You either get a fever or you're neurologically diseased: Colorado and Kansas trip day 5

While this was a pretty light day, it was still such a weird time weather wise, and that trend really stayed fairly true the entire time we were in the Springs. 

Derek and I had really wanted to do a few hikes while we were in the springs, but every time the weather looked alright, we got rained out. 

Every.

Fucking. 

Time. 

I woke up feeling a bit assier than I had the day before, so it didn't quite bother me as much that we kept getting thwarted by weather. I opted to just grab a Red Bull for my morning caffeine, so I was as raring to go as a buddingly ill person could be. We tried the Twins hike again:

Oh come on. 

It looks so fucking ominous over there, but then looking ahead on the trail, we saw this:

We decided to believe the blue sky. 

We chose poorly. 

We got back into the car just as the rain really fucking crashed the party. Colorado thunderstorms are gorgeous, but I don't like being outside when they're happening, I prefer to engage from a distance. 

By the time we got through GoG, the rain had stopped. Thwarted momentarily but not permanently, Derek and I decided to go try another fast hike. 

Pulpit Rock, baby! An enduring favorite, though not one I like to do in the summer. This is a spring or fall hike, because it's pretty exposed throughout, and while I love the sun, I also love to control my exposure to it. 

We were wary of the clouds, but Derek and I are pretty fast hikers when we have to be. So we hustled our way along. 

But uh oh...

Which way do we go????? 

We split up to see where we'd meet. And uh...while we did meet up, we have no idea where we met up? We didn't track it, so there goes that bit of science. 

It looks like a gorgeous day! Those clouds look fluffy and playful, not ominous! Derek and I got a little too confident and started ambling, just enjoying being in the warm together. And making friends!!

Definitely not a fan of mine. But I'm not a fan of gigantic things that loom over me and call me chonky, either. 

The clouds started to threaten a lot more than the blue sky in my photos would have you imagine, and I wanted to get back to the car with such quickness that I didn't even want to take a photo of the clouds rolling over us. And it's a good thing, too, because the moment we got to the trailhead, it started POURING. Just absolutely dumping on us. We drove back to the hotel to rest up for our date.

The first dressy, grown ups with disposable income date that Derek and I went on was to Mackenzie's Chop House. Derek explained to me that this was his litmus test for whether a woman was worth his time to date...seeing how she behaved in an upper echelon restaurant. Nevermind that this is super fucking classist, and super fucking sexist, and overall shitty...Derek still loves this place, and we've kind of made it a ritual to head there when we're in the Springs together. 

I do gripe to Derek that he just...doesn't set up touchstone dates for us? It's always me who says hey, we need a moment to reconnect, I feel disconnected, let's go have a weekend together, or let's go have a lunch together where the specific intention is being together and connecting. When we take trips, I plan what we do. I ask Derek and he's always like, I dunno. It's exhausting, I just kind of want to be doted on in every way once and awhile? But I'm pretty sure I planned our dinner to Mackenzie's. We hadn't done anything for our anniversary earlier in the year (nine years LEGALLY married), we were in the area, this seemed like a good thing to do. 

If you've never been, Mackenzie's is the kind of place that I think people would describe  as having "old world charm"? It's what I thought of while we waited for our table, but I admit to not really knowing what the fuck that means. 

                                                         

Old? 

We got called to our table, and I fucking swear we get sat in the same fucking booth every time we go there. Almost like Brennan's in New Orleans. Same fucking table every time. It's delightful? Weird? A secret third thing?

Well. There's an area of the menu that I can order from!! 

This is my meal, I call this...I'm sad. 

I did end up having a bite of bread. I couldn't help it, it was so inviting and crusty and warm and I was immediately bummed out I couldn't hoover the entire fucking basket. I did tell our server that I am a vegetarian and keto, so I would either be annoyingly full of questions about ingredients, or annoyingly not ordering food. Turns out I was both!

When we visited Maui, Derek and I stopped at a cafe in Paia that served blistered shishitos as an appetizer. While they were like playing roulette, we both loved them, and I kind of always order them if they're a menu item any place I go. So these balsamic glazed shishitos with grilled watermelon sounded a bit too rich for my blood...and they were...but I still wanted to try them. They were DELICIOUS. 

For my main event, I ordered a bunch of appetizers. Those broccoli look unfuckingcooked, and they weren't zhuzhed at all, and it seemed outrageous to pay Mackenzie's prices for five fucking pieces of bland ass broccoli. But they were pretty tasty with the caramelized onions on them, and the carrots and asparagus were decent enough. The star of the meal was Derek's steak. I don't miss steak the way Derek wishes I missed steak. 

I can definitely live without steak. He gripes at me a lot for not eating meat, since I'm anemic and my extremities are fuckin' ALWAYS cold, but I'm solid. I'll stick to my bland broccoli for iron. 

We didn't get a dessert, there wouldn't have been a point since I can't eat sugar. And that was pretty much it. We left the restaurant and headed back to the hotel to loaf for the rest of the evening. 

I was starting to feel pretty fucking assy by this point in the trip. My throat was agitated, my chest was heavy, I had a pesky headache and I was just generally tired. Few things bother me like being ill on a trip.