Mom & Dad out West (Part I)

After living in Colorado for four years, we finally got my dad out here for a visit! My mom came out in 2004 and helped me with some painting in my house when I first bought it, but she hadn't seen it since I moved all my stuff in. It's nice to know that they can visualize what I'm talking about when I describe something about my job or house now. They were impressed with my little house, but the pergola was the highlight! We sat out on the swing and had breakfast out there in the mornings. Dave, I think you might have more business for pergola building!

After breakfast, I brought them to the Olympic Training Center so they could see where I work. It's always fun to show off such a fun work complex! Sometimes it's a little weird to work at a place where tour buses are parked with hundreds of people taking tours though!

We had a full-0n Western couple of days. We visited an old ghost town (Ghost Town Wild West Museum) that had some nicely preserved stage coaches and cowboy-era country stores, saloons, barbershops and banks. We also toured the Pioneers Museum in downtown Colorado Springs. I hadn't been there before, but it had lots of cool memorabilia of the Pikes Peak region, including relics from the iconic, though now defunct Michelle's chocolate and ice cream shop.

One part of our Western experience was dinner at the Craftwood Inn their first night in town. In this picture is the wild game platter we sampled as a meal. Clockwise starting at 9:00 is sauteed loin of ostrich, pistachio pesto ravioli, grilled elk, braised venison, seared antelope, wild game quesadilla, and grilled bison. I don't think I have eaten as much meat in the whole last year as I did at that dinner! It was all quite tasty though, and you couldn't beat the ambiance and views that we had as we dined on the outside patio.