March 23, 2008

Jon came to Colorado March 22 for Colleen's birthday, but since nothing totally crazy happened that day, we'll start on the 23rd. After an early church service, Jon and Colleen headed to Red Rocks where we swear we saw one guy run up the stairs 7 times. Of course, Colleen wanted to make sure Jon took it easy with the altitude and all so they were going slow. Colleen then took Jon to only the best place ever for pizza in Colorado, Beau Jo's, where there are napkins on the walls, you get your salad from a bathtub and you get a 20 percent discount with your AAA card.

Our next stop was the Phoenix Mine, where the brochure we picked up at the Red Rocks Visitors Center told us we could "experience mining history with a seasoned Colorado hard rock miner." We should have known we were in trouble when the address listed on the back of the brochure was a P.O. Box. Garmin wasn't smart enough for that but fortunately Jon was able to decipher the map to get us there. We were the only ones there so we got a personalized tour although apparently we should have had one with "Al" because that's all we heard about for the next hour. (Jon can tell you more about that.) We did get a big rock to take home with us, which probably had more gold specks in it than we found while panning. (Hey, you're in Colorado - you have to do it.)

Our next stop was the Indian Springs Resort in Idaho Springs, which, as usual, presented its own colorful cast of characters. Just about everyone in the hot springs pool had a beer in their hands but us. After Colleen made Jon her new favorite dish, we went over to her friend Jeff's house, where we watched Jarvier Bardem kill people with oxygen tanks in "No Country For Old Men." --POSTED BY COLLEEN