The kids were out of school two days last week for Fall Break, so the four of us loaded up the car and headed toward Denver. In between this month’s horror reviews, I’ll be writing a bit about our trip.

We left for Denver Thursday morning, early enough that we made it to Casa Bonita in time for dinner. There used to be a Casa Bonita in Oklahoma City and Susan has many fond memories of it. This was our second time as a family to eat at the Casina Bonita in Denver. Sadly, it will probably be our last.

Our friends in Denver described Casa Bonita as a “Mexican Chuck E. Cheese,” and that’s not far from the truth. Around every corner there’s some sort of entertainment. In the hour we were there we saw a guy in a gorilla suit chasing his trainer, another guy juggling fire, and a cliff diver who dove 20 feet into a lagoon 14 feet deep in the middle of the restaurant.

The part of the restaurant normally known as Black Bart’s Cave was completely redone in a Halloween theme. There was a small haunted house and lots of animatronics ready to jump out at every corner.

After killing some time in the haunted caves, we made our way over to the arcade. It seemed smaller than last time — maybe a dozen arcade games surrounded by a few ticket redemption games and fifteen skee-ball machines that were calling Susan.

Arcade games. Haunted mines. Cliff diving. What wasn’t to like?

Stomach cramps and diarrhea, for one. Casa Bonita sent all four of us scrambling to the bathroom, where we sat with stomach cramps as Casa Bonita made its way through us.

And speaking of bathrooms, Susan had one other complaint: cockroaches in the bathroom. Dozens of them, all over the bathroom mirror.

The entertainment was great, but the toilet time and the cockroaches weren’t so great. I’m glad Susan was able to mark this one off her bucket list because it’s pretty doubtful we’ll be back.