We spent all of day 3 in Boulder, recovering from two lonnnng days of driving. We all agreed, too, that we were glad we planned for an extra day in Boulder. If we would have had to wake up early again on Monday to drive another 11 hours like we had the previous two days, it wouldn't have been pretty. The first two days were really long and all that time cooped up in a car was starting to get to us. No one was grumpy or fought or anything, but you could tell we were all getting pretty tired and burnt out.
Monday morning, Shea, Michelle, Aimee, and I went to breakfast at The Buff Restaurant. Michelle and I split two omlettes. One had avocado, bacon, sour cream, etc. and the other had sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, hollandaise sauce, etc. I'm not sure which one I liked better, they were both really delicious. And we all had biscuits. Mmmm. I love biscuits. Almost as much as I love potatoes... but that's another story for another time.
On the way to breakfast I remembered to ask Aimee if they have to use the high-altitude baking directions for brownies in Boulder. And they DO! I guess it's kind of a given that Boulder is at a high altitude... but I never had to use those directions before and they always seemed so mystical to me. Traveling across the country made a lot of things REAL for me... like high-altitude brownie directions... and central time zone television. Magic.
Aimee had to go to class, so in the meantime, Shea, Michelle, and I explored cute little downtown Boulder. Lots of hippie stores and restaurants. Very granola, yet still very modern. Kind of like Coventry meets Legacy Village (for you Clevelanders out there).
During her break between classes, Aimee met up with us and we all walked around for awhile. There's a really cool vintage store there. I was very impressed with how it was organized by decade. Anyhow, here's us in Boulder...
Then, Aimee had to go back to class and Shea wasn't feeling well, so just Michelle and I went on a tour of Celestial Seasonings' tea factory! It was interesting and the smells in that place were incredible. They said if they were to leave the door open to the peppermint room, you'd be able to smell it a mile away. And they weren't exaggerating! That room was powerful! We got some free peppermint tea bags with our tour but bought more in the gift shop because it was actually really cheap compared to the grocery store... and we're suckers.
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the factory, but we DID have to wear hairnets! And men with facial hair had to wear BEARD NETS. So cool.
After Celestial Seasonings, Michelle and I drove to a park at the base of the mountains.
Then we drove a little bit up the mountain to get a view of the city from above. It was kind of dusky and overcast, but still pretty.
We saw a lot of people hiking and biking (that's hard core!) up the mountain. If I lived in Boulder, I'd definitely have to get into hiking. With all those trails, you'd be foolish not to. However, the lack of natural bodies of water kind of creeps me out though. I guess living near Lake Erie all my life has made me somehow psychologically dependant on the presence of large bodies of water. Being landlocked makes me feel claustrophobic. Does that make any sense at all? Is it just me? Hm.
Finally, the four of us all met back up for dinner and drinks at the Mountain Sun Pub.
They brew their own beers there and one of them was called "Cleveland Brown Ale". The tap even had a drawing of a Browns helmet above it. However, when I asked the waiter if it was good and why it was called that, he just said, "Uh, well, do you like brown ales?" I said, "I was just curious because I'm from Cleveland." He gave no response. At all. Ew. Well apparently he was just a loser and didn't know his stuff, because I found this on the Mountain Sun Pub website:
"CLEVELAND BROWN ALE
~ Fall Seasonal …I threw in 13 different grains to make this American style Brown Ale as complex as the tax deal that financed Cleveland Brown Stadium. We hit the mark with this one, now if those Browns could just do the same."
Ha Ha. Funny. It was decent, but no Great Lakes, that's for sure!
And that was about it for day three!
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