There were so many things going on the last few weeks. I want to tell you about all of them, in chronological order of events happened, but I found no time to blog. Well, I guess there’s no point to wait for time, but just write them quickly with whatever time I got. Screw the order! Taking advantage of my lunch time here, I’ll start from my most recent memory, and that was Monday, May 25th, the Memorial’s Day.
http://www.territorydaysvendor.com
Apparently, I’ve been living under a rock or something and wasn’t aware of this annual event happening in the old downtown of Colorado Springs; it’s called Territory Days. Last Sunday, I heard about it briefly from a friend who wanted to attend. Honestly, I didn’t even catch the name of the event because I was all ears listening as she told how good the steak-on-the-stick that they have. I thought it’s called Teriyaki or something relevant to the subject she was talking about. This used to be a very small event with few local people gather to sale crafts and products. But it now has grown so big into a 3-day local event.
So, we got to the old downtown area on Monday’s morning around 10:30 AM. They barricaded the roads for the event. Time to hunt for the parking space. There was definitely not a single space available within 3-4 blocks from the main street, where the event was. Most people turned their big yard or private land into a paid-parking-lot, a business opportunity. We were willing to pay for a spot, but most of them are full. After driving around for a while, we tempted to knock on someone’s door and asked to pay for parking in their driveway. But we then found a small empty spot next to the park. As soon as we pulled the car in, a guy showed up and said we need to pay $5.00 to park there. I noticed there was couple residential houses nearby, but this part of the land was no where near the vicinity of those houses. No time to argue! I paid the man 5 bucks. As we got our stuff out of the car, and headed toward the main event, I overheard the conversation between he and someone by the house. “Are we gonna get in trouble doing this?” and he replied “No, we won’t get in trouble for this.“ Oh well I just got screwed, I thought. Let just hope my car won’t get towed away when we get back.
There was a lot going on here. There was live music performed at the open-air theater inside the park. There were street performances, foods vendors, shops, face paints and tatoo, balloons …. Only cash was accepted here, so there were long lines at the ATM machines, with the ridiculous surcharge like $3.50 to $5.00. It was lot of fun. Thao picked out a dress, while I was getting balloons for Grace and Benjamin. There were lots of local farmer food shops which you can sampling such as jerky, dips…
Picture taken from http://jmvigil.blogspot.com
We hit the jackpot as we saw the Steak-on-the-stick shop of the opposite side. We found the end of the line and lined up. It was a long line, but very fast moving. Not only they have steak, but chicken and pork as well. If you go next year, go for the steak. Trust me! We tried the pork but it was no near the quality of that juicy, and flavorful steak. We spent nearly 2.5 hours there, but only walked about 3 blocks from where we started. Probably that was only about 25% of what the event offered. There were many things to see, foods to eat, lots of snacks, lots of tasting. We had some great fresh squeeze lemonade, old style popcorn, funnel cake… Grace got a ladybug air sprayed on her cheek. She said: “I love this day! Today is a good day!“… hahaha.
Around 1h30PM, rain came down pouring. It has been raining everyday since Thursday last week, and rain was expected today so we had our big umbrella with us. People didn’t seem to mind the rain. It didn’t stop them from continue shopping, or walking under the rain. We were in line for funnel cake at that time. There was nothing like sitting on the park bench, in the rain (well, under the umbrella), and enjoying the hot funnel cake. The rain stopped after a while, but it was time for us to head home. The kids were tired. So was I, since we forgot the stroller and I carried Benjamin the whole time. That’s why we didn’t take any pictures. Sorry!
We stopped by Dad’s house and my brother was getting ready to go shopping with his friend in Castle Rock Outlet Mall. Not sure what were we thinking, but we decided to join them… hahaha. So, there was more walking and we didn’t got home until almost 7pm. Actually, I haven’t gone clothes shopping with Thao for a long time. Most of the time, she bought me clothes and I just wear them, so there was no need for me to go shopping. So this was nice, except all the bags carrying stuff… hahaha. Though we got bunch of jeans and polos from Aeropostale for $5.00 each. I have never seen a pair of jean on sale for $5 before. Benjamin was so hungry on the way home. He said “Mommy, măm măm“, asking mom to feed him.
It was a long, but fun day. The kids were tired, showered and off to bed early. Thao prepared some “bún xì dầu chả giò“. We had dinner then watched a movie before called it a night. What’s a memorial day!