Monday, October 6, 2008

Silver Plume Tea House, Georgetown Aspen Festival, and Railroad Loop

It started snowing in Colorado this weekend so we decided to take advantage of the last couple of days before the cold. We went to Silver Plume which is a tiny town just east of the Eisenhower tunnel/Continental Divide. This place is badness! It is a relatively authentic Rocky Mountain town--minus the silver mining of course. No vendors trying to sell knock off "gold nuggets" or any of the other usual touristy garbage. We ate lunch at the only restaurant in town--the Tea House. We had homemade scones with lemon curd, honey butter, and currant preserves. Also some tomato soup, and homegrown peaches and apples. They are supposedly famous for their pies but we had to bail before we could eat some. Just off I-70, watch close for the signs or you'll miss this little gem.


We then checked out the Aspen Festival that was going on a couple of miles east in Georgetown. There are a few places that make homemade ice cream here so we got Pralines 'n Cream in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone. This was Grace's first time with this flavor and it was a screaming success. She has figured out that foods that are sweet and rich for the simple sake of being sweet and rich can actually be a good thing.

This is Rose Street in Georgetown. A few very well preserved homes that are around a hundred-years-old line this short road. Even though this house had a John McCain sign on its lawn we thought it warranted a picture.
Mountain Man Blues Band--not their real name but catchy, yes?
On to the Georgetown Railroad Loop. This train winds up the canyon back to Silver Plume. It is about a 12 mile trip one way.
It wasn't that cold, but this old Mexican grandma sitting next to Grace kept on telling us that Sloane was cold, she even tried to pull Sloane's hat down onto her ears.
Orange leaves.


The yellowing Aspens scattered amongst the pines were very pretty.
Our train broke down, not really. One of the brakes on the wheels was stuck so it was like driving with the emergency brake on.


This is a refurbished turn-of-the-century bridge. Kind of scary.

Lance's birthday is September 27

Waiting for a table at the California Pizza Kitchen. This is pretty much the closest restaurant to our house and we figured Sloane would do well at a pizza joint. She did.
Lance got one of his favorite meals--the Margherita pizza. Grace ordered Jambalaya, spicy and good. Grace finally picked out something good to eat. Whenever we go out Grace always orders some kind of exotic dish that turns out to be a disaster--not this time. I guess Jambalaya isn't that hard to mess up anyway.

Family picture. Cheaper than hiring someone. Right now Sloane likes to smile at strangers, so we can usually get some decent shots.

Shopping at the Flatiron Crossing mall. Hopefully Sloane won't pick up any of her mommy's bad shopping habits. She's probably too young to know where we were. When she gets older I'll explain to her that malls are bad places.
Grace and Sloane got gussied up in some new head wear for our day out.
Sloane seems to like the sauce. We got some Stewart's Key Lime soda for Lance's birthday and Sloane was interested in the color. We let her play around with the bottle and she probably got a tiny taste of the green goods inside.