Day 35: The Benefits of Boulder

The first order of business is a hike. How can you come to Boulder CO and not go for a hike? The destination was Wild Basin Trail Head of Rocky Mountain National Park (yes, one more use of our National Park Pass. We certainly got our money's worth on that one).

Oh no. More bears. At least we know James' insurance policy covers mauling. 

Small waterfall on the hike, James would like you to know that it larger than it appears... I feel a 'that's what she said' should be inserted here

This is Longs' Peak. It's 14000 feet. Nobody on our road trip hiked that.  Maybe a future goal.

James did some fishing. I am sure you will be shocked to know that the water was really cold. Fishing didn't last long.

After everyone has cleaned themselves up, we head out to check out the city of Boulder. It's 100,000 people, but it feels much larger. Traffic is worse than you would think, but the Rocky Mountain view is really beautiful.

After checking out the town, James wanted to visit a brewery in Longmont (just 15 minutes outside of Boulder).

Apparently there are lots of breweries in Longmont... and they seem to all be super crowded. 

We stopped in Left Hand Brewery to have a beer. Just one because we had to drive (it's the royal we... James drove)

On the way we encounter a family of deer. They actually stopped at the stop sign before they crossed,

They certainly took their time crossing the street. Maybe they talked to the bison we encountered early in our trip

Back in Boulder, we went to dinner at a local pizza place.

Oh... Jesus is here too... it must be good 

The place was called Pizza Locale. 

James had an anchovy pizza. I would have shared, except for... yuck

I had the arugula and prosciutto pizza. It was really good, but no Bob's Biga (remember, from Missoula)

We head back to our creepy hotel. We couldn't figure out why almost every hotel in Boulder was booked.  Then we were chatting with some older fellow at the bar of the restaurant, who informed us it was parents weekend at the University of Colorado.  That explained why the only hotel we could get was about 20 years overdue for a renovation. Anyway, we went to bed. It's a long drive tomorrow. The destination: Kansas City, Missouri.