This is the kind of day we woke up to today: 70s and sunny, t-shirt weather. Dan starts work again tomorrow and was itching for at least one exploratory bike ride along the Poudre River Trail before his “vacation” ends. He ended up riding ~20 miles and says he has barely scratched the surface of that single trail.

I imagine I’ll spend many afternoons walking the same trail — there are trail heads very near our house — but today I wanted to visit Old Town on my own. First off, I was not in the mood to get lost, and Old Town is a 2 mile walk straight down College. Second, I am the extrovert to Dan’s introvert, and I have been craving People Time. Old Town was bustling today, including a parade of dogs dressed up in costumes. (Side note: while fruitlessly searching for official details on the dog parade, I came across this. I love Fort Collins.)

I popped into a few businesses I’d visited in the past, but also found a handful of new-to-me gems. I sampled a Coconut Cream popsicle from Revolution Artisan Pops — it made me miss Cincinnati’s Streetpops (and my mom, Streetpops’ biggest fan), but I enjoyed the coconut flakes immensely. I would love to try Revolution’s dark chocolate flavor in partnership with Nuance Chocolate.

On a whim I also wandered into The Cupboard, a kitchen store that normally wouldn’t hold my interest as I’m not much of a cook and our kitchen storage space is fairly maxed out — but this enormous shop has everything, including unique offerings by local vendors.

I’ve been trying to resist buying a bunch of Halloween decorations for the house, though it’s my favorite holiday — instead of a pumpkin-shaped trivet I opted for a bespidered truffle from The Cupboard’s chocolate case. (Did I expect a large case of truffles in a kitchen appliance store? No. Am I complaining? I am not.) Once Dan and I got home, the spider truffles didn’t last long — consider this my approach to a more clutter-free existence. No need to store seasonal gewgaws! Only buy decorations you can eat…!