Before I delve into part two of our trip to Colorado, I wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone for all of the love I received from this post on Monday.  It’s hard to go back into the past and talk about all of the negative thoughts I struggled with growing up, but the love I felt from comments on the blog, facebook, and twitter, made me feel like a million bucks!  It certainly helped me get through my first workout in a looooong time that afternoon! :)

Back to Colorado!  I am trying to space out these recaps because I know that many people who read this blog are from Connecticut, but hopefully it’s fun for people to read about the fun we had while we were out there…and of course the great food! :)

“…when we last left our adventurers, they had enjoyed a culinary tour of Denver and the ‘best meal ever’ at ChoLon Bistro…”

On a beautiful Saturday, we decided to check out the Boulder Farmer’s Market.  Apparently it is one of the best in the country–and I can see why!  I didn’t snag any photos because it was so crowded, but we got some wonderful locally made goodies, and even got to enjoy a delicious lunch from the stands there.  If you ever get a chance to go, I’d put it on the “must do” list!  It was a nice break from the more traditional vacation activities.

Afterwards, we decided to check out the Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder.  It is a beautiful walkway with tons of shops, restaurants, and even some live street performers!  This duo was SO funny, and put on a great show.  Balancing chairs made of fire, juggling with feet AND hands, swinging balls of fire, balancing on a board while juggling knives and spinning hubcaps…needless to say, we spent a good amount of time watching them perform!

We explored the rest of mall.  It was a beautiful area with some promising restaurants, but we held off on eating since we had eaten our share at the farmer’s market!

[caption id="attachment_645" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Dan at Pearl St. Mall, looking absolutely thrilled to have his picture taken…:)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_646" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] I loved this whimsical bicycle! how romantic–I feel like it should be in a perfume commercial… :)[/caption]

We walked around a bit and eventually settled at the Brewing Market Coffee Company for some delicious pour-over coffee and treats from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  I got a macademia nut milk chocolate cluster, and Dan got a rocky road cluster!

We had a chance to check out the Upslope Brewing Company in Boulder.  It was SUCH a neat place!  It’s a small brewery, but they are putting out a great product.  We even got to do a brewery tour, which was really fun.  Their tap room was a really happenin’ place–it got really crowded and we met so many neat people who recommended great stuff to do.  We even met the app developer/creator of the Colorado Beer Tour app!  He was really friendly and it was fun to pick his brain about beer.

We got the beer flight, and they ordered it from “least aggressive to most aggressive.”  I really liked each of the beers, but my favorites were probably the Belgian Pale Ale (light, but flavorful), and the Bourbon Stout.

The next day we had lots of fun at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.  We saw a movie on black holes, and lots of fun playing with the various fake animals…

[caption id="attachment_650" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Dan is PSYCHED.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_651" align="aligncenter" width="640"] I LOVE BRONTOSAURUSES!!! No really…I do. I always have. Since I learned about dinosaurs, the Brontosaurus has been my “dinosaur of choice.” :)[/caption]

Unfortunately, it was a rainy & cloudy day, but the view from the building was still goregous!

My favorite parts of that collage are the infared picture of Dan & I, and the honey badger…because HONEY BADGER DON’T CARE!! (I love you if you get that reference…).

They were also having a live reptile exhibit, which was REALLY cool!  My favorite moment was when we saw the red snake and the little girl next to me exclaimed, “Awwww, he’s so cute!”  Not what I was expecting to come out of her mouth, but SO cute. :)

The owner of Culinary Connectors had written us a list of places to check out, so we decided to eat dinner at Lucky Pie in the LoDo neighborhood.  I LOVED their packaging and motto: pizza. beer. love.  Perfect!  They have 21 different beers on tap, and many of them were local brews.

We started with the braised lamb meatballs.  They were INCREDIBLE.  So tender, and they had a little bit of a kick, too!  I would have eat these for my meal. :)

We decided to indulge and get TWO pizzas, both of which were recommended by our waiter.  They make their own dough, too!  The sausage pizza featured sweet Italian sausage, fennel, carmelized onions, fresh basil, mozzarella, and fontina cheese.

The “Popeye” pizza was my favorite, though–spinach, fontina, mozzarella, grana podano, pecorino, garlic, olive oil, and of course…BACON.

We got in a nice breakfast at an incredibly popular spot called Snooze!  They only serve breakfast and lunch, and have several locations around Denver & Boulder.  From the moments we walked in, I knew I’d love it.  Their decor was very 50′s–bright colors and funky designs!

I decided to go for a pancake flight…and it was basically the best decision ever.  Pineapple upside down cake with cinnamon butter, blueberry blossom pancake with lavender butter (I know, WHAT), and red velvet topped with espresso-infused maple syrup.  It was the best breakfast I have ever had.  I’ve never had anything like it!

Dan went for the Chillaquiles Benedict, which featured carne asada steak atop corn tortillas with cheddar cheese, poached eggs, smoked cheddar hollandaise, pico de gallo, and cotija cheese.  And yes, you guessed it–it was fantastic!

Oh, and also–how cute are their mugs?!

We ate like kings during this trip, but we needed the fuel for all of our nature adventures!  We spent one morning white water rafting with AVA, a company that offers ziplining and rafting!  It was super fun–we didn’t snag any pictures for obvious reasons, but we had such a great time!

Afterwards, we drove up Mt. Evans.  This is the longest paved road in the United States, and it is such a beautiful drive.  Beautiful and terrifying…it get so foggy/cloudy by the top, that you can’t see past the edge of the narrow roads, and eventually we had trouble seeing anything right in front of us!!  It was scary, but totally worth the drive.  Dan snagged some great photos as I was driving. :)

[caption id="attachment_668" align="aligncenter" width="640"] I present to you….THE MOUNTAINSSSSS[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_669" align="aligncenter" width="640"] an example of why this drive was so terrifying![/caption]

We also saw some mountain goats on the way up and down the mountain!  One of them got really mad when I was snapping pictures…he yelled at me and then started charging at the car!  Luckily I was able to drive away in time…that one would have been hard to explain to Enterprise…!  They even had a cute baby with them. :)

[caption id="attachment_672" align="aligncenter" width="640"] the guy on the right charged at me right after this picture![/caption] [caption id="attachment_673" align="aligncenter" width="640"] the gorgeous lake on the drive up the mountain![/caption] [caption id="attachment_674" align="aligncenter" width="640"] a view from the top![/caption]

We also got to check out the Red Rocks Ampitheater.  Did some hiking around first, and then we finally got to see the stage!

The coolest thing was seeing all the people working out there!  Squat jumps, tricep dips, running…people were working out all over those steps.  One of the many ways Colorado is very different from Connecticut…haha.  I have to say, just walking up the stairs was workout enough for me!

That was long (both the stairs AND this post)!  Hopefully enjoyable, though.  I have one more installment to post…trying to space them out so that this blog doesn’t become TOO Colorado-heavy. :)