Thirteeners and Usual Suspects,

Did you miss me half as much as I missed you? I don’t know if that is possible, cuz I missed you a lot! We were on vacation, through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. It was fun. It was fantastic. It was so much fantastic fun that I am having trouble settling back in to “real” life and instead, am dreaming of this 13…

1. Blueberry-sour cream pie at Mom’s Cafe in Salina, Utah. And coconut cream pie. And a nice juicy cheeseburger. And the waitresses in the turquoise uniforms, which match the turquoise booths. And hello, ladies, if you’re reading this — you’re pretty. I like you. And thanks for knowing how to give good service. It was a treat. We’ll be by again soon.

2. Speaking of excellent service… go see Dana at the Minturn Saloon, in the old mining town of Minturn, Colorado. She needs to take it on the road and train waiters and waitresses across the country.

Dana: “Punkin, I’m giving you three choices: fish tacos, taco salad, pork ribs. You have to pick one.”
me: “Ribs!”
Dana: “Excellent choice. But I’m not bringing them to you unless they’re falling off the bone.”

They were. They were perfect — served with pinto beans, rice and buttered flour tortillas. Everything on the menu was delicious — guacamole, cheese dip, enchiladas, margaritas — and the setting was nice, too.

3. Barbecue teriyaki chicken and veggie kebabs, and microwave chocolate-cherry cake, family and good conversation in my mother-in-law’s gorgeous garden of a backyard, Denver, Colo.

4. Perkins Cake & Steak would like you to know they are now Perkins Restaurant & Bakery. We went to the one in Burley, Idaho. Try the potato pancakes with sour cream and applesauce (recommended by moi) or the rainbow pancakes (recommended by my children).

5. Fancy, but not too fancy? Vendetta’s Restaurant, Vail, Colorado. Pasta, pizza, good drinks and conversation, efficient staff, and my children didn’t break anything. Another success story.

6. Picnics by the side of the road across five states. Cold cuts, cheese, cottage cheese and croutons (Wacky Girl has us hooked on this), baby carrots, nectarines and peaches, crackers, bunny grahams, Newman-O’s cookies, iced tea, juice and french bread, peanut butter and jelly — basically, everything we snack on at home. We took a cooler and a plastic tub of food with us, along with napkins, paper plates, plastic forks, knives, spoons and cups. My husband invented a new dish — you take some triangles of brie, and roll them in the crushed remains of the pita chips.

“Do you know how much we’d pay for this at a restaurant?” I asked him.

“A lot?” he answered.

7. Pizza and salads at Pazzo’s Pizzeria, Vail, Colorado. Where our kids tried not to freak out, freaked out, stopped freaking out, and fell asleep on the bench because it took the food so freakin’ long to get there.

8. Garfinkel’s, Vail, Colorado. Nachos and beer (damn, no wonder I gained weight on this vacation! Somebody bring me a rice cake), macaroni and cheese, the kids running around, dancing and singing, the waiters praying we’d all leave. Fun. (It’s also where the locals go. Low-key and decent prices.)

9. On the way to Vail, we stopped at a little cafe in Georgetown, Colorado. (Unable to remember name of place, sorry.) The hippie girls run it, and they know what they’re doing. The food was good, the service was great and dang it if I don’t love those old mining towns.

10. Dining room, Little America, Wyoming. Sort of like being back in the ’30s and the ’70s at the same time.

11. More Italian? Yes, yes, yes to pasta, always. Bagali’s Italian Kitchen, Vail, Colorado. I had a hunk of iceberg lettuce with Green Goddess dressing (God only knows why I love this so much. It’s comfort food for me), pasta alfredo and a Bloody Mary. The kids had pizza and were happy. Hockey God had… something spicy. I wanted half but he wouldn’t share. (I’d like to say thank you to Wacky Grandpa and our Auntie from Pittsburgh for picking out the great restaurants. They planned the whole Vail reunion, in fact, and it went off really well. Thanks, you two.)

12. Pastrami, cheese, pickles, bread and cookies — lunch in our condo with the grandparents. Simple and nice.

13. Dinner, back home at our place, after two weeks on the road.

Happy Thursday, everyone!