Old Colorado City: Stroll & Dinner

A news piece on one of the local TV channels encouraged us to visit Old Colorado City this evening … to see the Christmas lights, listen to carolers strolling around town, and check-out the small businesses that line the main drag on either side.

We did all that … but it was darned cold with a light breeze adding to the chill factor. I guess that’s the downside of Christmas in December. The lights are best enjoyed after nightfall … and by that time the temps dip considerably. With no sun to mitigate the chill, it gets very cold ... very quickly. Popping into shops — we didn’t buy anything — afforded us brief respites from the cold … enough to keep us going until dinner time.

(I can hear friends who live in warm climates saying that we could enjoy Christmas cheer in their states and not be cold. But that would mean dealing with hot temps — and sometimes humidity — other times during the year. I think we’ll stick with Colorado.)

Mui had called ahead to our favorite tapas place in OCC — TAPAteria — for 7:30p dinner reservations, requesting one of the two tables in the nooks by the front-facing windows. Noting the limited holiday lights and the cold temps, however, we changed that reservation to 6:30p. And actually ended up going to the restaurant even earlier. The manager was able to accommodate us … as long as we were willing to give up the window table. We were … and, as it turns out, that was good as the nooks near the windows were quite chilly.

We've been to TAPAteria several times. Since we were familiar with the menu, we took it upon ourselves to order tapas dishes for the four of us to share … consulting with mom and Aylin as to their preferences. A carafe of blood orange sangria was at the top of our order. For tapas, we opted for the white bean hummus, jamon-wrapped dates, pan con tomate, grilled gambas, Caprese skewers, verduras tower, and albondigas. Comfortably sated, we split two desserts to wrap up our meal — crema Catalana and cedar plank smore … really liked the first one, and while the smore was good, I would not order it again.

All in all, a fun outing ... despite the cold evening temperature.Read more