Our last night in Colorado Springs we decided to dine at a small restaurant called Gertrude’s. The food was incredible. I had pork chops that had an amazing pineapple mango salsa. Towards the end of dinner one of my co-workers went to the bathroom. When she came back she was laughing. She began to tell us of the bathroom stall set-up. I didn’t believe her so I went to check it out myself. I took a picture of the bathroom. Let me know if you find anything weird about this picture?
Yep, that's two toilets in the ladies bathroom but there is no partition. After we had a good laugh i finally asked our waiter. I know he thought I was crazy but i finally got an answer. There is no partition so a wheelchair can easily fit into the bathroom. Apparently the men's bathroom is too small for a wheelchair which meant the ladies bathroom had to be used as the handicap bathroom.
Oh, the men's restroom is too small for a wheelchair. I went and looked myself.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Two Toilets?
Garden of the Gods & US Air Force Academy
After many requests I’ve decided to blog about my trip to the Garden of the Gods and the Air Force Academy. A few weeks ago I traveled to Colorado for work. I flew in a few days earlier than the rest of the audit team so I could do a little sightseeing.
Flag inside the Cadet's s Chapel at the US Air Force Academy
The flight was ok. I sat beside a girl who was probably around 5 years old and her mom. The little girl complained for about half the trip because I was sitting beside the window and she wasn’t. Anway, as we flew into Denver we could see the Rocky Mountains. The view from the airplane was absolutely breathtaking. Of course the little girl wanted to look out the window thus she leaned all the way across me. At this point I really didn’t care. Over the 2 hour flight she grew on me – plus she was so stinkin’ cute. She was equally amazed at the view of the Rocky Mountains as I was but she made a comment to her mom that was rather profound for a 5 year old.
As we flew into Denver the sun was starting to set. The purple, blue, organge, and red sunset was an amazing backdrop to the mountains, of which a few of them had snow caps. It was unbelievable. My little 5 year old friend looked at her mom and said, “Mom, how can someone not believe in God? Why can’t we make people who don’t believe in God fly over the Rocky Mountains? After they see this there is no way they would not believe in God.” Out of the mouth of babes…
Visiting the Garden of the Gods was also incredible. Words can’t describe it and the pictures don’t do it justice. For those who haven’t been to the Garden of the Gods basically is a park that you can hike, horseback, or drive through. The park contains these massive red rock formations. I drove around the park for a couple of hours.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Hot Dogs and Hairy Rick
This past weekend my brother came to Nashville. Saturday Kevin and I went to Atlanta to see the Cardinals vs. Braves. We had such high hopes for the Cards since they beat the Braves the night before. Once we arrived in Atlanta we rode Marta from Buckhead to Turner Field. While we were standing in line my brother looked at me and said, "Hey sis - that guy over there reminds me of Hairy Rick." (Judy, i'm doing the hand motion just for you). This guy had more hair coming out of the top of his shirt than he had on the top of his head.
The former lead singer of Trick Pony, Heidi Newfield, sang the National Anthem. I was pumped about that since Trick Pony is my favorite country group. Heidi did an excellent job. The only thing it was missing was Collin's fireworks extravaganza. (clap clap! clap clap!)
We paid $30 for our seats which included all-we can eat arm bands. Kevin had 5-6 hotdogs (i lost count), peanuts, sunflower seeds, and i think 4-5 cokes. I vaguely remember seeing nachos. He was putting away the food so fast i'm not sure what all i missed while i was actually watching the game.
It was NASCAR night at the ballgame as well. In between innings, twice, 3 NASCARS drove around the field - one of which was Dale Jr.'s car. I have never seen so many camera flashes go off at once. I was looking for my raincoat because it looked like lightning. It was so funny. The only thing that would have made this crowd cheer louder and take more pictures would be if Lynard Skynard walked out.
The game itself, um what's the word i'm looking for - oh yeah, stunk! Molina and Rolen did not play. The fact Rolen didn't play put a damper on my entire evening. Pujols didn't play the entire game but the drunk guys behind us didn't pick up on that small detail. During the 8th inning the drunk guys kept yelling at first base at "Pujols" but little did they know Pujols had been out of the game for an entire inning. I have no idea what the score ended up being because I lost count after the Braves scored 10 runs. My brother said it best when he said, "If this had been a high school game the Cardinals would have been run ruled."
If nothing else i can mark Turner Field off of my list of Major League Ball Parks I've visited. It was good to spend time with my brother this weekend.
Oh, the next night the Cardinals beat the Braves in extra innings. Scott Rolen hit a 2 run homer in the 10th! I wish i could have seen it in person and not on ESPN.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
In Colorado I'm a T.V. Star
Today for lunch we went to a little pizza place located in downtown Colorado Springs. As we are enjoying our pizza our waiter walks up to me and asks if i'm on t.v. Of course, after I said no we all started laughing. He said that the person i look like is on Fox and is "sports reporter." At this point I have a good idea who he thinks i might be. Five minutes later, he says "Are you not Summer Sanders?" (Summer is an olympic swimmer who now hosts random t.v. shows). After i told him i wasn't Summer he walked off. Thinking that the conversation was finished my co-workers and i continued to enjoy our hour away from patient accounts, census, and fixed assets. Um, we were wrong. Dude walks up to me one last time just to make sure that i wasn't Summer. This time he told me i'm a dead ringer for Summer. After i convinced him I was Lester and not Summer he finally left us alone.
This is not the first time I've been told I look like Summer Sanders; however, i've never had this much trouble convincing someone I wasn't Summer. Google Summer Sanders and let me know what y'all think - do I look like Summer Sanders?
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Must Eat Before 8:00 and Have Cash
Yesterday as my co-workers and i were packing up our computers to leave the hospital for dinner we were given a few dinner suggestions. We were told that after we leave The Garden of the Gods we should eat dinner in downtown historic Manitou Springs because they have a lot of neat places to eat. We always try to not eat at chain restaurants when we travel since we can usually get that food in Nashville. The little town located at the foot of Pike's Peak is a cute town; however, that's were my love for the little town ends. After we drove around for 30 minutes looking for a place to park we headed to Mona Lisa's Fondue Restaurant for dinner. Um, yeah, they are closed on Mondays. We then decided that we would go to Adam's Mountain Cafe because it had outdoor seating. I knew this place was opened on Mondays because all 4 times we passed the cafe looking for a place to park we saw people eatting there. We walk up to the restaurant and they were closed. They closed at 7:00. It was 7:05. So, our third choice was another restaurant that had outdoor seating (this was important because how often can you eat outside and look at the Rocky Mountains). This place was actually opened. Nicole and I sat down while Kristin went to the bathroom. Our waitress takes our drink order and Nicole just happened to notice that this place does not accept credit cards. Are you kidding me????? Who doesn't accept credit cards these days. So, none of us had cash so we got up and went to the next restaurant P.J.'s Bistro. This place did take credit cards but it closed at 8:00 and it was 7:15 by the time we got there. Side note - all of these restaurants were not very close together. By the time we arrived at P.J's we were all hungry, hot, and sweaty.
When we walked into P.J's the hostess looked at us rather funny and i asked if they were still serving dinner. Her response was, "Let me check with the kitchen. Sometimes if the cooks get tired they will just close the kitchen at 7:00." I think all of us had this look of unbelief because a waitress who had a Polish accent verified - word for word - what the hostess just told us. Much to our surprise the kitchen was still open however they had run out of a lot of their main menu items. The waitress told us that the following items were sold out - potato pancakes, goulash, potato pancakes, soup, and potato pancakes. We were told multiple times that they were sold out of potato pancakes. Here's what we were told we could order, "we still have pork chops, a few sandwhiches, and cabbage. Potato pancakes usually come with a sandwhich but we don't have any more potato pancakes." Really? Who knew there would be a run on potato pancakes and goulash in Manitou Springs before 7:00 p.m. We were so frustrated we left and ended up dinning at Maccaroni Grill. We were so hungry and tired that i don't think any of us said a word during dinner. I think our waiter felt sorry for us because he gave us a free dessert.
Moral of the story: if you plan on eatting in Manitou Springs eat on a Tuesday before 8:00 and bring cash.
On the Road Again
I just spent 13 days in Honduras and had the most incredible experience. I had no way of knowing just how much the trip would effect me but boy did it ever. I am ready to go back right now. I'll write more about my experience later.
Right now I am in Colorado for the week for work. After i walked into my hotel room tonight i realized that over the past 9 days i have lived in 6 different hotel rooms. I think i packed more for 5 days in Colorado than I did for 13 days in Honduras. Hopefully I'll have more time to write later on in the week but right now I need to go to sleep. I'm so tired I'm starting to see double.
