Sea urchin? Of course. I'm cool like that.

I like to think I'm an adventurer. I'm a curious person and I will try just about anything. Climb to the top of the world just to see what I can see? Sure. Jump off a roof? All the time when I was a kid.

Jump in a two-seater airplane with no instrument panel and a rope system for guidance flown by a pilot 20 years past the time he should be driving a car ? Why not? It was for a news story.

So when the owner of a restaurant in Colorado offered us a delicacy that he'd acquired just two hours ago and was super hard to get, of course I said I'd love to try sea urchin.

This is what sea urchins look like in their natural habitat →→→



This is what's inside a sea urchin.
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This is what sea urchin sushi looks like.  →→→→

Ours had only one dollop of the delicacy, and the vessel that held it was much taller and filled with rice. Our restaurant friend described it as "the butter of the sea."

Now, I'm not sure who first decided to:

A. Dive to the ocean seabed to discover and acquire a sea urchin;
B. Think, "Hey, that looks tasty!"
C. Battle the spikes to open a sea urchin; and
D. Taste the innards of a sea urchin and decide, "I gotta get me more of this!"

But it wasn't and would never be me.

I  grew up in the country and know full well where my protein comes from, but I still don't like debris on my dinner plate. My mother-in-law would have disowned me if she knew I think digging out lobster or crab meat is more work than it's worth (not to mention the carcass pile.) Alison disagrees and is up to her elbows in crab legs as often as she can be.

I know it's not sophisticated of me, but in addition to not liking bones on my plate, I never want a fish to be looking up at me. That said, I did have a lovely oyster on the half shell this week. (I put the shell back in the center dish and was grateful when the plate was retrieved.)

My general thought is that when nature gives you barbs or shells to protect your insides, your insides are either pretty damn awesome or they're deadly. And you'll probably live your life just fine not knowing whether that creature would be the best thing you've ever wrapped your tongue around or would leave you with poison bubbling from your burned out mouth.

But back to the sea urchin I didn't have to catch or debarb. The chef was not wrong about the texture. It was like butter. But I doubt your butter tastes like, fish. But with extra fish. Like, lots and lots of fish.

And, it was a two-bite portion.

So yeah. I'm sitting there with the owner of this restaurant who's GIVEN us this treat, which you know has to be super expensive and we know is as fresh as seafood in Colorado can be. I take the first bite.

The chef is standing there, beaming, knowing we're going to love it. I don't know what the Captain's facial reaction was, but Meryl Streep had nothing on me even as my brain was delivering an all-caps banner ad in bold, red capital letters: YOU HAVE TO TAKE ANOTHER BITE OF THIS THING.

I sent a quick message to my stomach to hold on tight to the butter of the sea and quickly shoveled in the remaining morsel, all the while nodding and marveling as I described its scrumptious-ness to our host. I don't think I visibly shuddered.

It was an experience, that's for sure. The rest of the meal was out-of-this world fabulous, by the way. I'd totally go back there. But I'll be dodging the generous chef.

In other Colorado news, we had an amazing trip. I got to see my awesome friend, Kathy Van Buskirk and meet her super fun family. We went to an area of Denver famous for food and murals. (Indy may need to go there and learn how to roll out murals.) Food was great. The company was way better.

We were in Colorado because Jeff had an opportunity to learn some wonky, arcane utility stuff and it came the day after we delivered Ali to college. I went along for the ride, and we tacked on a couple of days that allowed Jeff to visit Casey Brewing & Blending, which creates some of his favorite fruited, sour beer.

We drove from Denver to the brewery and overnighted in nearby Glenwood Springs, home of the Thai restaurant where we encountered the sea urchin. We also had a fabulous breakfast at Sweet Coloradough, which boasts the best donut in Colorado. I feasted on samples and had a breakfast sandwich and a wicked good bloody Mary.  Jeff had donuts and declared them amazing.

The night before, we walked to a hot springs that offers a variety of temperature tubs that overlook the Colorado River. We were there at sunset and walked a super spooky mile back into town in the pitch black dark along the river.

Had we encountered rapists or murderers along our river walk, I had planned to tell them that we were full of sea urchin...

Our view from the hot springs.