Wednesday, August 29, 2012

o miles driven, 3 miles walked

Today’s photo is of Sierra and her pal, Jessie.  They share a birthday and when Danielle walked Sierra regularly (before the economy bombed and salaries got cut and Danielle had to be cut…) these two were on the same schedule.  They still love each other.  Danielle sent this yesterday and I realized that I didn’t take any food or drink or scenic photos on Wednesday.  So say hi to Jessie and Sierra!

We wake up at 6am every day without an alarm; it’s funny.  I put in two loads of wash on my way to get coffee.  She gave me the local’s discount!!  I ran back to tell Bob.  We are locals here!  haha.

This is our most down-time day yet.  After the laundry was all done and either hanging to dry or folded, we went in search of some “real breakfast” as Bob calls it.  Looked at a couple of places and went to the Blue Moose, right across the street, because Bob wanted pancakes.  It is always packed with breakfasters (or Breck-fasters.. ho ho) and we have been there on previous visits.  I like it because they don’t mind options, special requests…   We sat at the counter and ordered; for Bob, scrambled eggs, two buttermilk pancakes and link sausages with OJ.  For me, two poached eggs and sourdough toast with hot sauce.  Perfection.  And I had a half of one of Bob’s links – they were the old-fashioned spicy kind.

From there we went to a camera shop owned by a photographer who takes the most fantastic and dramatic photographs.  But The Best part: his 5-month old yellow lab, Ellwood, is always on the premises.  Such a cute playful little creature.  He kept lying down right on my feet while we were getting a USB connection for Bob’s camera (liked me best liked me best…).  By now it was about 10 so we went back to the room and worked, caught up, read till about 11:30 when we took off for the Post Office and the real purpose of the day:  to do due diligence as to the possibility of being able to watch the 49ers game on Thursday night — the Broncos play at about the same time so chances are zero that it will be broadcast but we visited all three sports bars in town plus a couple of other places that have several tvs.  This took almost two hours as we wondered in and out of stores and different bars.  It looks doubtful that anyone will be broadcasting it…. it will be on the NFL channel but the cities have control over the pre-season so highly unlikely anyone will allow a 49ers game when Broncos are playing.  Learned something new about the f’d up NFL broadcasting rules…..

We decided we wanted Mi Casa for lunch.  Too hot to sit outside — temperature is only in the mid-70s but the sun is like a laser.  We sat at the bar all by ourselves with a nice bartender, Kelly.  She had Silver margaritas with 100% agave nectar and fresh lime juice as a special… two please!  Bob had his usual Mexican repast: chicken enchilada, red sauce, rice, no beans.  I had a grilled fish taco with black beans and rice.  Bob ate one enchilada and most of the rice; I ate the taco with loads of their hot salsa and a little bit of the beans and rice.  It was good.  We walked back to the Hyatt to go to the pool with our books.  The skies were threatening again but enough sun peeking out that it made jumping in the pool necessary.  We stayed down there till about 4:30 then up for showers and a brisk walk to Our Bar, the Briar Rose.

On the way, we pass someone going the other direction and Bob starts muttering Hitler, Hitler, Hitler.  It was the lady with the nose.  I was laughing out loud.  We get to Our Bar and there are three tables of people and about four people at the bar…. All. Locals.  And us!  We order our two-for-one drinks (I asked for a third blue-cheese stuffed olive….. ) and the hitler nose lady comes in (dressed up) with her boyfriend (flip flops, shorts, NE Patriots t-shirt) and sit right next to us.   I couldn’t look.   They ordered a huge thing of the most-perfect looking french fries that smelled so good.  So we started thinking about dinner.  We decided that we would try the place we almost went to Breck-fast (sorry), Park at Main, which is actually owned by the Briar Rose/Empire Burger/Giampietro’s people.  We even decided what we wanted for dinner because MJ had a menu:  Bob the bacon, cheddar grilled cheese; me a salad with some chicken or something similar on it.  I asked hitler’s nose if the fries were their dinner and she said “No they had steaks at home but if it were up to him, they would just get more fries.”  So we DO have things in common!!!

We said good-bye and thank you to MJ (she is off the rest of the time we are here); I went to the bathroom and Bob waited outside.   I walk out to the curb and he is standing there facing Giampietro’s…. “Would you rather have pizza?” and I said, “No, I’m ok with the other place.”  Bob, “Are you sure?” Me: “Would you rather have pizza?”  “Sort of.”  So we go to Giampietro’s.  It does smell amazing in there!  We get seated right (a half inch separates our tables) next to another couple about our age (who the hell knows?  anywhere between 40 and 80, depending on if either of them had work done; we haven’t so…) which was annoying to them more so than us (and I was annoyed).   The lovely woman who has been there each of the three times we have been waited on us.   I knew immediately that I wanted the same arugula salad and a slice with olives and mushrooms (because it would have my salad on top of it and be fantastic).  Bob looked around the menu and the specials and decided to have the ravioli off the regular menu and his same tomato / mozzarella salad.   When he placed his order, she went ‘um… we have a special ravioli’ and she pointed to the board… ‘braised short ribs in our homemade ravioli’ and then the super-annoyed guy next door (on my side) pipes up “You should order that; it’s fantastic.”  So Bob, who doesn’t much like the idea of short ribs, says “okayyyyyyy.”

So that started us in conversation with the people next door….. they moved here a year ago from the East Coast; still have their other house; he was here for the winter, she wasn’t (the winter we are told is the Test.  Anywhere from 500 to 700 inches of snow); he is the dog person, she isn’t (this was discovered when I whipped out my phone to show the waitress Sierra). And so it went.

I LOVED that we ate there.  My salad was perfect and I saved most of it for the pizza which was better than the other night (crisper crust, more salad on the topping).  Bob loved his salad and the bite I had of his ravioli was fantastic…but he didn’t eat all of it.  He said he liked it but I think he would have preferred the ‘plain’ one.

We bade farewell to the couple next door and walked home — not in the rain!

Random things….

Tee shirt:  Party like a mortician, grab a cold one.

The town of Breckenridge has trucks equipped with special flower basket watering devices to water all of the hanging baskets along Main Street.