Rain, Sleet, Hail, Snow, & Sunshine

This past weekend, my parents came into town for a somewhat brief visit to attend the Cubs game while they were playing the Rockies, and of course to see me. ;)

They arrived on Friday evening, and I took them out on the town. The town of Arvada, that is... We went to dinner at Amici's, my new favorite restaurant. You just can't go wrong when a restaurant has a wine list with bottle prices betwee $8.50 and $11.50. And did I mention pretty yummy Italian food? Oh yes, I love it. After dinner, we headed over to the Arvada Tavern, the little dive bar in Olde Town Arvada, just blocks from my apartment. It's a fantastically tiny place with 2 pool tables, a killer juke box, and free shuffleboard. The beer is cheap, the people are awesomely scary, and I just love this place. We ended up closing the bar and all-in-all had a great time.

Saturday, we slept in and then prepped for the Cubbies game. After getting my mom to wear my Cubs jersey, I put on my Cubbies hat and shirt, and TRIED my best to get my dad and Brian to at least wear a Cubs hat. No luck. No worries, though, as more than half the fans there were rooting for the Cubbies. Before the game, we went to Wynkoop Brewery for some pints and dinner. The game was fun, though the Cubs lost (of course). After the game, we just came home and took it easy, as we had a full day planned for Sunday.

On Sunday, we drove down to Colorado Springs. First things first, we arrived at the train station and got our tickets for our train ride to the top of Pikes Peak. The weather wasn't terrible down in Co. Springs, but was sprinkling a bit. We get on the train and begin our ascent up the mountain, with fantastic scenery on both sides of the train. As we climb up the mountain, the rain turns into sleet, then into hail... We arrive at the summit 1.25 hours later and are rushed from the train to the building up top, because lightning was hitting the summit. At the top, we couldn't see much because of the storm. We spent about a half hour at the summit building and then had to head out to the train through the inch of snow that had fallen, all the while, dodging lightning. The descent down the mountain was uneventful, but was so neat to see the weather changing, and by the time we got down, it was sunny and precipitationless.

After leaving the train station, we drove over to Garden of the Gods and drove through the park. We took a quick walk through the park and then drove over to Old Colorado City for dinner. Brian and I had seen this Greek restaurant there the last time we were down there, so we headed straight there and luckily they were open and we had an awesome Greek feast for dinner. All of the food was excessively delicious.

Monday I had to work, as did my dad, so we stayed in that day. My mom organized my tupperware cabinet- thank goodness, it was scary. It was to the point where I was shoving stuff in there and slamming the door shut, hoping nothing else was going to fall out in the split second it took me to close the door. That night I cooked out on my awesome little (and I mean little) grill. We had some burgers and dogs, beers, potato salad, and I made strawberry shortcake for dessert. Yummy. After dinner, we met up with Rich and Dez at the Arvada Tavern for some more shuffleboard and pool. We called it a somewhat early night, as the weekend full of activities had worn us down.

Tuesday, we took it easy and sadly I had to take my parents to the airport mid-afternoon. After we said our goodbyes, I began mentally preparing myself for my kickball game that evening. Ha. It was so nice to have them out here and for them to see my new apt and to meet Lola finally! I can't believe I'm going to be in Chicago in just over a week!