4 posts tagged “colorado”

Wheeee, the MO got a couple of video files from some nice young man who was also at the Colorado machine-gun shoot. (Note to self: find out the nice young man's name so I can thank him!)

I've put them up on box.net. You'll need QuickTime. This one is a longer and better version of the one of the MO that I posted earlier, and this one is me at the minigun--all the action is at the very end ;-) I'll tell you what, it felt like it lasted a lot longer than that!

[Okay! Finally! The Guns! Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. This is The End. All the pix are here. Just the gun pix are here. But really, would a little romance and scenery kill ya?]

If it's Sunday, it must be time to GO SHOOT MACHINE GUNS!! We had a fabulous breakfast at The Cliff House (these
folks actually know how to make decent biscuits and gravy, and the potatoes are heavenly) and then headed east to Dragon Man's shooting range.

All I can say about this event (which is shockingly poorly advertised) is, if you have ANY interest in firearms WHATSOEVER, you NEED to participate. OMG, we shot all kinds of guns. And it was all AWESOME. For sheer "WOW" the minigun was the winner. (And oh yeah, it was so worth those prices.)

For, "Gee, I'd like to have one of these!" it was the Thompson .45 sub-machine gun. "Okay, that's a bit much" honors goes to the 50 cal. rifle, only because the muzzle brake sent so much noise backwards that it made my ears ring despite gummies and muffs. The MO, however, really liked shooting it mounted and automatic....

(I have an avi file of the MO shooting something else (7.62 somethingorother), but til I figure out how to host it not on youtube, you'll just have to wait.)

Sunday evening we had a terrific dinner at The Cliff House, and I had my second creme brulee in as many desserts! This one was a trio--classic vanilla, chicory coffee, and chocolate cinamon. The coffee won, with a close-fought second
to the vanilla. I was really surprised that the chocolate didn't win me over. Maybe it was just too rich. By focusing on dessert, I shouldn't detract from the dinner, which was likewise delicious. The MO had a really impressive wild boar tenderloin, and I had striped bass with two sauces--one black bean and one sweet onion. I couldn't even decide which one I liked the best....

Monday morning we finally had to wave good-bye to the incredible scenery, but I'll admit I was really looking forward to some humidity and oxygen. It was really surprising how easily we tired! I know my cardiovascular system is not world-class, but for heaven's sake, I do work out regularly, and walking across a parking lot really shouldn't reduce me to gasping. I think the low country is definitely where I'm supposed to be. So our kitties were glad to see us, and we have lots of laundry to do, and we took a lot of pictures.... I've loaded about half of them up to flickr. Enjoy :-)

[Part 2. See Part 1 here. More to come. All the pix here.]

Saturday morning we at at Ellyngton's. I had smoked trout. For breakfast. With eggs and hash browns. And the single most decadent mimosa I have ever sipped. It was one of the best breakfasts ever. The MO ordered a side of corned beef hash, which just turns my stomach when it comes out of the can, but apparently that's not REAL corned beef hash. This stuff was shredded corned beef (which I actually like) fluffed in with some hash browns and onions. It was actually good. Decidedly not stomach-turning.

We headed out to the History Museum, glad to see that the sun was trying to return. The Texas State History Museum is very impressive, but the Colorado History Museum is AT LEAST as well put together. I may even give Colorado the edge here. The special exhibit (Ben Nighthorse) was beautifully done. The pieces were well-chosen, and the commentary was interesting and informative. The only quibble I have is that I think they should have installed mirrors in some of the cases so that we could see the beautiful inlay on the insides/backsides of the jewelry. With a few contortions, I could see some of it, but something that important should have been played up.

The permanent exhibit areas are simply spectacular. I am extremely disappointed that there was not a Baby Doe Tabor history book in the museum shop, but there wasn't one in the Colorado section of the local Barnes & Noble either, so it looks like a trip to out-of-print books to satisfy my curiosity there.

They have a huge 1930s-era diorama of the original Denver settlement, an intriguing display of children's clothing, toys, and photos from the early settlers' days, a really gorgeous timeline, a big collection of mining equipment, a superb WWII (10th Mountain Division) display, a really cool maze-like American Indian history section, and a whole room full of early Denver papers and posters that I didn't even get to really see.

All of the displays are beautiful, legible, and interesting, but one of the neatest ideas is that their storage area is practically a display in itself! A large grid/panel system hangs behind a floor-to-ceiling window, and various objects, loosely grouped, are displayed on shelves on these racks. Behind all this, you see the aisles of the holdings. It's such a cool idea--they don't have to put a lot of effort into it (the objects aren't even labeled) but they get to show off a bunch of cool miscellaneous stuff! And seeing the storage area is like sneaking a peek into that secret warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark ;-)

After lunch, we headed back to Colorado Springs. This time, the sun was out (more or less) and, wow! There really are mountains! And that hill we saw yesterday was no mountain!

We checked into The Cliff House in Manitou Springs and then went to Walter's for dinner, on the recommendation of Stephen Green (VodkaPundit). My recommendation to you? If you're in Colorado Springs, ask VodkaPundit where to eat. The man knows good food. We ended up taking some of a bottle of wine back to the hotel, and it turns out that tne of the console cup holders in a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer is the perfect size for a bottle of wine. Honest, Occifer!

The Cliff House was delightful. Our room had every chill-fighting amenity you could possibly think of. And if you're a Southerner like me, some you never EVER thought of....

[I'm doing this post in several pieces. Otherwise we'll all be bored ;-) Part 2 here. All the pix are here, if ya want to skip the commentary....]

We flew into Colorado Springs on Friday morning, picked up our rent-a-cruiser and headed north for Denver. It was Cold and Wet. We got excited when we saw this mountain, although we were confused that it was on the right-hand side of the road. We were pretty sure the mountains were supposed to be to the west. But hey, it was tall and pointy, so it counted.

In Denver we drove past the Colorado History Museum and saw a sign for a Ben Nighthorse exhibit (okay, I knew he was a jeweler--had no idea about the Senator bit). Put that on the list of things to do tomorrow.... Another few blocks and we found the Brown Palace Hotel, our overnight destination. We have stayed in some pretty nice hotels, and so far this one puts them all to shame. (In Denver? Hello?)

On the recommendation of one of the MO's coworkers, we had lunch at the Blue Bonnet Cafe (the "best Mexican food in Denver"--believe this only if you want American-Mexican food (which I happen to love)), where we arranged to meet Mr. Wisdom. Hmmm. Put three introverts (yes, that is my opinion) at a table with a little kid and see how long it takes for anybody to do anything other than look at/talk about the little kid. (Hint: it takes a while.) But we eventually all found our tongues and had a nice chat. Jeff seems like a genuinely nice guy.

The MO forgot to pack his jacket, so we did a little shopping, and then headed to the baseball game. Coors Field is very nice, and aside from not having a roof, actually looks a lot like Enron Minute Maid. That bit about not having a roof? That kind of sucked when it rained, but we had cozy club-level seats so we just moved up under the roof and headed inside whenever we needed to thaw out. We spotted some other Astros fans a couple of rows up, so we took their picture and they took ours.

Macy's put on a fireworks show after the game, and we watched it from various street corners on the way back to the hotel. At one of the best vantage points we could see the actual bursts to the left and reflections in a glass building to the right. On another street, a building with a ridged exterior provided really neat sound effects. We missed the finale as we had secured places on the free mall train by that time and were being whisked back to our luxurious accomodations.

We had a cocktail in the Churchill Cigar Bar, and then ordered a bottle of wine from room service. The turndown service included slippers and a plateful of chocolates arranged on rose petals (the chocolates, not the slippers). The bottle of wine came with a rose in a vase. I'm pretty sure if I had sneezed in the lobby, a bellhop would have wiped my nose for me. It was a-maz-ing.

(Oh--this was also our first experience with a shower with side jets. Want one. Must have.)

Next: Saturday....