Karens Road

Once my husband got settled in at the casino in Black Hawk, Colorado, I headed out to find the shopping areas. I boarded a shuttle bus that runs regularly throughout the towns of Black Hawk and Central City. The only shopping I found was an antique store and a novelty store that sold Colorado postcards and other trinkets. I walked a bit and window shopped but found that all the window fronts were in reality casinos. It is a law in Colorado that casinos can only be started in buildings that are already standing. All the old stores and office buildings are now casinos! It was fun to read the plaques on the buildings to learn a bit of history on each. The newer casinos have pushed the limits on the law since it is enforced locally and not by the gaming commission. Bigger, fancy casinos have been built recently. After a while of wandering the streets, I caught the bus and went to see if my husband had made us rich.

I rode the bus route twice and was able to see that Black Hawk has two distinct section of town, old downtown which has more of the entact historical buildings and the new Black Hawk. Blackhawk is not a friendly place to people under the age of 21. There is nothing for kids to do and they are not allowed in the casinos. I don’t know how people who are not able to walk well fare in this area. I had difficulty walking up all the hills.

Lynn was sad that he didn’t win at the casino but he did have fun. That’s what counts isn’t it? We had a wonderful dinner at Fitzgerald’s Casino’s Shamrock Cafe. We knew we had an hour and a half trip ahead of us from Black Hawk back to our hotel in Breckenridge and didn’t want to get back to that high altitude on empty stomachs. I had spent the day before with a horrible headache that I call altitude sickness. I don’t think I have ever drunk so much water in all my life trying to get my body adjusted to the altitude. The thin air really makes you dehydrated and can cause headaches and dizziness. One of the guys in our group had to be taken to the hospital because he got so sick. He was ok by today.

Back to our wonderful dinner: we ordered salads. Mine was a spinach salad that was filled with shrimp, artichoke hearts, almonds, red pepper slices, boiled eggs and bacon. It was huge and I ate the whole thing! Lynn got a cobb salad. It had tons of ingredients too and was just as big. I highly recommend the Shamrock Cafe. They have entrees like chicken fried steak, ribs, steak and other comfort foods. The service is great and the shuttle stop is just outside the door.