Father’s Day is always a special occasion, but this year, we decided to take it up a notch with a blend of delicious Tex-Mex cuisine, a cosmic board game adventure, and a dive into the ancient world. Our celebration began at Chuy’s in Austin, where we indulged in Tex-Mex dishes and reminisced about Ted’s West Texas roots. We followed the feast with a raucous session of Galaxy Trucker, where our family scrambled to assemble spaceships and navigate the perils of outer space. The festivities continued with Command and Colors Ancients, a strategy game that transported us to historic battles. It was a Father’s Day filled with flavors, fun, and a bit of friendly competition, making it truly unforgettable.
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Father’s Day Meal at Chuy’s
Our son Ben joined us to celebrate Father’s Day last weekend. As you may recall from previous videos and newsletters, my husband Ted grew up in West Texas and has a fondness for Tex-Mex cuisine. We went to a Chuy’s restaurant in Austin to enjoy tortilla soup, crispy tacos, cheese enchiladas, and chicken flautas.
While waiting for our main dishes, we polished off a basket of fresh tortilla chips and salsa. They had two salsas to choose from. Their regular chunky salsa had fresh tomatoes, onions, and jalapenos. You could also ask for their alternative creamy jalapeno dip, which is quite delicious too.
Before the events of 2020, we used to enjoy sopapillas after our meal. This delightful puffed and fried dough comes out hot, and you can pour honey over it to add a natural sweetness before eating it. However, it’s easier and more fun to poke a hole in the dough and pour honey into the opening so you’re eating the honey inside the fried dough. Delicious! (They are similar to, but not exactly like, French beignets.)
Unfortunately, Chuy’s pulled back on its menu offerings after 2020. One of the servers said it took two people to make the different kinds of dough, one for the fresh tortillas and the other for the sopapillas, so with reduced staffing, they did away with this delightful dessert. Yes, they had other offerings like Tres Leches Cake, but there’s nothing like sopapillas dripping with honey. We’ll have to wait until our next trip to West Texas and Southern New Mexico to enjoy that treat again.
Galaxy Trucker
As you may also recall from my past videos and blog posts, Ted enjoys playing board games, and we played a few over the weekend. We started with Galaxy Trucker, which looks chaotic at first, but there’s a logical order to it, and the game is a lot of fun to play.
First, you have to assemble your spaceship by flipping over facedown tiles until you get the engines, life support, batteries, lasers, cargo space, etc., that you need or want to include on your spaceship. Every player is doing this at the same time and under time constraints. Oh, and the pieces have to fit together correctly, too, with the appropriate pipes connecting to adjacent tiles on your spaceship. So you can’t just place the tiles haphazardly on your spaceship.
After everyone has assembled their ships, you’ll fly the galaxy to collect trade goods and hope you have enough lasers, engines, and shields to avoid asteroids and fend off nefarious pirates. You’ll sigh in relief when meteors bounce off your well-designed spacecraft, or you’ll cringe a bit if a raider’s laser knocks off one of your engines.
We played two games, and both went by very fast. It’s an entertaining and interactive game, and there’s a friendly schadenfreude feeling when you see parts of other player’s ships fly off after colliding with an asteroid or because of another space mishap.
Command and Colors Ancients
Ben and Ted also played a game called Command and Colors Ancients, which is a block game that simulates conflicts in the ancient world. Both sides line up blocks with stickers representing infantry, cavalry, archers, slingers, and other types of units. Unlike Stratego, both sides see their opposing forces on the map board, and cards give each player a set of actions they can choose from, such as to move four units near a leader or move and attack with three infantry units on the right side of the board.
The image you see is of Carthaginian units in brown blocks battling Syracusan units in gray blocks to simulate the battle of Akragas in Sicily in 406 BC. Ben and Ted enjoyed this strategy game and look forward to playing more of the scenarios, which include Rome vs Carthage, in the future.
My husband Ted said that enjoying Tex-Mex, flying through space, and galloping with cavalry in the Ancient World made it the best Father’s Day weekend ever! 😊
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Favorite Board Games
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