Boulder - Day Three

Day three was beautiful and began with another hike up the Flatirons. As you can see below, no more fog which led to a much different view. We hiked between the 2nd and 3rd flatirons:

Some more photos from the hike:

After our hike, we went to Ryan's college fave Illegal Pete's for some burritos.

After the burrito, we headed to Denver for more fun!

Boulder - Day Two

We woke bright and early ready to go hike the Flatirons. First, we had to get breakfast at The Unseen Bean around the corner from the hotel. The owner is blind and crafted a new way to brew his coffee (hence, The "Unseen" Bean). It was delicious and we also gobbled up some freshly made egg sandwiches to fuel our hike:

It was a foggy day but only slightly misty. It proved to be a great day for hiking as we only saw 5 people on the trails. The photo below shows the substantial fog. As you will see in the next post, the Flatirons are quite stunning to look at and you cannot even see them here :

Few people on the trail was nice for us having come in less than 24 hours before, we had not yet acclimated to the elevation and had to stop frequently to catch our breath. We completed the hike in a much quicker time the next day.

Spending time at the top was eerie yet peaceful. We were enveloped in fog and in total silence. Kind of a cool hike:

We went and cleaned up after the hike and met up with friends for lunch at The Sink. Thomas drove in from Denver and we spent some time with him after lunch as well:

The three of us headed over the the CU Boulder campus where both Thomas and Ryan graduated from. We decided to see if we could get into their old dorm and we did! The nice lady at the front desk even allowed Ryan to see his old dorm room which had an amazing view of the Flatirons but, again, since it was foggy we couldn't quite see it. Below, is the outside of the dorm - his room was the top left with the balcony. Jeez, they didn't have these types of dorm rooms at UNH or UMaine where I went to school.....

Above is Ryan in his actual room - look at that grin.

And, here is Ryan looking out from the balcony.

That night, we headed back to the Rio where our bartender ended up being from NH! We had some dinner and then went out to see the NBA finals at a local watering hole.

Boulder - Day One

Ryan and I got up at the unthinkable hour of 3:30 am to head off to Colorado which was painful...but well worth it when we arrived before noon Colorado time! We were pooped but had a good amount of the day left. First, we had to check in and our baggage was right on that line....

Yes, that reads 49.5 - a mere half pound from having to pay an additional $100 on top of the $25 baggage fee. Ugh. Our other bag was 48.0 pounds. Clearly we needed to get an additional bag while out in Colorado.

Anyway, 8 hours later we arrived in Denver. We grabbed our rental car and headed off to Boulder... what a stunning view:

We headed right for our hotel to check in - the historic Hotel Boulderado:

We stayed here last year as well. They have the most comfortable beds ever as well as the friendliest people. Love it.

Before we could crash, we spruced up a bit and headed out to Pearl Street for some shopping. We were dragging a bit when we came across this lovely place:

This was an "Herban Lounge" which had oxygen treatments as well as herbal teas, oxygenated water and "smartinis". Ryan and I opted for a "clarity" oxygen treatment which consisted of herbal infused oxygen (rosemary, eucalyptus and others) and we also had some herbal teas that were delicious. We walked out feeling more awake and alert and really...it was just kind of fun and different!

We then went off to the Rio Grande to visit Ryan's friend, Eric. Ryan also worked there in college. We all sat on the rooftop deck and had super yummy margaritas with a view of the mountains.

What a fabulous first day... we crashed at 8pm ready for day 2!

Elevation 2011

Ahhhh, vacation time! We headed to Colorado a few weeks ago as we did about the same time last year. Ryan went to college in Boulder so he still has friends living in Boulder and Denver. This year, though, we got to visit with Ryan's oldest brother Todd, wife Cathy and kiddos Owen and Grant since they moved from Oregon this past fall. We will miss our yearly visits to the Pacific Northwest but find Colorado an equally outstanding place to visit - if not better, just due to the sun and all.

This year we spent a full 7 days there so I will split it into a few posts.

This guy, for one, did not want us to go as he thought curling up in Papa's suitcase would mean we would stay....

We would also be remiss if we did not thank our catsitters, those who make it possible for us to leave on vacation while knowing our boys are well taken care of! Thanks to our dear friend Kate (Scoop and Chris, too) who the cats love almost (maybe just as much and sometimes more!) as mama and papa. She not only feeds them and scoops poops and peeps but hangs out and plays with them, which they just loooooove. She has been there since we first got Coodie 5 years ago which is why we call her "Aunt Kate":

Also a big thank you to Jed and Bonnie for helping out this time as well (I need a pic)! We are sure lucky to have people to count on.