This feel like a great time to tell you a funny story. When I still lived in Spain, my family and I came back for a mini furlough over Christmas break for three weeks. I was a junior at the time. We took advantage of being in the States and toured three colleges while we were in town. We went to the University of Rochester where I met the smartest girl I've ever encountered. She had spent her summer working with NASA to improve the rubber coating on the space shuttle to better insulate the shuttle as it reentered Earth's atmosphere. I felt a *little* inferior. :) Then, we toured Nazareth college, a delightful private school with an excellent foreign language program that cost an arm and a leg. And finally, we visited SUNY Brockport, a state school. Our tour guide was a happy go lucky sorority sister who encouraged us all to "definitely come to brockport because it's way fun here." I asked her how many students attended, she had no idea. I asked about different programs and her answers were vague at best. Brockport is a very spread out campus, and our tour took us from building to building, each of which our guide dutifully named and pointed out some interesting fact. Then, walking through the frigid NY air as we crossed through the Mall, she mentioned that "now we are walking through the mall, although I have no idea why it is called that, since we are outside and there are no stores here." This girl clearly had no idea that an alternate definition of "mall" is sheltered walk or promenade. I think of that girl every time I'm at an outdoor "mall" or a road is named a mall. Even if there are no shops! :)
Anyways. So, we went to Boulder and we walked around a lot. Sadly, we did not sample any coffee. We did however, rock the town as we sauntered around in our matching striped shirts. Our friends back in NY gifted them to us. We loved to kid them about the fact that they are often wearing stripes, and so our going away present from them was a family set of striped shirts for our very own! So funny.
We explored an adorable little shop filled with olive oils and balsamic vinegars from Spain, and then next to it was a spice shop that was absolutely awesome. It had every spice you could think of and dozens more. Stuff I had never heard of and lots of things I would love to try out. I bought a little bag of Black Onyx Cocoa Powder to try out. They had a recipe for Chocolate Avocado Pudding which I made last week and it was really good! It was made with the black onyx cocoa, coconut milk, avocado, vanilla extract and maple syrup. Very different (at least for us) and quite yummy.
The kids did really well and enjoyed all of the street performers. We saw a drum guy in a wild African mask, a truly horrible magician, a living statue, a young violinist, and two folk bands that were really good.
We hung out at the little kids' play place for a bit and people watched. The weather was fantastic and the town just had this laid back, super easygoing vibe. We liked it. The kids loved the big rocks - excuse me, boulders - in the play area, and tried to climb every single one.
All in all it was a really nice morning. We're planning to go back again to scope out their Farmer's Market, and something called a Banjo Billy bus tour that promises to be hokey and fun. :) As well as lots more exploring and walking and of course eating. :)
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