I tried Chick-fil-a

Yesterday, I had Chick-fil-a for the first time.

You might ask how this is possible but I grew up in the northeast and, in my area at least, we didn't have Chick-fil-a.  Then I moved to Alaska and there's no Chick-fil-a there.  I became painfully aware of that because all of the southerners reminded each other woefully every time the conversation turned to restaurants.  Lots of chain restaurants are mourned when you live in Alaska.  I remember the 3 hour waits for lunch at the Olive Garden when it opened in 2012.

Then we moved to Missouri and the nearest Chick-fil-a was 90 minutes away.  By the time I'd made the trek to Springfield, I had other things on my mind.  Target! The mall! Homegoods! Sushi!

Then we got to Colorado Springs and there are a few Chick-fil-a locations but once you've done without for so long, it just wasn't on my radar.

Finally, yesterday, a new location opened on my end of town.  People had been camping out there all week because the first 100 in line get free food, once a week, for a year (or something like that).  That would still not be worth camping, for the record.

This is the side of town next to a military base and, with that population, I predict that business will be booming for the next 8 million years.  Chick-fil-a is more prominent in the south and, usually, servicemembers tend to be from the south.  It's a statistic I've seen somewhere.

So, I went to the splash pad yesterday with my friend (and her kid, obviously) and I stopped at the drive-thru on the way home.  It was fast, efficient, and, whoa, were they nice and polite at that drive-thru window.  When I mentioned this, my friend said, "Yeah, it's ALWAYS like that. I've never had a bad experience."  Even on opening day, there were a billion people and cars everywhere, but I still made it through the line, paid, and had my food within 15 minutes.  The grilled chicken sandwich was really tasty too.  I'll definitely go back.

Sometime, when I'm on the other side of town, I suppose I can go to Chick-fil-a, walk next door to the Hobby Lobby, and just make a day of it.  I really don't think it's a coincidence that they are right next to each other.  

Stuff and Things (in the Springs)

If I were the type of person to go out and do things instead of stay home and paint my kitchen on the weekends, I'd probably have a lot more stuff and things to say about the Springs.  However, Scott's family was here last week, so we did a couple of touristy things that I can tell you about.

+Overeasy.  A breakfast and lunch restaurant on Nevada Ave, right next to the new Trader Joe's and the University of Colorado campus.  I expected it to be absolutely packed on a Sunday morning.  We got there early, about 8am, and they had opened at 7am.  I was very happy that we got right in, had amazing service (Charlie was our waiter), and the food was fabulous.  However, the closer it got to 9am, the more we noticed the line of customers growing into a giant mob in the entryway and on the sidewalk.  As we were leaving, I heard that the wait was 45 minutes.  I definitely planned that out well.
How did I hear about the place?  We were at Trader Joe's last week and I thought, "Oh, hey, a breakfast place" and then we remembered it this past weekend.

Scott and I were immediately pulled in by the juice menu.  We split a carrot/ginger/honey/lemon.  Then, we ordered The Cure, a pineapple and coconut concoction.  I also had mint tea.

The neat thing about the juice is that you can add vodka and turn them into mixed drinks.  They also had a bloody mary bar and a full mimosa menu.

I had a spinach and swiss omelette with hash browns, bacon, and the best biscuit I'd ever tasted.  Scott had the crab omelette, which was really impressive.

This place reminded me SO much of Snow City Cafe in Anchorage.  From the homemade jam to the wait out the door.  It was a little pricey, but restaurant prices are pretty subjective to us; we were used to Alaska.  For what we got, it was delicious.  We'll definitely be going back.

+Mr. Tandoori Urban Bar and Grill.  Scott and I first stopped here back in July just because we were in  Pueblo and it had good reviews.  I mentioned back then how fabulous it was.  I'd never really eaten Indian food but it was very similar to all the foods Scott had loved so much in Afghanistan, so we gave it a try.  I was officially a fan after that.

After walking along the downtown Riverwalk in Pueblo, we went to Mr. Tandoori for lunch on Saturday.  The cucumber water they start you out with is probably one of our favorite parts because it's just so refreshing.  Everything on the buffet is excellent, but my favorite is the yellow rice, the vegetable korma, and the vegetable noodles.  Also, the fried eggplant was amazing.

If you live in this part of Colorado, it's definitely worth your time to make the trip to Pueblo.  It's about 30 minutes for us, but there's plenty of shops and sights downtown.  Make sure you go during the day so you can make it to the lunch buffet!

+Royal Gorge.  I'm slow…ly learning about Colorado's history and geography.  I'm more or less forced to because I have to teach Colorado history/geography.  After our stop in Pueblo on Saturday, we went on to Canon City, about another hour west.   Right on the other side of Canon City is Royal Gorge Bridge and Park.  I'd heard of it, but never knew much about it.  Then I googled it and realized that I'd probably heard of the one in California…

Anyway, there was a wildfire at the suspension-bridge-Royal-Gorge a year and a half ago.  You can still see the scorched land and trees on the winding drive up.

I pulled out the zoom lens.

The whole complex.  You can see there's lots of construction and rebuilding still going on.

It was $16/person to walk out on the bridge and they cleverly had all kinds of barriers set up so you couldn't get a good picture of the gorge without paying to go through.  However, we weren't interested in paying that much money to stand outside on a windy January day, so maybe next summer.   I settled for a magnet to add to our "refrigerator collection of travels".

I would like to go back in the summer.

Stuff and Things 10/23 (a new co-host!)

I'm so excited to have Joey from Hodges Podges join me for Stuff and Things.  She's one of the two bloggers who have my phone number, so I trust her with my beloved link-up.  I figure this way, if I have a mishap like I did last week, at least the link-up will be on somewhere in blogland.  Plus, Joey is fun and I love her blog.

+Does anyone watch The Talking Dead?  It's my Monday morning guilty pleasure.  It makes Mondays slightly bearable during Dead season.  I record it Sunday night and watch it in the morning.  This week, they asked a guest what the best scene in the series was so far and he said when Carl shot Shane.  I disagree.  #TeamShaneForever

+Also, I almost threw up when I watched the end of TWD on Sunday.

+I started watching Don't Trust the B last weekend. It's okay. I mean, it creates background noise, which is what I use t.v. for most days. Pickings are often slim on Netflix. James Van der Beek is pretty funny.  I've never seen Dawson's Creek.  Maybe that can be this coming weekend's project while I paint more cabinets?  I'm not crazy about Krysten Ritter.  I was happy when they wrote her off of Breaking Bad.  This show is what I would call the poor man's version of New Girl.  I understand why it was canceled.

+I almost always insist on italicizing the names of  t.v. shows or books.  It is quite possibly the only type A thing about me when it comes to blogging.  

+My biggest dilemma this week:  this is the time of year when I like to pull out all the fancy PowerPoints I made awhile back to teach the kids about anti-Columbus Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.  Unfortunately, I had all this on a jump drive that is now defunct (i.e. it won't work because it's 10 years old) and the only other place I have these things saved is on my old Toshiba laptop.  Scott has an old Toshiba laptop too and his power cord broke about a year ago.  Since I don't use my Toshiba anymore, I gave him my power cord.  Scott is in Texas.  With his Toshiba.  And the power cord.  I can't get into my old Toshiba because it's been in a box since we left Alaska and needs to be charged and I don't have a power cord.  Which means all of my PowerPoints are lost to me for now.  And my dilemma is: Do I create more?  Or do I wait it out and the kids get an anti-Columbus Day lesson in November?  I can't figure out if this is a laziness thing or just a practicality thing.
I have the weekend to decide.  I really don't want to spend my weekend making powerpoints.

+Yesterday, I ended up at Jersey Mike's trying to order a wrap for lunch because I had a training in that part of town and the only other places were McDonald's and Taco Bell.  Jersey Mike's is definitely no Jimmy John's but it's also not the worst thing in the world. So I ordered a grilled veggie wrap and I swear they forgot about me.  There were like 7 people working behind the counter and it still took over 10 minutes.  10 minutes might not seem like a long time to wait for food, but this was a sandwich shop.  I didn't even complain, but they knew they were being a-holes so they give me a coupon for a free meal and mumble, "sorry", in the quietest way possible.  This wasn't the first time either, so why I went back I'm not actually sure.  The things I'll do to avoid fried fast food….

+Lastly, I admit it.  I'm basic.  So basic.  And I'm okay with that.  However, I have never ever ever had a pumpkin spice latte.  Yesterday, at Starbucks (a basic destination) I had an Americano with a splash of cream (not a basic drink).  So there.  Watch this video.

A 5K, North Cheyenne Canon Park, and Pho and Grille

Last Friday, a friend and I decided to run the Firecracker 5K on Ft. Carson.  She enjoys running more than I do, but hasn't done much of it here yet.  I think the altitude got the better of us both.  I felt SO out of shape.  I usually rely on whatever cardio ability I've naturally retained to get me through 5Ks and such (7 minute mile in high school, #neverforget).  My first 5K was 32:00 minutes, my first 10K was 55:27, and this 5K was 33:18.  Not my proudest moment but considering that I: didn't train, had never run in Colorado before, and had never run in this pair of sneakers before, it wasn't too bad.  I came away feeling like the world's most unprepared person.  But, in my defense, it was a trail run and there were HILLS.  As if the elevation weren't enough, they added gravel hills.  It was terrible.

And my shirt was too big.  Pitfalls of signing up late. 

Moving on…

As my friend and I were running, we talked about the fact that "this is it till Monday when it comes to working out, so if it hurts tomorrow, that's okay". I wasn't expecting Scott to be home on Saturday and was planning on having a lazy day.  Instead, he came home Friday night and wanted to "do" something on Saturday and we ended up going hiking.

My poor feet.

We went to North Cheyenne Canon Park, which is right in the middle of Colorado Springs.  It's right near the Broadmoor Hotel and has several trails to offer.  I went into the Starsmore Discovery Center (which reminded me of the Eagle River Nature Center, for any Alaska readers out there) and asked the ladies at the desk what a good hike would be.  We had two dogs and weren't prepared for anything strenuous.  They gave me a map and suggested the Lower Columbine Trail.  It led to the Middle and Upper Columbine Trails, so it progressively got harder and took you 4 miles to Helen Hunt Falls. We did not make it all 4 miles because it was kind of a tough trail and we, going along with my unprepared theme, were not planning on such a hike.  We went the entire Lower trail, and did 3 switchbacks of the middle trail.  We were huffing and puffing and Jett was truly pulling me along.

My little sled dog. 

If you point at something and tell Jett to look, he will instead look at you.  This includes food, quail, and cameras.

Scout had had enough of us holding him back at this point.

After we went back to the truck for water and dog treats, we walked up to the reservoir and had a nice view, but there wasn't much to see up there.

Co Springs' water supply

The Broadmoor Hotel

We went back to the truck (slowly and painfully in my case…Jett just walks too fast) and headed off in search of a place to eat.  There is a TON of shopping and dining options on Powers Blvd.  It's where all my favorite stores are, plus Panera (ate there on Thursday), Super Target, Whole Foods, etc.  They even have a farmers' market on Thursdays.  It's on the opposite end of town, but the highway cuts right across to where our house is, so we can go in the back way and avoid all the I-25 traffic.

As we were driving through the parking lots, we saw Pho and Grille.  Scott had been wanting pho last week and we couldn't find a place near us.  Pho is Vietamese noodle soup and we really came to love it while we lived in Alaska.  Anchorage, being incredibly diverse, had just about every kind of cuisine you could imagine (except Panera, of course) and I don't remember if we ever found pho in the midwest.  I'm guessing not in Waynesville anyway.

After the 5K and that ridiculous hike, I wanted something more substantial than soup, so I had the Grilled Chicken Bowl.  We had shrimp spring rolls and Scott had a Thai iced tea (I took a sip or two…even my sweet tooth can't handle those things.)

This was, without a doubt, the best thing I'd eaten so far in Colorado.  I can't say it any more clearly.  If you want to make me happy, give me a big bowl of Asian noodles.  I don't even understand how it is possible to cook chicken so perfectly.  Plus, there was cucumber, carrots, bean sprouts, shredded lettuce, cilantro, peanuts, and a sweet and sour dressing over the whole thing.  I added some soy sauce and chili paste.  I ate as much as I could, but ended up taking half of it home. Scott said the pho was some of the best he'd ever had.

If you are in the mood for Thai/Asian/Vietnamese food in Colorado Springs, go to Pho and Grille.  It's right next to an I-max theater, along a street of outdoor shops.  We can already tell that this is going to be our go-to location for dinner and movie nights.  It was absolutely fantastic.

And then we went to Coldstone Creamery, which was right next door.

• If you are going to hike in North Cheyenne Canon, take a backpack with water and snacks.
• You do not have to pay to park or hike.  It's all free!
• If you are going to eat Asian food in Colorado Springs, go to Pho and Grille.

The Anatomy of an Asian Chicken Salad

…and the introduction of Things in the Springs!

Lately, I've thought that it's probably a good idea to document my experiences, good and bad, when it comes to what we do in Colorado Springs.  Last week I went on and on about our day downtown and our terrible experience at Lowe's.  Obviously, not all you live in the area, but it might prove helpful to someone who does or someone who is planning on visiting (hint hint: I'll take company).  

Originally, I wanted this to be called Kristin's List, but then I thought Angie's List might sue me, so better to avoid the possible legal trouble.  While I'll obviously be talking about things that are around me, I could also add in experiences when we travel. There will be subheadings for that…and maybe I'll add in one for our previous experiences in Missouri so I can link back to posts.  Anyway, up there in the navigation bar see:  Things in the Springs.  

--------------------------------------------------------------

On Saturday, we went to The Swiss Chalet in Woodland Park.  We decided to drive up into the mountains for the day, just to see what there was to see.  There was a 30 degree temperature difference from our house on the prairie.  In fact, we'd come from the farmer's market downtown and we'd been sweating and drinking iced coffee there.  Heading into Woodland Park was like heading back to Anchorage.  I was not dressed for the weather, and it was pretty drizzly anyway, so we stuck to indoor activities.  

When looking for a place to eat, we usually go straight to TripAdvisor because the site rarely lies.  However, I think we found a flaw in the TripAdvisor system.  The Swiss Chalet had excellent reviews.  We figured it might be a little pricey, but with Scott facing upcoming trainings and knowing that he'd be away for awhile, we try to ignore price tags and just go for what we want to do when possible.  Life is short.  So, we stopped in for lunch.

We were really disappointed.  Maybe all the people on TripAdvisor DID have fantastic experiences, but we didn't.  

The menu is limited because it's all supposedly homemade each day, so there were about 15 things on it.  This is all well and good if the food is well-prepared.  I thought the roast beef on ciabatta sounded good…but they were out.  She suggested the reuben or the chicken salad on an apricot croissant.  I don't do reubens and I don't do mayonnaise.   I ordered the Oriental Chicken Salad and Scott ordered the fish tacos and Maryland crab soup.  

They brought Scott the wrong soup; the swiss onion instead of the crab.  He didn't want to complain (but I totally would've).  He said MY french onion soup was much better than this one at The Swiss Chalet.  Meaning, the stuff I put together in the crockpot every so often is better than this how-ever-many-dollars a bowl soup.  

Anyway.

The fish tacos were made with salmon.  Salmon is not just fish, it's a very specific flavor and it's a flavor I really can't get behind.  I'm quite glad I hadn't ordered them because I wouldn't have been able to eat them.  Also, being the salmon expert that he is, Scott said the "fish" in the tacos was pink salmon.  That's one step up from chum salmon (which is what they make dog food out of).  King or red is the kind of salmon you want.  Pink is the canned stuff.   We are salmon experts and if you've ever gotten me into a discussion on what I used to teach in Alaska, I'd have shown you the 5-finger trick to remembering the types of salmon (some other time, guys…)

Onto the point of this post.  This was the Oriental Chicken Salad.  It was over $12.

Cabbage, 5 peas, 5 mandarin orange segments, 2 radish slices, approx. 2 T. chopped chicken, approx. 1 T. cashews,  approx. 1 T. fried noodles.  

While the flavor was good, I'd never order it again.  It was the consistency of coleslaw and there was nothing to it.  I was hungry when we left!  We'd paid $33 and then felt like we needed to stop for a snack on the way home.

The next day, we stopped at Noodles and Co. on our way to run errands.  I ordered the Asian Chicken Salad, I think, as a way to make a justified comparison.  It was less than $8.  

Look.  I can see chicken.

Lesson learned:  don't go to The Swiss Chalet in Woodland Park, Colorado.  Go to Noodles and Co. instead.  

We did have some fantastic iced lattes at The Sweet Elephant.  The fact that we went there two weeks in a row shows that when we like something, we go back for more!

And I am never, ever taking dogs to the farmers' market again.  They have listening problems.  

Stuff and things. 7/10

1. I've been watching Weeds reruns (because why not?) and "little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same" is exactly how I would describe the nearest town to us.

2. Is anyone else annoyed with True Blood?  I'm not sure what happened to this show.  Seasons 1 through 3 left me holding my breath until the next episode.  In fact, Netflix DVDs couldn't arrive fast enough so I ran out to Wal-Mart at 10pm one night and bought the first 3 seasons.  That's passion for good t.v. Now, I'm just impatiently awaiting it to be over so I can find out what happens.  Also, I should really finish those books.  

3. We started watching The Leftovers.  It's interesting.  This is what I like about HBO.  They don't dumb it down.  They don't over explain.  You're left to your own critical thinking as you attempt to draw conclusions about what is happening.  So, while I'd love to tell you what The Leftovers is about, I have no idea.  I'm still figuring it out.  

Maybe HBO should reevaluate this "don't dumb it down" strategy and apply it to seasons 5-7 of True Blood.  

4.  I  found myself at Whole Foods last week, simply because it was there and that fact alone makes me happy.  I also went to a giant school supplies store and an Old Navy.  It was a big day.

I've heard things about brown rice sushi so I decided to grab some for me and took some home for Scott.  It was awful.  Sushi should never be covered in brown rice.  What a terrible $17 disappointment and a waste of crab, tuna, and avocado.  People who go on and on about brown rice sushi must have never had real sushi…or they don't have taste buds.  Either/or. 

On Monday, we got real sushi.  It wasn't the best we'd ever tried, but it was pretty good.  The service was also good (Sushi O Sushi = good customer service in the Springs).

However, the chicken teriyaki was so-so.

5.  Yesterday, I went to a new-teacher-insurance-sign-up.  I always opt out of the insurance because we have military coverage. I've been saving school districts money since 2010. There were lots of younger fresh-off-the-boat teachers.  I'm going to guess 22 or 23 years old?  They were opting out too….because they are still covered on their parents' plans.
I'd never felt so old before.

6.  I haven't done an outfit post since that nonsense back in May.  Say hello to my new deck.  I'm letting my hair grow, but it doesn't really show here.

Shirt: Target // Sandals: Old Navy // Pants:  JCPenney // Sunglasses: SimplyVera from Kohl's

7.  I feel like I haven't done any outfit posts because I feel completely uninspired.  I know that I need to start investing more in clothes that will last (i.e. not Old Navy), but I can't resist brands like Gap when they have clearance sales.  Sure, I could pay $52 for a pair of pants.  But it just feels better when I know I got them for much less.  I got a pair of amazing brown dress pants at the The Gap in Anchorage for $6 once.  Did I buy them when I weighed a few pounds more and they haven't really fit for the last couple of years?  Sure.  But they are beautiful.   

8.  Speaking of being old, I tweaked my lower back.  Scott said "from improper painting posture".  Yeah, okay.  When I go a few weeks without doing a lot of stretching, this sometimes happens because I like to sleep on my stomach and that's not good for you…or maybe I'm just old.