Fun Day!

Yesterday, C, R, A, and C's friend, P, all took an end-of-summer trip to Denver where we enjoyed the zoo (though R was disappointed by the lack of Dippin' Dots - I might have seen some and not mentioned it however. "Ice Cream of the Future" it may be but it is also "Rip off of Today"!) We enjoyed feeding the Lorikeets, saw too darn many monkeys (according to R), enjoyed the Tropical Discovery House (hello, heat and humidity! Thank you for reminding me why I live in the generally arid mountain west), shared a remarkably crispy and fresh order of fries, loved the seals and sea lions, and waved at the pachyderms.

Then, all sweaty and tired, we decided to grace the Hammond's candy factory with our presence. I didn't expect much from their factory tour (and it isn't really a stand-alone destination) but it ended up being pretty darn fun and the candy was really fabulous! I like chocolate but I'm not a chocolate fiend but I think I might have a crush on whoever made my dark chocolate peanut butter cup (who, by all appearances on the factory floor, was probably a highly-skilled woman of Asian descent wearing a hairnet - not generally my type but if she brought peanut butter cups...). Watching the caramel colored sugar mass twist around on the candy puller until enough air was incorporated to make that lovely, "old fashioned white" characteristic of hand-made candy canes held R's attention for several minutes. I was intrigued with the batch of candy icicles being made for holiday sales at Dean and Deluca. Every single one of the things is made by hand in stifling 90-100F heat, in the middle of summer, by the skilled hands of hard-working employees. I'll be interested to find out how much each of those icicles is selling for around Christmas.

Then, we drove home through Boulder and made a spur-of-the-moment trip to the Celestial Seasonings tea factory. I'd visited several years ago with our friends Karen and Eric (before R and A came along) but they've expanded a bit since then and it was fun to have all of the kids along. We enjoyed sampling teas while waiting for our tour. The kids made some pretty interesting combinations of teas and available additives (honey, sugar, half and half, soy milk... you get the idea) and I discovered that I really like their green tea (something I generally avoid because of bitterness - the tea's, not my own). We had time to explore their extensive collection of tea pots and original art, enjoyed their (slightly too long) pre-tour video, and were wowed by the spices, teas, automated equipment, hairnets (we all had to wear them and brought them home as souvenirs), and knowledge base of our tour guide. I've been neglecting Celestial Seasonings in recent years because of my addiction to Good Earth tea and I think I'll be making my way back (although I'm still bitter about them discontinuing Mo's 24 - a staple of my hippie-ish childhood). We made some purchases at the gift shop, hopped in the trusty minivan, and made our way home.

On the way home, Craig called to inquire about the availability of Rhubarb crumble. When we got home around 6:30, K and Craig were sitting at the table enjoying the last of it. Thanks again to my friend Cindy for the rhubarb bounty this year - I need to plant some. I really, really do.

It was a really nice way to cap off a rather low-key summer that, especially for the last few weeks, reminded me of my summers as a kid (in a good way).