happy endings for all

All around, we had a successful Bolder Boulder day.  As you can see, the weather was perfect.  Tom and Tyler did a walk-jog combination.  I ran, and despite having had a pretty rough spring (no real training going on), I finished in under an hour.  I was ecstatic.
After the race was over, Tom realized he no longer had his little packet of cash ($20), his driver's license, and a gift card (worth $100) for a local pizza place (we were planning on eating lunch at the pizza place after the event).  Amazingly, when we got home, there was a call from the Boulder Sheriff's office.  Someone turned in the whole kit & caboodle -- even the cash.  Wow.

strolling around Boulder Valley

 We wanted to take Tyler out for a "hike," but since we're planning on jogging/walking the Bolder Boulder tomorrow (a 10k), we didn't want to do anything strenuous.  We headed back to the South Mesa/Big Bluestem trailhead, but the parking lot was completely full!  (Dangit all on weekends…)
So we went to the Table Mesa/Dowdy Draw trailhead -- which Tom and I haven't done since we moved out of our apartment when we first got here.  We were pleasantly surprised: they've expanded the trail system.  Plus, it was gorgeous!  Not only was it super-green (from all the rain we've had lately), but the sun came out for our lunch break.  Very accommodating.

May is my favorite month in Colorado

 We went for a short hike today -- and I got my first good glimpses at spring time wildflowers.  I have to re-learn them every year.  This first one, I believe, a Western Wallflower.

 And I think these are Harebells.

The butterflies were out today, too.  It was a pretty great day.

a great day to be in Colorado

 We are happy that Erik is here visiting from Phoenix.

 We took the opportunity to try to get up into the mountains.  Of course, since it's still May, if you go high enough there's still plenty of snow.  So we hiked as far as we could, and then put on our snow-shoes.

 Of course, it was patchy -- so we picked a lunch-stop that was dry….

 Although the sky looks ominous here (at Lost Lake), it was really quite warm -- and never really threatened rain.

 We were happy that when we got back to the truck, there was no ticket (nor had the truck been towed) …

Of course, we finished our day by having a late lunch (and some Hop-Diggety IPA) at the smoke-house.  Pretty much a perfect day.

and, yes: there were desserts

 The desserts were bites of chocolate stout cake that were drizzled with caramel & sprinkled with sea salt…

And Cheesecake bites…
As well as bacon chocolate chip cookies, and fresh berries and cream.
And, of course there was wine.  We served, among other things, two magnums of 2005 bordeauxs -- the ones that Tom (and Mark) bought at the Christie's auction (2005 Labegorce Zede
from Margaux and 2005 Bernadotte Haut Medoc).  I'll add those photos when I find them….

HAPPY 50, TOM!!!

 I really wanted to celebrate Tom's 50th birthday in style.  So rather than mess around, I hired a caterer. Good move!  Tom actually said the party was "perfect…. Great food, great wine, great friends."  Exactly what we were both looking for.  If you live here in Colorado and need a caterer, I highly recommend Blackbelly Catering!!!
Tom promises to rip off this first offering: a cauliflower soup with capers, raisins, apples, a curry-oil, and slivered almonds.  I can't wait to have it again!

 The whole "meal" was small bites.  There was a mint & culatello crostini with pea-shoots…

 There was a salmon mousse served on cucumber rounds…

 One of my favorites: grapes that were "wrapped" in goat cheese, crusted in pistachio, and drizzled with truffle oil…

 Normally, I'm not a fan of "sliders."  However, these were the exception that proved the rule: perfectly done pork belly with home-made cucumbers.  I think I had 3.
I somehow missed taking a photo of the pear, gouda & guanciale flat bread (pizza).  But I ate plenty of them!  They were outstanding as well.

Happy Birthday to me!

 Tom asked me what I wanted for my birthday.  I told him I wanted to drink a bottle of Bell wine.  So he made an awesome meal to go with it: grass-fed beef ragout, Israeli couscous, and a big ol' pile of wilted kale (one of my all-time favorites).  YUM.

I can't make this shit up.

We went to the Texas History Museum.  We didn't stay very long.

When in Texas, eat Tex-Mex!

Despite the good food at the CIA and the meal of charcuterie at CURED (which I would highly recommend), probably our favorite meal while in San Antonio was at this little dive called Titos.

 Tom had the Mini Tacos al Pastor; I had the Tampiquena plate.  Both were excellent.

visiting San Antonio

 I had an opportunity to attend an ultrasound workshop (which I really enjoyed) in San Antonio.  Since neither Tom nor I had ever been there before, we decided to make a little vacation out of it.  We stayed right downtown, which gave us great access to their historic district, the Alamo, and the River Walk.

 Our first night there we ate at a restaurant on the River Walk that had been recommended by our cab driver.  In general, I would not recommend eating right on the River Walk.  It felt a lot like Disney Land: crowded, with overpriced and mediocre food.  There are such constant tourists that this duck actually bit me in the ass when we didn't feed him anything (there was nothing on our table to feed him: the service sucked -- our waitress hadn't even brought us any chips & salsa, much less waters, etc.).

 Our second and third nights we enjoyed MUCH more.  We ventured further away from the crowds.  We at at the restaurant of the Culinary Institute of America cooking school, which was fun; we did a wine-paired dinner.  This piece of art was in the restaurant: it was back-lit with different colors, so every minute or so she changed from blue to green to pink and back again.
Our dinner the next night (sorry: no photos) was at a place called CURED that was right next to the CIA restaurant.  It was excellent; all the charcuterie was done in-house.  They also had pickled rhubarb, which is now a new favorite for me.

The River Walk itself was actually quite nice.  There were many miles of paved foot/bike paths.  This was one of the art installations that was underneath an overpass (at night, obviously).  Cool.