Colorado vacation: Boulder

On our second day in Colorado, my sister and I took our friends' advice and traveled up to Boulder, Colo.  The traffic was heavy on the highway between Golden & Boulder, and we quickly found out why.  There was a University of Colorado football home game that Saturday! We saw tailgaters everywhere!

Our friends told us that we had to go check out the pedestrian mall in Boulder.  And it was amazing!  Lots of neat, trendy shops, especially for outdoor enthusiasts.  And the food.  Oh, there was food everywhere.

Once again, luck was on our side.  We showed up just in time to check out the Boulder farmers market!  We have some great farmers markets in central Iowa, but I've never seen such a wide selection of produce.  I couldn't stop taking pictures of it all!

We walked up and down the pedestrian mall, checking out shops that peaked our interest.  We couldn't help but stop in this toy shop.  The kites were so colorful!

And I'm such a geek, but I had to take a picture of this dual-flushing toilet at a restroom we found.  Boulder is a very eco-friendly community!

We were also excited to find an amazing restaurant, Snooze, which serves up all-day breakfast grub.  I had heard of Snooze before, but I thought it was only in downtown Denver.  Turns out, we showed up at Snooze's new Boulder restaurant on its opening weekend!  Once again, we couldn't believe our luck.

My sister ordered the sticky roll French toast.  It was unbelievable!  It was just like eating the best part of a sticky roll -- the gooey caramel topping.

I couldn't decide between two pancakes I wanted to try.  So I ordered both!  The first was a blueberry lemon bar pancake.  The second was my favorite, a pineapple upside pancake, with crushed pineapple inside the pancake and a brown sugar butter topping.  So good!

We also ordered a side of hash browns.  Loved the presentation.

I absolutely loved everything about Boulder -- the bike trails, the shopping, the restaurants, the coffee shops on every corner.  And we saw the most colorful people -- literally.  Check out this green-screen man trying to get signatures for a petition.  Can you read what the sign is promoting?

On our way back to the hotel, we drove through Denver.  I really wanted to check out the REI flagship store.  It was inside a restored warehouse, with a rock climbing wall in the center.  It was neat to see, but the clothes were way out of my price range. (We found winter gloves for $200!)

We still had so much we wanted to see, including Elitch Gardens amusement park next door.  But rain clouds were moving in, so we decided to call it a day.  Wish we had more time to spend in Colorado.  I'm already fantasizing about returning for another short trip next year.  The weather was beautiful in the fall, and there was so much to do and see.

But I was very glad to come home to Iowa.  Even the mountains of Colorado can't really compare to Iowa in the autumn, in my opinion.