One of the prime features of our time in Colorado was food. My natural tendency is to attend to and focus on the price of, well, whatever, but on this trip I decided to heed Scott's admonition for us to be free and enjoy ourselves without regard to expense. Readers of this blog know that we are not generally extravagant people and we're not known for wasting money, so ignoring dollar signs for one week was not likely to turn us into raving spendthrifts!

Scott is a schemer in the best sense of the word. For many, many years, he has played the credit card game to our family's great advantage. Here are the rules of the game. Scott applies for and receives a credit card that either does or doesn't have an annual fee, but that definitely earns either hotel points or airline miles AND gives a nice bonus of points or miles if you spend a certain amount on the card in the first 90 days. We always get that initial bonus, and we then use the card for every possible purchase. If it has an annual fee, Scott avoids paying it by canceling the card after about 11 months. Then he applies for and receives some other card. Lather, rinse, repeat, for lo, these 20+ years.

This means that we almost always have a small-to-medium stash of airline miles -- although they are sometimes on the worst airline (it starts with a U...) -- and a decent stash of hotel points. Through the years, we've used the miles to get ourselves where we want or need to go, our children home from college or to other places, and Scott's mom here for visits. And we've been able to stay in nice hotels and occasionally put our kids up in one. With four far-flung kiddos, it's really nice to have resources that make hotel stays free and domestic flights $11.20.

So we stayed in a free hotel for a couple nights during Scott's seminar in Andover, Kansas, and then we drove to Denver (have I mentioned how much I like driving I-70 across Kansas? I seriously do!) where we stayed in another free hotel. That one had a really weird and inconvenient room lay-out, which I've made a note of in my, ahem, Lotus Organizer '97, to avoid in the future, but it was free, and I have learned to never look a gift horse (or hotel-stay-with-continental-breakfast-that-includes-waffles) in the mouth.

Monday morning we drove to Boulder, the last major city on the way north to our "Happy Home" cabin up in the middle of nowhere, to get some groceries, as we'd been advised by owner Jim to stock up on everything we'd want while at the cabin. I think I've mentioned that my life was hectic before our trip and I was scrambling to get packed. I usually think through everything -- and I do mean EVERYTHING! -- make detailed plans, and pack well, or at least thoroughly. Not so much this trip.

Also, whether we're camping an hour or two from home or road-tripping to Colorado, we usually take a lot of our own food. You know, a flip-top "dry goods" box of bread, snacks, peanut butter, desserts, etc. and a cooler of fruit, meat, cheese, milk, etc. and one or more crock-pot-able freezer meals that I've cooked in advance and frozen. But I've been in the kitchen quite a bit lately, and I told Scott that on this trip, I wanted a break. I was NOT going to cook. And I held my ground.

That meant that during our three days on the road, we did a lot of eating out. The following deserve honorable mentions.

Jose Peppers in Wichita, KS served a stupendously delicious "Cheese Crisp Salad." It was more than I could eat, and it was SO good that I almost cried when our our schedule and situation didn't permit me taking the rest of it to go. Yes, it was that good. WE need a Jose Peppers in Branson!

Ed's Cantina and Grill in Estes Park, CO had been recommended to Scott by one of his tennis-playing friends here who used to live there. (She moved from Estes Park, CO to Branson MO?!?!?) I'd definitely eat there again, but I'd ask for something milder next time. I really liked the flavor of my pulled pork chimichanga, but it was lot hotter than I had assumed it would be. As in, my mouth was on fire! Scott had their bison burrito. = )

eGeat Wall Chinese Restaurant in Salina, KS has no atmosphere and not-so-clean bathrooms, but some the absolutely yummiest American Chinese food ("Chicken w/ Mixed Vegetables") I've ever eaten. And talk about portions: for $6.39, I got enough food for two and-a-half full meals! If Scott and I had realized how huge our plates would be -- and if we happened to like the same thing (ha!) -- we could've shared a meal and had leftovers.

But for the four days we stayed at our cabin, we didn't eat out at all. It was breakfast at home, packed lunches (outdoors in Rocky Mountain National Park - AAHH!!) and supper at home, and that meant groceries. A lot of groceries, since we hadn't packed any food from Walnut Shade. Here's all I'm going to say about our two grocery forays:

  1. Safeway in Boulder, CO has plenty of delicious food, convenience and otherwise, but involves The. Categorically. Worst. self-check system in North America. As it, it could be a tourist attraction in the spirit of "The World's Largest Ball of Rubber Bands" or "The World's Ugliest Wooden Pig," or something.
  2. Safeway in Estes Park, CO also has plenty of delicious food, convenience and otherwise, but The. Longest. checkout lines in the Western Hemisphere. At 37 people in line, I quit counting, although when I called Jessica and flipped my camera around to show her how long the line was, people in line behind me cheerfully waved and hollered greetings! Nice folks, those Coloradoans. It should also be noted that Safeway, at least in Colorado, doesn't carry Nutty Bars. In fact, they don't carry any Little Debbie products, probably because all residents of Colorado are slim, healthy, and athletic.

To be continued...

(I promise, the mountains are coming!)

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