|
navigate inspired by host |
|
vacation 2 We woke up late the next morning and headed for Santa Fe. I was surprised by how pretty New Mexico was--I had no idea! I've always read how Albuquerque is a lot like Phoenix, and it is--but the area around the city is much prettier than Phoenix. The mountains are gorgeous. We drove around Santa Fe for awhile, looking for the downtown area, but didn't find it (we didn't have a map). We did stop at a wonderful art shop, and it made me want to draw and paint. We left Santa Fe just after 4pm, and headed for Pueblo, CO. Just before we left New Mexico, we stopped for dinner. We wanted to eat at a Mexican restaurant, and came across a small town that had one as soon as you entered. It looked like a cool place from the outside, but there were no cars in front of it. We drove through the town for a little ways to see if there was anything else that caught our eye, but there wasn't, so we turned around and went back to the first place. It was a ghost town inside. We walked in, and the staff was sitting at tables in the front, chatting. It took them a minute to acknowledge us--Artboy asked if they were open before one of the women got up to seat us. Artboy mentioned that it was slow, and she said that business had been terrible. He asked what was going on and she thought things were slow because the owners were going to sell, and she thought people had heard. We were seated and ordered our drinks, and she brought us two cans of soda and a basket of chips and bowl of salsa. The chips were stale and the salsa tasted like it was store bought. We considered leaving, but we stayed. They'd been in business for 30 years--how bad could it be? Heh. We each ordered the combination plate, and she brought us the taco first. Super greasy, and Artboy was convinced his meat wasn't cooked all the way. Then they brought our plates. We ordered the combo with red and green sauce, and both were super hot. You know it's hot if Artboy says it is. The tamale was okay, but didn't taste homemade to me. And the cheese enchilada --the cheese wasn't even melted. It had to be one of the worst meals I've had. We left, having learned a lesson. Don't eat at a place if it's empty. There's a reason for that. We should have eaten at the other two mexican places that we saw that actually had cars in front of them. :) We moved on, and drove through Pueblo, CO, and immediately decided that we loved CO. It was beautiful! It soon grew dark, so I missed being able to see Colorado Springs, which I was really looking forward to. We could see more storms up ahead, and again, the lightning was spectacular. Just before we got to Denver, it started pouring again. This time, I was driving, and couldn't see a thing. The windsheild wipers weren't working real well, and it was just pouring. The lightning was scary again, and I was super tense. We decided to pull off at a town to go to the bathroom, get gas, and see if we could find a Walmart or some place to buy new wipers. We stopped at a 7-11 whose bathroom was closed "after dark." Huh. We decided to skip the gas, and I put back the items I was going to purchase. We then drove until we found a Safeway, and used their restroom. They gave us directions to the KMart and Walmart. KMart was around the corner, so we tried them, but it was after 9pm, and they had just closed. So we drove to Walmart, got the wiper blades, and by then, it had stopped raining. Artboy installed them, we stopped at McD's for food, and hit the road. We arrived at Denver just after 1am, and had to make a decision. Should we valet the car for $16? Or park in the lot next door for $6 a day? We went in and talked to the guy. He said we could park on the street...the meters start at 9am. Or we could park in the lot...and pay $6 at 6am. Or we could valet. We checked in, went up to the room, and discussed it. Since it was so late, we knew we weren't likely to get up at 6am. And I didn't see getting up at 9am either. So we decided to valet at least for that one day. We went to bed, and about an hour later, I woke up to Artboy getting sick in the bathroom. He was up all night, in the bathroom. Food poisoning, from his Filet-O-Fish, we decided. It wasn't until after 2pm that he got up, and I was frustrated because it was so late. I was trying to be a good sport about it, but not succeeding very well, I'm afraid. We asked the front desk where they'd recommend for lunch, and they suggested a few places. We chose Maggiano's, an Italian place. It was within walking distance, so we set off. Downtown Denver was beautiful. All the skyscrapers were amazing. I took a ton of pictures. We both fell in love with Denver immediately. The restaurant was awesome. The food was excellent, and we both wanted desert, but there just wasn't room. We vowed to come back later for the berry crustada. We walked back to the hotel to drop off our leftovers, and the plan was to walk around some more. But he got on his computer, and I started to get frustrated again. We finally left, and found out from the front desk that there was an art walk that night. So we started to heard towards that area of town. We hadn't been walking about 5 minutes when he decided he didn't want to go. I told him he could go back, and I'd continue to walk around. I wasn't going to spend all night in the hotel. He didn't want that, and I begged him to take something for his diarrhea. He finally agreed, and we stopped to get some Pepto. He decided to walk around some more, and we had a great time. It started raining, so we called a cab, to go to the movies. We couldn't remember exactly where the theater was, but knew it was on 16th. The cab driver had no idea. So, we were driving, and we saw the Corner Bakery, which was right next to Magiannos and just down from the theater. So we got out, walked over in the pouring rain, and turned out to be the wrong location. We found a map, and we were about 7 blocks south of where we needed to be. We were pondering what to do when a bike cab pulled up and was trying to get a group of people to let him drive them. Artboy pulled me along and told the guy that we'd take the ride. I'd always wanted to take a bike cab--they had them at ASU games, but never could justify it. This was the perfect time. There was a cover over head, and plastic down the front to keep us dry. I felt badly for the guy...though I shouldn't feel too badly. He charged $2 a block, so I gave him $15. Ouch. But really, well worth it. We got to the theater, and the movies were all sold out. Groovy. So we decided to go to Magianno's to eat. The berry custada was amazing...i'm so glad we came back for it. While waiting to get seated, we discovered the restaurant wasn't local--it's a chain, and there is one at home. Yum! By the time we were thru with dinner, the rain had stopped, so we walked back to the room and called it a night. |