Team WestEnders' Wednesday Colorado wandering began with packing up the rental car and vacating Denver temporarily, in order to spend some quality time with her cousin Boulder to the northwest. But first we made a stop at a state park on the way, that Husband had chosen for its hiking opportunities, and the promise of spectacular scenery for our efforts. In order to get to El Dorado Canyon, you turn off the main road and wind your way through towering rocky cliffs, before pulling onto a dirt-and-gravel path that leads you at a crawling pace into the protected parkland. Then you get out of the vehicle...and your gaze is drawn irresistibly upwards...to the craggy outcroppings covered in scrubby green bushes, which soar over your head towards the impossibly blue sky.Well, now--that's a pretty impressive start to a trek in the Great Outdoors, if I do say so myself. But there was much more...nature....to be experienced, since Husband intended to lead us on a nice little walk that would encompass an approximately 6-1/2 mile out-and-back excursion. It goes without saying that the first half of this would--as you'd expect--go almost entirely UPHILL, right? So we gathered our PowerAdes and water bottles and granola bars and bananas...and got down to it.
Sometimes picking our way carefully along the dusty path, other times scrambling over boulders of varying sizes, we plodded steadily upward. Despite the elevation (this trail began at around 5,700 feet above sea level, a startling number to these East Coast denizens) and temperature (Yeah, yeah, "it's a dry heat", but we were still working hard), we actually didn't have much trouble. Perhaps it helped that we had to stop fairly often to marvel at the sweeping vistas--waves of pine trees, distant peaks still displaying visible patches of snow, and multicolored rock formations--all under an azure sky now dotted with gigantic puffy white clouds. In short, it was like being surrounded by a 360-degree postcard...while breaking a healthy sweat!When we'd finished...conquering the canyon, if you will...we patted ourselves on the back for successfully completing our mission...and agreed that we'd definitely earned a meal. The GPS helpfully informed us that we weren't too far from the condo we'd be renting for the next several nights, so we headed that way, and figured we'd devise a plan on the fly. When Husband (Googling busily while I handled the driving duties) stumbled upon an eatery that described itself as "like Farm Burger, in Buckhead"--which happens to be a spot we've now eaten at TWICE while touring Atlanta--we quickly decided it must be fate. And Larkburger proved to be just what the doctor ordered, for a post-exercise late lunch (beef for the carnivores, and portobella on a gluten-free bun for yours truly!).
However, you know what they say: "no rest for... those who've just spent 4-hours tromping up and down a mini-mountain"...and whatnot. We'd arranged to meet friends (whom we hadn't seen since, oh, about 2003) in Boulder for dinner, so we had to make ourselves presentable and get ready to socialize. We found our amigos waiting for us outside a bookstore in the area called Pearl Street Mall, which is a pedestrian walkway filled with quirky shops, a mixture of chain and local restaurants...and other...unique features, such as street musicians galore, as well as the fairly risque, quite tasteless, and possibly technically illegal group of...um..."performance artists"?...doing lewd, embarrassing things in the middle of all the action. It was...super-interesting, that's for sure!
Overall, Boulder struck me as an adorable college town, buzzing with personality and energy to spare. We ended up at a little joint called the Yellow Deli for freshly made sandwiches and salads--which were yummy enough for my picky crew to ignore the overwhelmingly...hippie vibe...that the cafe exuded. Hey, we got to catch up with old pals, savor some tasty food...and sit down for a while--it's all good!
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