Denver: Phase Two (Or: Why We Won't Trust Maggie to Make Our Restaurant Selection Again)

Yesterday was so close to perfect. I mean, it even started out with a good hair day. So you knew early on it was going to rock.

First of all, the weather started out gorgeous, giving us an awesome view of the RockyMountains from downtown Colorado Springs, where my sister lives. We walked to breakfast, then to the park. Denver is about an hour's drive from Abby's house, and I figured we'd need to get some wiggles out before packing up in the car. We had debated what to do with our day...the zoo? Or the Children's Museum? Finally we left it up to Zoey to choose, and she picked the Children's Museum. We were slightly disappointed, since the weather looked so cooperative...wouldn't she rather be outside? No. Turns out she made a good choice, because as we headed for Denver (lattes and apple juice in hand), the clouds rolled in and so did the wind.

The Denver Children's Museum was awesome. Made even more awesome by some random guy who handed us two one-dollar passes as we walked in the door. Two tickets for one dollar apiece? Instead of $7.50? Thanks! Zoey loved climbing all over the real fire truck, and exploring the room that looked like one gigantic tree. (Totally cute: they had woodland creature costumes for the kids to wear. Zoey was the cutest rat you've ever seen. Seriously.)

Two and a half hours later, we were off to The Tattered Cover, a super-cool old bookstore in downtown Denver. Now, I feel like I should mention a couple things here, before proceeding with the story. One, Abby and I were relying completely on Maggie (Abby's GPS gizmo) to navigate us through the somewhat confusing streets of downtown Denver. Two, Denver is a pretty nice city, reminds me a lot of Seattle and Portland, but the people? Are snotty. Most of them anyway. Even Maggie sounded annoyed with us a majority of the time as she directed us down side streets.

The bookstore was incredible and my hope for Zoey falling asleep in the stroller was completely unrealistic. BUT, she had a fabulous time, too. We holed up in the children's room and took turns wandering out in to the adult realm while the other stayed put with Zoey on her lap, reading Berenstain Bears or Dora. We found a copy of The Berenstain Bears Slumber Party. It was a win-win trip for everyone.

So, that brought us to about 6 p.m. Our original plan had been to drive back to Colorado Springs and pick up some pizza, but since we were in downtown Denver, we thought why not consult Mighty Maggie for some directions on a nearby pizza joint? We scrolled through her list of available pizza options and found two that looked promising (and by 'promising', I mean cheap and kid-friendly): a place called Pudgies and a local Pagliacci's. We headed for Pudgies first, since it was closest, and found it to be located in some random food court in the middle of downtown Denver. Not what we were looking for. Thanks, Maggie. On to Pagliacci's.

Now, in Seattle, Pagliacci's is a family-friendly pizza chain with affordable food that isn't bad. A good choice for a crew including a three year old. Naturally, that's what we thought we were in for in downtown Denver. Maybe Maggie's whole leading-us-to-a-food-court-first-off should have been a clue that Maggie, Abby and I were not on the same page for dinner plans. It took some maneuvering, but soon we pulled in to a quiet looking location and parked the car.

We never should have gotten out.

Here's what we walked in to: the nicest, most fancy-pants Italian restaurant I've ever seen. And, as an added bonus, the lobby was completely empty, leaving us face to face with a very handsome young Italian host, who inquired 'Three for dinner?'

I froze. This was SO not a place for a kid. Or two grown-ups who look like ragged tourists, either. I was wearing shorts and schlumpy tennis shoes. This was a place for dressy clothes, quiet conversations. I turned to Abby, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

Me: (squeaky voice) Um, what do you think, Abby?

Abby: (who has always been one to get us in trouble, no matter how old we are, apparently.) Oh yeah. This is awesome. Table for three, please.

We were led through a very, very quiet dining room filled with very, very snooty looking Denverites who clearly wanted to know who the hell had let us in. We got a table in the back corner (thankfully), two tables down from what looked like an entire family celebrating a birthday. Four generations of snooty Denverites. AWESOME.

I was sweating as we sat down, hissing to Zoey that this was a restaurant for very, VERY good manners AND NO YELLING, but Abby looked like this was the funniest thing that had happened in ages.

Abby: (perusing the menu) $16.50 for a plate of pasta? Awesome. Totally awesome. Dinner's on Auntie. Order what you want. Hey, you want the wine list? You look like you need it.

A quiet, demure looking busgirl stopped by our table to fill our pretty, delicate looking water glasses. She reached across the aisle to fill Zoey's glass. Mistake. 'I already have one', Zoey informed her, triumphantly raising her ratty looking throwaway-plastic-mismatched-sippy-cup in the air. Did I mention she was loud? Like, loud in the way that only preschoolers can be loud?'And I don't like ice.'

Maybe I would have a look at that wine list, after all.

The dinner that I thought would turn in to a total nightmare ended up being one of the funniest meals ever. Zoey crawled under the table to sit by her beloved Auntie and I basically got to sit back and watch Auntie work her magic with my child. The thing that's great about Abby is she treats Zoey exactly as she would anyone else--adults, children, whatever. She expects great behavior, and Zoey typically delivers for her. They made pretend spaghetti while we waited for our food. She let Zoey slather as much butter as she wanted on her bread, and she let her use the knife herself. She taught my child how to slurp spaghetti noodles. They shared an ice cream sundae. It was great.

So, with the exception of Maggie steering us in the wrong direction for dinner, it was an awesome day. Completely relaxing, no pressure to be anywhere at any certain time, no nagging thoughts of 'oh, I should be doing laundry/unloading the dishwasher/vacuuming'. Pretty much what I came here for.