watched the Yard Dogs (noisy website!). They performed some circus acts, some burlesque, and some music. It turned out to be pretty entertaining, though odd. It made me want to dress up all fancy and play the accordion! I was particularly impressed by Tobias, who swallowed a variety of things and produced a real live chicken out of nowhere. Magic! I kind of wanted to go down to Boulder the next night to see their unabridged performance.

Toward the end of the day it was getting especially cold, so we bought a hot chocolate, which hit the spot. And then we bought a Tour de Fat belt buckle for Patrick and headed home, where it was warm! We had pork stir fry and fruit salad for dinner, with a strawberry trifle for dessert. The trifle involved strawberry Jello, which seemed a little unorthodox, but it was really good!

Sunday, September 24:

Sunday was slow and relaxed. I'll just have to list what we ate, as not much else happened. We enjoyed a breakfast of corned beef hash with eggs on toast (this time using Alan's special multi-grain bread, which is really good--I wish I had some right now!). Patrick and I went to Beau Jo's for lunch and sat out on the patio, enjoying the beautiful weather (so unpredictable, that Colorado weather!). Back at home, we napped for awhile, and then dad, Vicki, Matt (stepbrother) and Erin (stepbrother's girlfriend) came over. Alan made fajitas for dinner (with tortillas made from scratch) and chocolate pudding pie for dessert (three different desserts in three days--we were so spoiled!). It was nice having dinner and talking with everybody; it made us want to have more dinner parties at our place.

Monday, September 25:

On Monday, we went looking for cowboy boots for me (I'm mildly interested in acquiring a pair, though I'd feel kind of bad wearing cowboy boots and not having anything to do with actual cows). I tried on a few pairs but didn't end up buying any. Later on, at the airport, there was a girl in front of us in the security line who was wearing a brand new pair of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. I'm pretty sure she had bought them for the same reason I'm interested in them--for fashion reasons only. I wanted to compliment her on her choice of boots, but she got pulled out of line because she had a giant crystal vase in her carry-on, which didn't sit well with the screener.

We had an Indian buffet lunch at Taj Mahal (currently the only Indian restaurant in Fort Collins). Yum! We also stopped by Choice City Butcher and Deli on our way home, which I'd never been to before. I definitely want to go there for lunch next time we're in town. I really liked the ambiance, and the meat selection looked good (they had sausages made with New Belgium beer!).

All too soon, it was time to fly back home to California. It was a great visit though, and it was so nice seeing my family for a few days. I'm lucky!