She makes me brave!!

So after hanging out for a bit last night with Jules and Liz (my bosses), Joanna mustered up the courage and told them for me. Of course I was sitting right next to her. She is just better with words sometimes and making things sound nicer. I am so glad she did. They were really really cool about it! If anything they're just sad that we are leaving!!! =) So I keep my job and my friends and now no secrets. Phew...that's a load off. I would have been really upset if it didn't work out. Happy Thursday everyone!! =) Love, Rachie

A couple other things...

So as the days pass I am becoming closer and closer to the couple that I work for. They befriended Joanna and I instantly and have just been a lot of fun to be around. I love going to work and care about that restaurant a lot for only being there a short time. I have run into a bit of a debacle. We plan on leaving at the end of July, and our new friends have no idea. I want to tell them as our friends but am scared to tell them as my bosses. I don't want to screw them over and want them to know that I will work my butt off for them until we move on but I have scared that then they will just let me go. Honesty is always the best policy, I know, but what do I do? I don't want to lose them as friends. Aye. On a happier note... Jo and I went biking today down to Sloan's Park. It was really pretty. Great few of the mountains and of the city. And Joanna made a little video for you haha so I thought I would post it for ya. Enjoy a good laugh on her =) Love, Rachie

...the rest of the story

Hey guys... rach here. Figured I would pick up where Jo left off on our trip to Colorado Springs. So...as she said... when we arrived at our Bed and Breakfast the owner greeted us with open arms. The place was gorgeous and perfect. Very quaint and well kept. After setting down our things and freshening up we left to go Horse-back riding. Long story short... 2 hours on a horse is way too long. Fifteen minutes to a half hour is about sufficient. Plus after that amount of time, aside from the fact that you feel awful for riding the poor thing, your butt is throbbing, all they do is fart and poop, and the guides yell at you to keep them from eating. It was an experience to say the least. I kept wanting to go faster but there we were trotting along at the end of a line of 10 or so horses. We were unable to hear the guide in the front so we learned nothing haha. She was however named Ryan and from Texas and a close second to the beauty in the Diner haha. Oh... and my horses name was BITTER and Joanna's was BONITA. Not sure which is funnier or whose suits who better but we found both pretty comical. It seemed as though most people were matched up pretty well with their horses... in personality and size. We were far from miserable and laughed at the whole experience sore butts and all. It was cool going up on the trails and rocks. Just, as I said, a little too lengthy. But I have to give Joanna credit for booking the long one thinking that she really really wanted to make me happy =) So... back to the B&B we go to shower and google places to eat Dinner. After 45 minutes we discover a resort called the Broadmoor. Really fancy and expensive... perfect for Jo and I haha. We found a place located in the resort called Summit. Joanna obviously loved the name and she wanted oysters haha. We pulled in and laughed our sore butts off. The parking lot had about 10 cars in it. Everything from a lexus to an audi to a benz to a lincoln. And there we were, pulling up in our 2002 Honda, dirty as ever with a big bike rack on the back. It was amazing. Who says you need a million bucks or a fancy car to eat a nice restaurant? Not us =) We walked in and the host promptly asked the name on the reservation. She then asked the hostess to please seat "The Cappola's"!!!! We liked the way that sounded. Our server immediately said "Good evening ladies", and was amazing. Joanna's cranberry mojitos were awesome, the beer and wine that I had hit the spot (including our awesome server bringing us a bunch of tastings), the oysters were good, the lobster mac and cheese seemed promising but was just whatever, the blue shell crabs were boring, the Halibut was bland and the Scallops were good only because of the Scallops themselves. But we are starting to get used to being disappointed with food. We're not in New York anymore. However that will NOT stop our search! I'm determined to get a good meal. Hopefully for Jo's birthday... which is SATURDAY the 12th for all of those who may not know =) So, dessert was the best part, which he gave us for free along with some dessert wine. Again, amazing server. We gave him a huge tip and headed back comfortably full despite some mediocre food. The next morning we woke up to the smell of homemade waffles, eggs, bacon and coffee. We sat with two other couples, one of which just got married the night before!! We were very jealous of them. But along with everyone else that we met in Colorado Springs, these two couples were extremely nice. We enjoyed an incredible breakfast, chatting about our lives and our adventure. All of them thought that what we were doing was really cool. So after breakfast we hit the road back to Denver. It was an awesome trip and one we will probably never forget.

the springs

I am no longer listening to anyone's mumbo jumbo about gay-hating, conservative, religious, uptight or rigid places. Colorado Springs is the last place I will visit with any preconceptions or negative expectations. We had an absolutely amazing time. Our check in time was at 2pm and we arrived around 1. We had skipped breakfast so we had both been craving eggs and talking about it increasingly the whole ride from Denver. We decided we had plenty of time to eat and we were very excited to find a diner only blocks from the B&B. We parked the car on the street and ended up making the decision that we needed a designated places for quarters (if i write that in the blog it will help me remember to do it). Finally after crawling around the car for a few minutes, we were legally placed and had plenty of time to finally have breakfast! The outside of the diner was really colorful and you couldn't see through the windows due to an excess of advertisement. It was hard to determine what to expect, but we knew that if it was a diner, it could make us eggs. Inside there was blasting rock music, and a very unique atmosphere. It had a really young, Colorado feel to it. Very excited for what we just walked into, we were seated and immediately became engrossed with our menus. Everything sounded good and some of the items boasted a "Famous Green Chili Sauce". We started to notice all the accolades displayed on the walls. KING'S CHEF DINER- WINNER '08 BEST GREEN CHILI IN COLORADO SPRINGS" I don't remember exactly what they said, but thats the general idea behind all these posters and banners. Then, after barely a minute comes the waitress. If this blog site allowed me to write in paragraphs, I would use a few spaces to pause here. Our waitress swaggers over covered in tattoos, with a not-on-purpose swoop half covering one eye. She asked us how we were doing today. We both, I think, had to take a second to remember who we even were so that we could locate an appropriate answer to her question. I don't actually remember what answer we gave. We managed to communicate that we would like coffee and water to drink and we'd need a few minutes to decide what we wanted to eat. We had a quick moment when she left to discuss how attractive our server was got back to looking at the menu. She came back with our coffee and water and we had not decided yet what we wanted. She said she'd give us more time. Again, we needed a moment to discuss again how attractive our server was. She came back to the table to take our order. To take our order, she sat at our table in the seat next to mine. This surprised both of us. Most of the time sitting or squatting at a table while taking an order is strictly forbidden. We ordered and smiled and she left. Our server looked like a mix of Scarlett Johansen and our friend Danielle from NY. This is NOT an unattractive combination. It was one of those people that fit into the "top 5 best looking people you've seen this year in real life" category. But it wasn't even just that. This girl seemed really cool. She was a vegetarian (which i always find a great quality). She just seemed like someone me and Rachel would hang out with in NY. It was really refreshing and surprising to have our first Colorado Springs encounter to be such a positive one. It made us both feel a little guilty that we came in with pre-experience judgement and expectations. One refill of coffee later our food came out. HUGE portions of eggs, omelette, toast, hash browns and sausage. The food was really good. We chatted for a little while about how we regreted not getting that famous green chili sauce. We'd definitely have to come back before leaving Colorado to try it. We paid and said goodbye but realized when we got to the car that we still had 20 minutes to kill. We were right downtown so we decided to walk around. First of all, Colorado Springs is gorgeous. It's at the base of Pike's Peak, which is one of those mountains taller than 14,000ft. It's the mountain, supposedly, that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the song "America the Beautiful". It's so clean and clear, and that huge mountain, covered in jagged rock and snow is just so close! The streets are busy with friendly looking people shopping, dining,or walking their dogs. We turned our first corner into Tejon St. This seemed like the main street of downtown. The first thing we noticed was the sidewalk. Someone had sidewalk chalked a series of rectangles in rainbow colors and the word "RIGHTS" under it and below it. Whichever direction you walked on the street you could see the word facing upright. This is the last thing we expected to see after our anti-gay warnings. As we walked we discovered this was written on every corner. It's pride month and we were happy to see that there was a an active community in the area. We've learned now that Colorado Springs gets this anti-gay reputation because it is the location for "Focus on the Family". I plan to look it up tonight and learn more about it, but what I've learned so far is that it is a program, or camp, that is supposed to treat homosexuality. If you or a loved one are suffering from homosexuality, there is help for you. FOCUS ON THE FAMILY can help ease the symptoms of homosexuality and make it possible for you to have a better life. Homosexuality is not your fault, it is a chemical imbalance which causes confusion. Promiscuous behavior. Drug use. An Unsafe environment for children. Attention seeking behavior and the overall disrespect for everything and everyone. If you feel any of these symptoms please call now. FOCUS ON THE FAMILY is clinically proven to reduce the effects of the homosexual imbalance. At FOCUS ON THE FAMILY we believe that you can be normal. Through therapy and prayer, FOCUS ON THE FAMILY will help you overcome homosexuality so that you can can stay with your family. Call now. I've always been really interested in these kinds of places. A few years ago I tried to find one online. I wanted to attend one so that I could then write a book about it. I couldn't find one. I don't know how I didn't come across it. I want to find out how long the programs are, and what's entailed. I don't know if I'd actually want to go to one anymore, but just learning about it sounds really interesting. So anyway, we got back to our B&B right at 2. Our host, Conchita, opened the door and knew who we were. She was so sweet and the house was beautiful. So far so good. I'll write about the rest of the trip later or tomorrow. This is even long for me! -lj