Rev it Up! 4-Wheel-driving the mountains of Colorado

Old slough used for mining.

So, my dear friend Gayle gave me a delightful book Guide to Colorado Backroads and 4-Wheel Drive Trails as a going away present.  I was actually very excited about this book since my husband is 1 part city boy, 1 part BBQ master, and 27 parts "backroads and 4-wheel-drive trail lover."

We were looking for a mountainy thing to do this weekend, especially to get away from the 100 degree weather, so we turned to Gayle's present.  This book categorizes trails as Easy, Moderate, and Difficult. Since the descriptions on most of the Difficult trails included terms like "probable roll overs and body damage"  we decided to try the trails marked Easy then work our way to the death trails.

We followed the Snake River a lot of the way, but this is a
creek that we had to cross twice.

However, according to the book Chihuahua Gulch trail looked amazing even with it's Moderate rating and TWO water crossings.

To be honest I'm not a huge 4-wheeling hobbyist.  I never saw the temptation of riding around rocks and cliffs while being tossed around the cab of a pick up like an old yogurt container. The kids and Kurt LOVE it so I usually just went along.  I was so clinched that I feel I ran a marathon instead of sitting in John Rambo (Kurt's truck).

Harp in John Rambo.

Yet after this trip I am hooked.  The scenery was breathtaking.  The thrill of water crossings and riding the edge of cliffs is like the ups and downs of a rollercoaster.  Next time we are finding one with a campsite and maybe even THREE water crossings.  It's an amazing way to see the glorious mountains of Colorado.

And if you don't buy it, just look at the pictures:

Indian Paintbrush

View from the top!

This is one of the wildflowers  we saw along
the trail.  Rocky Mountain Columbine
(the state flower).

One of the water crossings.  When we waded through it
reached up to Kurt's knees.  This did not deter my mighty
4-wheel companions.

Lakeside Amusement Park

While our cousins came over to see us all the way from Georgia, we were stranded at our house, trying to find something to do. We nearly hung ourselves, when I remembered a little amusement park called “Lakeside Amusement Park.” Built in 1908, it's only 2 miles from our house so we decided to set off right away, and after a short car trip, we reached the parking lot and paid the 2 dollar admission. After purchasing our tickets to the rides, we each set off. I spied a go-cart track, and immediately headed over. It was just a circular track with four carts and I swear they go at least 20mph. It was my favorite ride.  

               

There were two roller-coasters, and they were pretty fun. One roller-coaster was a traditional, 6 car, two-person-per-car, metal-track, roller-coaster.  What about the other one?  Its name was The Wild Chipmunk, which should tell you what decade it came from, and it was the weirdest roller-coaster I have ever seen. It’s just one-car, and you can only fit two people in that car. This ride was NOT fun. You feel like you’re going to fly off the track, and that’s before the first actual hill.

               

Next, we headed over to the area with the “Zoom.” And that’s basically this park’s version of the Panic Plunge. I was too scared to go on, but everyone else went on at least once. It wasn’t very fun for my Mom, who was crying the whole time.

After the Zoom, I went over to the Bumper Cars, which were definitely the best bumper cars I ever been on. You could only go one way, and they were FAST! After crashing into Mom a few hundred thousand times, the rain picked up, thus concluding our visit. All in all, it was a lot of fun.

Do I Sense a Chaaallennnge?

The ten minute walk with ten bucks lunch challenge

There are so many excellent looking restaurants in the Berkeley neighborhood we decided to throw down a $10 lunch challenge to see who could get the best lunch in our ‘hood for ten bucks or less. We figured it would not only help us decide on a new lunch spot for the fam, but also allow us to try 4 new restaurants. All of the restaurants were on Tennyson Street except for Tacos Jalisco, which is on 38^th, and are no more than a ten-minute walk from our house.

We started the challenge with Amanda’s choice at Swing Thai, .2 miles away from our house – about a five minute walk.

Walking in we noticed it very clean and classy with a modern Asian feel – in other words, no cheesy paper lanterns or metal chairs with red vinyl seats. We were greeted by a smiling hostess and seated immediately. The rest of us sat around like a bunch of sad-sacks while Amanda decided what to order. She decided on the Pad Thai and while it took quite a while to prepare, it was extremely hot and fresh when it arrived.

Amanda said it was the best Pad Thai she’d ever had. It had a nice hint of peanut and unlike most pad thai, was not overly sweet. She did order the mild and it could have used a little more kick – next time she’ll try medium.

Next we moseyed our way across the street to the Cozy Cottage. It was also .2 miles from home and google maps said it would have only taken us four minutes to walk here.

We were met at the door right away and Ainslee decided she wanted to sit outside. It was starting to get a little hot out, so the hostess moved a table into the shade for us.

This place had a huge menu, with tons of options under ten bucks. Ainslee narrowed it down to two options, the Cozy Blintzes with fruit and cream cheese and a classic cheeseburger. After a protracted pros and cons session – longer than death-row inmates take to decide on a last meal – she went with the burger.

The burger was big and dripping with juices, Harper (who was looking a little famished by this point) said it made him start foaming at the mouth. The burger had a big, beefy flavor that tasted more like a homemade patty than a bland restaurant hockey puck. Ains loaded it up with tomatoes, onions and lettuce and dug in, juices running down her chin the whole time.

Harper and I were feeling peckish by this point and couldn’t wait to dig in to our own lunches. Harper chose DJ’s Berkerly Café, which we mentioned in an earlier blog post. It was .4 miles and 8 minutes from the homestead.

DJ’s is a breakfast and brunch place, with lunch items limited to a few sandwiches. Inside, the exposed brick walls and humming duct work overhead give it a relaxed, loft feel and I can imagine this place being popular in Portland.

The waitress remembered us from our earlier visit and was as perky and Rachel Ray-like as ever. Harper went with the strawberry stuffed French toast, which is sort of a misnomer because it’s actually stuffed with strawberry cream cheese.

This was definitely the best tasting meal of the challenge. The French toast was deliciously sweet, without being cloying and the tangy cream cheese inside kicked it a few rungs up the flavor ladder.

By this time I was hungry enough to, as my step-dad from Maine likes to say, “eat the ass-end of a skunk and use his tail to wipe my face.”

We walked around the corner from DJ’s to Tacos Jalisco, also .4 miles and 8 minutes from Casa de Workman.

Walking in was like walking in to a restaurant that had been frozen in time in 1974 and was just thawed by a team of paleontologists. The cheesy décor, the placemats that try to make us bilingual, the booths that were a little to close and a little too high. Needless to say, I loved it.

I ordered the taco plate with two steak tacos and two tongue tacos. The waitress, who was a little surly but showed a lot of cleavage so I didn’t mind, brought us a basket of warm tortilla chips and an assortment of delicious salsas.

My tacos arrived steaming and sizzling, each one on two little corn tortillas – just the way they’re supposed to. They were very basic, meat, onions, cilantro and a lime to squeeze over the top. The steak tacos were a little more flavorful and tender than the tongue, but both were excellent.

The Winner

So, this challenge did have a winner and a loser. We devised a complicated criteria consisting of eight elements ranging from taste and presentation to price and distance from home. We assigned points in each category and chose the winner based on the results.

First place – Cozy Cottage

A combination of atmosphere, service, choices and distance from home made this the narrow victor.

Second Place – DJ’s Berkeley Café

Great service and delicious food made this a tough decision.

Third place – Swing Thai

Good atmosphere, excellent food and proximity to home made this an excellent choice.

Fourth Place – Tacos Jalisco

I totally lost it when I ordered the tongue tacos. The kids were too creeped out to give it high scores.

Winners – us!

For having so many excellent food choices within walking distance of our house.  The best part was freaking out the wait staff when only one of us ordered and the rest of us looked on drooling.

Heaven is a pancake

DJ's Berekley Cafe on Tennyson will blow your mind.  We didn't have any breakfast goods at home last Saturday (by which I mean no milk and cereal) so we took a walk to find us a good breakfast haunt.  The clouds parted and light shone down on DJ's.  First I was skeptical.  How can a cafe named after a character from Roseanne be any good, but alas I will not make that mistake again.

I had Crab cakes Ala Eggs Benedict that was freaking amazing.  Everything was homemade, the coffee was great, and the prices were decent.  And the waitress reminded me of Rachel Ray (less extreme annoyance factor, just really friendly and cute).

Not to mention Ainslee's breakfast:

three pancakes, all different kinds-banana walnut, blueberry, and chocolate chip/ hazelnut-this was a children's menu item so crazy cheap.  We were all fighting for bites.  I also demanded my food on a Mickey Mouse shaped plate, but Rachel Ray gave me a funny look and I dropped the issue.

So come visit and we will show you heaven, and it is indeed in a pancake.  Next time I'm trying the strawberry stuffed french toast.

It's already the 3rd post and I'm just now mentioning Goonies!?

Teachers become teachers because every year they get to experience one of the most thrilling, raw feelings known to mankind...the last day of school.

Remember that day?  It was one of the only days you got up without being told, brushed your teeth with vigor, kissed your mom, the dog, the goldfish because you were feeling so good!  Well teachers remember it, and they get to feel it every year.  Sometimes you can see a teacher skipping when the last day is close.  Sometimes you will find them giving everyone As, everyone.  Sometimes you will find them giggling when all alone in their room.  That's because the end of the year is magical.  You've made it.  You completed another year with both eyebrows, and no one finding out about that time you dropped the Fbomb.  It's why we go back after summer is over (and also because we are all nerds and enjoy the FIRST day of school just as much).

However, soon comes the summer blues.  A time when you feel a bit lost, a bit unstructured, a bit...bored.  This year it came early for me.  It might be because I now live in a large city where I know NO ONE, or it might be because I have to fit 2100 square feet of house into a house the size of a smurf mushroom, or maybe it's because I haven't lived in a city for 9 years and I feel a bit trapped and lost, or it might be because I don't have even a hint of a job, or it might be because I stopped doing heroin.  Whatever the reason I'm in a bit of a downer...which will come as a shock to some, and to some much glee because they are bitter about me leaving them.

So after a couple of days I'm tired of myself, and have to decided to fix the way I feel.  That's right I am going to do stock-car racing (suck it Danica Patrick)...no no no I'm too fragile.  I'm actually going to try some yoga.  You know, like the hippies, and my friend Jason.  So tomorrow (because I'm too busy on the interweb to do it today losers) I'm going to walk to the local Berkeley neighborhood Yoga den in my Goonies tshirt and tattered sweats and show those skinny, well toned women that I can bend as well as the next overweight librarian.  I'm going to find my inner Frodo and find peace and calm (and try to shut out the voices in my head).

I'll keep you posted.

Buying Back Your Games

Recently, we went over to the Farmers' Market on Wadsworth, and across the street, we spotted an awesome store, simply titled, "Buy Back Games." At said store, there was a wide selection of games, DVD's, and more! 

They had plenty of merchandise to keep any gamer satisfied for a life-time, whether you're 11, or 30, including plenty of products from the 80's, 90's, and today. They also had some sweet deals on awesome gaming systems, such as a PlayStation for $20.00 (Which someone didn't let me get), and an xBox with Kinect, priced at just $300. Compared to all other stores, that's a bargain, because lowest prices for em' at any other store are $350 at least. 

Plenty of arcade machines were sprinkled through the store, including an arcade version of Super Mario Bros., Pac-Man, and more. They had a Kinect set up towards the front of the store, which they invited everyone to play (and let me tell you, those things are pretty awesome)! All in all, that was certainly the best store a gamer such as me could hope to ask for! 

This is a tiny town, and we don't want you coming 'round

The family asked me what I wanted to do for Father's Day and I decided I wanted to go for a drive in the mountains and find a nice place for a picnic. It's Colorado right, how hard could it be. So we headed out on the highway and after a couple of wrong turns we ended up in Conifer, where Trey Parker grew up.

Coming around a bend in the highway we saw rows of tiny Victorian houses, a Silver Spoons style tiny steam train and a sign reading Tiny Town. We sat in the truck and inhaled our sandwiches then hotfooted it to the tiny booth where we paid the tiny man with a tiny visa card.

The prices were cheap, 7 bucks for adults and 5 for kids, which includes a ride on the train. Just inside the gate Amanda turned to me and said, "Thanks for spending Father's Day making one of my childhood dreams come true."

Apparently a guy named George Turner began building Tiny Town in 1915 on the site of a Denver-Leadville Stage Coach station as a way to entertain his daughter. By 1920 he opened to the public and by 1924 there were 125 buildings and two lakes. Looking at the old photos of Tiny Town it looks like any idyllic American town in the 1920s.

Several floods, fires and restoration attempts later, Tiny Town isn't quite as grand as I imagine it once was. Like lots of full-sized small towns in America, some of the buildings seem a little rundown and it doesn't quite have that perfect little community vibe it once had. It's still a relaxing way to spend Father's Day - or any day for that matter.