Ski-less Trip in Colorado

Sorry it has been a while since the last update, had a busy week and a half.   

So Boulder, Colorado - Located about 30 miles north of Denver in the shadows of the Rockies lies this tiny college town.  I know that whenever you hear someone say they are going to Colorado in the winter, the knee jerk reaction is to ask, “So you’re skiing?”  Well not only did we not ski, we hardly saw any snow.  And even though I love to ski, I would still recommend a ski-less weekend in Boulder to Bode Miller. 

View of Boulder from the flat irons.   Of course the sun went
away the minute we wanted to go outside. 

To start, Boulder boasts itself as one of the best weather locations in the country.  This was the first thing I noticed as I left a cold gray Chicago for a 50 degree sunny Boulder.   With weather like that, it is easy to walk around and explore the town and the best place to start is Pearl Street.  The pedestrian only street cuts up the middle of town and is filled with boutique stores, restaurants and a rocky mountain chocolate factory.  All in all it reminded me a lot of State Street located in you guessed it, Madison, Wisconsin.

Pearl Street. 

Pearl Street was not the only reason I was reminded of Madison, because Boulder is home to the University of Colorado, a school often compared to Madison due to its liberal ways.  This was great for us because we were able to revisit the golden days of college, meaning dive bars serving $3.00 drinks.  My recommendation would be The Walrus Saloon, peanuts on the floor, pool tables and a juke box – pretty much the definition of a dive. Other than the local establishments, we also took a drive through campus and had we had more time, I would have loved to walk around.

The caramel covered apples at Rocky Mountain. 

In terms of where to eat, you will hear a lot of people recommend the Buff.  Over-sized portions and $1 bloody marries really intrigued us but there was a 45 minute weight for breakfast so we debated to go somewhere else where we could watch the Badger basketball game.  Luckily we did or else we would have missed this.  One place where there was no wait that I went to for lunch was Salt, located on Pearl Street.  The ingredients were fresh, the drink list was great and you can enjoy it at a bar surrounding a wood burning fire place.

After digesting, a good way to burn a few cals and would be to hike up the flat irons.  It is a favorite activity of the residents of Boulder and after getting higher up we could see why.  Of course as we got further and further up, it finally decided to snow and the view of the Rockies was now nonexistent. 

Scott climbing the flat irons. 

All in all Boulder is a great place to visit and is somewhere I would love to go back to.  There is plenty to do but at the same time you do not really need to do much of anything.  It is very easy to sit by a fire with a glass of wine and breathe in the fresh air while enjoying the beautiful surroundings. 

The view would have been spectacular had it
not been for the snow.