Hola!

Last week at this time I was hiking up a mountain in Colorado.  I wish I were still there!  I guess if I can’t be there in person, recapping the trip here will have to do.

So!  Tim travels a lot for work, and when we found out he was presenting at an event in Vail we were super pumped to look into personal travel.  The company we work for (yes we work for the same company if you haven’t figured that out yet) is pretty flexible about letting you tag on personal travel to work trips if you want.  We spent a while looking over different places in Colorado to stay.  Vail was too pricy for us, and after some research we decided to spend two nights in Boulder and one night in Denver.  I had been to Boulder for work before and knew that I just had to go back there for fun, so that was a no brainer.  Plus, Tim and I had racked up enough Marriott points over the past year that we got all three of our stays for free!  Aka, only needed to pay for my flight (his was expensed), our food and activities, and a rental car.

Last Friday Tim and his team headed back to Denver Airport from Vail, and I flew out of Logan.  Met Tim in the airport (landed around 11am Colorado time), and our first stop?  The grocery store.

We wanted to keep our food and booze spending to a minimum, so we loaded up on some snacks and lunches to have on hand throughout the week.  In our stash:

• 4 Oikos yogurts
• 2 Clif bars
• 2 Kind bars
• 1/2 pound honey roasted turkey breast
• 1/4 pound American cheese
• 4 nectarines
• Box of Triscuits
• Box of Chipins
• Huge case of H20
• Plastic baggies
• Sunscreen

Sweet.  We were staying at a Marriott Residence Inn, which has suite style rooms including a full kitchen, so we didn’t have to worry about perishables.  After we got to the hotel, and unpacked our things, we headed right to Pearl Street!

Pearl Street is considered downtown Boulder and is basically a huge street of shops, restaurants, bars, and more. It’s a pretty big street, with an East and West end, so there’s LOTS to do!

Our first priority?  Lunch!  After being on a plane ALL morning, I was STARVING.  Yes, I know I said we bought deli meats and such just a second ago, but we were saving those for Sunday and Monday’s outdoor activities.  After checking out a few menus, we decided to eat at a place called Riff’s.  Pretty much every restaurant on Pearl Street has an outdoor patio or roof deck, but this one in particular caught my eye because of their comfy looking sidewalk seating.

Oh, and just this view of the mountains from their patio too:

We celebrated the start to our long weekend with a “cheers!”

Prosecco for me, a beer for Tim!

We’re so classy.

Lunch was DELICIOUS!  What made it even more delicious was that we just happened to be there during happy hour (aka cheaper) prices.

We each got a salad – mixed greens with pickled vegetables and vinaigrette powder for me, and the arugula salad with preserved lemon, slivered apricot, pistachios, pancetta, and tarragon dressing for Tim.

We also each ordered a bowl of mussel “chowder” with gold potato, leek, thyme, wine, and cream.  So good!

After lunch, we strolled around Pearl Street and went into a bunch of shops.  So many stores have to do with healthy lifestyles or food — I love it!!

Peppercorn was seriously THE coolest (and biggest!) kitchen store I’ve ever been to.

Some more “touristy” pictures of our day on Pearl Street:

Eventually we got pretty thirsty from walking around so much in the sun, so we stopped for some Maiberry.  Strawberry kiwi lemonade for me, mango lemonade for Tim.  So refreshing!

I could NOT decide which I liked better, as you can see:

On our way back to our rental car, we saw some square dancing in the middle of the street.  They had tons of street performers just out and about, of all kinds.

Was a fun first day!

What’s your favorite “touristy” street with shops, restaurants, bars, etc?

More Colorado vacation recaps coming soon!  Stay tuned! 🙂