The mountain air and all the food we don’t usually eat just get me up early, I guess! I didn’t miss this morning’s sunrise, either. There were regrets that we didn’t get any breakfast groceries, thinking the leftovers and pizza would be enough. But there were three teenagers with us, what were we thinking? Everyone was talking so much about breakfast that even I got hungry. So there was no choice left but to go to the store. I was on biscuit duty; I have a pretty good recipe that I’ve come up with. I can’t stand baking, but I like biscuits enough to make them. The only other baking I do is cornbread, which is easier because I don’t even have to measure it.
Once back from the grocery run, we promptly started breakfast even though the kids had started on their first breakfast, eating the leftovers! We were eating leftover tater tots with eggs, bacon, and biscuits. I also grabbed a mushroom mix, a zucchini, and an heirloom tomato for Amanda and I to sub out the meat. I wasn’t about to pass up a runny fried egg, though! For me, eggs were one of the hardest things to quit when going plant-based, right after cheese. I only indulge ever so often now.
While everyone was milling around, we got to see some elk. Amanda had so wanted to see some animals. It didn’t matter if they were whitetails that we see every day back home. It was a group of young yearlings, so nothing spectacular; a young bull followed the group.
Breakfast was at lunchtime when we got it ready, so naps took place shortly thereafter. I’m not much on naps. Even when I can’t sleep, I still don’t nap. Unless I’m on a train, I can sleep like a pro if I’m at work on a locomotive! So I worked on yesterday’s post, finishing it up.
Once everyone was napped up and dressed, we took out for an afternoon downtown. The first stop was a coffee shop a friend had told us about. Their coffee was better, and their cinnamon roll was on par with our favorite spot. It was a bust for us. The coffee was good but not as good as the Root House, and the cinnamon roll wasn’t even in the same ballpark. Root House cinnamon rolls are by far the best we’ve ever had; even the outside edges that aren’t good on some are good on these.
We hit a thrift store and then went to a gift shop, but it was closed, so we hit up the downtown strip. We weaved in and out of different stores, everyone picking up something. Nathan would find a place to stand or sit, waiting to get his debit card out. I told him I was glad I only had one to get out of hock! Amanda got an incredible 70% off deal on a leather purse but didn’t find much else. I found a clearance Pagosa tee shirt at the end of the strip. A couple of days ago, Amanda noticed there was a sale at Root House for all of the non-coffee items. I’d been eyeing a cap there since our last trip, so I was holding off waiting for the extra 20% off. Before everything closed, we ran over to the jewelry shop. Amanda picked up the ring she had her eye on, along with a Pagosa long-sleeve tee.
We picked up groceries for dinner; it was steak night. We didn’t get back till later, and I had potatoes to bake. The stove was lacking badly; I don’t know if it was just not a great gas stove, the elevation, or a combination. Either way it took probably an hour and a half to bake the potatoes. Then I needed to shred them to make potatoes Romanoff, shredded baked potatoes with sour cream and white cheddar then baked off again. I made them for my birthday a few weeks ago, and Amanda and I both agreed they were some of the best potatoes we’d ever had. They didn’t turn out nearly as good here, and I should have just stopped at baked potatoes and grilled the steaks then. We grilled ribeyes and a few New York strips; I also did some Grand Marnier miso carrots and sautéed broccolini. We all snacked pretty hard, waiting on potatoes! Holten has been liking baking since he started working at our local pizza joint, so he made dessert. A caramel peanut butter pretzel blondie was his choice. I’d been giving him a hard time about not making us anything until now.
Nathan and Kim will be staying an extra day after us since we came up a day early. We really should have booked a week which would have only cost an extra day. That way, we could have stayed 2 days early, and they could have stayed 2 days late, or whatever combination we wanted. They spent much time trying to decide if they wanted to stay an extra day or not. So I checked to see if the house was available, and it was. To make the extra day decision, they also needed to decide if they were going to ski and, if so, when. They are super last-minute decision-makers. It was quite comical watching them try to decide what to do! By the time we went to bed, they didn’t even have a plan. I’m the total opposite, and I over-plan everything. I was a lot more loose this trip knowing how they are, though. That didn’t stop me from having a list of what we could do, restaurants that I’d vetted, and a list of all the live music going on while we were here! It was nice not to have such a rigid schedule this trip; I think we could mix these types of trips with our fast-paced style as well.