Kicking off our first long term trip in retirement, we decided to spend a couple of weeks in Colorado to visit friends before we headed to Graham's place to help. Keith had pre-arranged our itinerary so that we could see everyone and also stay for free!!
Edwards
Our first stop was two nights at Sarah's beautiful condo in Edwards, near Beaver Creek. We arrived around 5pm, got settled in and then had dinner with Sarah - she cooked a great dinner of stir fry beef, vegetables and coconut rice - yum!
The next morning, she left early to head back to Denver while we went to the local coffee shop, Yeti's Grind, for a quick breakfast and then we did a beautiful 4.5 hour, 11 mile, 2K elevation gain hike at Meadow Mountain. The hike was mostly open so you could see the views everywhere and had a nice gentle uphill climb all the way. Since it had rained quite a bit the few weeks before, everything was very green with beautiful wild flowers. Back at Sarah's place, we cleaned up and had an early dinner at Craftsman Brew which was walking distance - we shared a really good kale salad and Philly dip sandwich.
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| Meadow Mountain Hike |
For our last morning, we did laundry, cleaned the place and packed up and then headed out on our two hour drive to Steamboat with gorgeous scenery along the way!
Steamboat Springs
Our next stop was Steamboat where we stayed one night at Ralph and Kelly's house. We arrived around noon and met Ralph at Winona's for a quick lunch where we had a great Cobb salad and greek salad. We then went to their house to unload our stuff and then headed out for an afternoon of activity and fun - their daughter Becca joined us as well. We first biked along the river for about an hour and then we tubed down the river for another hour. Tubing was fun as we tried to navigate the rocks! We were quite wet from this but didn't let that stop us from rushing over to E3 Chophouse to quickly put in an order for dinner to take advantage of the happy hour pricing. We sat outside with a nice view of the river and ordered one of everything on the menu along with a couple of beers. The food was very tasty - in particular the brisket. Back at the house, we played a few rounds of Dutch blitz with the family where we definitely came in last place!
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| Tubing in Steamboat |
The next morning, we went for a 1.5 hour, 4 mile hike up Spring Creek Trail - we didn't do the entire trail as we had to get back to the house by a certain time to pack up. We left around 8:30am to drive 3.5 hours to Boulder.
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| Spring Creek Hike |
Boulder
Our next stop was Boulder where we stayed one night with Dawn and Stuart and another night with Craig and Rita. We arrived at Dawn's house in Superior (which is about 15 min south of Boulder) around noon and caught up with her while we waited on Stuart to come home. Dawn prepared a nice light lunch - a couscous salad with chicken. After eating, we did a two hour, 4.5 mile hike in the foothills. It rained quite a bit so we cut the hike short by a couple of miles. Their adorable border collie, Mac, also joined us for the hike.
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| Foothills Hike |
We got back to their house with enough time to clean up and have one beer before ubering to dinner. Graham had bought us a gift certificate to Frasca for our birthday so we decided to go there and share the gift certificate with Dawn and Stuart. We opted for the four course menu where we each chose two starters, an entree and dessert. Everything was delicious! We had one more beer at their house before crashing for the night!
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| Dinner at Frasca |
The next morning, we had breakfast together at their local diner, PJ's, where we had avocado toast and oatmeal - trying to be somewhat good after the large dinner from the night before. We then went on an hour walk with Dawn and Mac before packing up to head over to Craig's house.
We arrived at their beautiful home around noon and had a quick bite of yummy parathas that Rita made. We then went on a 2 hour walk on Green Mountain where we saw nice views of Boulder below followed by drinking a couple of beers at a rooftop bar in town. Back at their house, we cleaned up and hung out that evening while Craig grilled steaks along with veggies for dinner. We also spent a little time with their two kids who were there for the summer.
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| Green Mountain Hike |
The following morning we went for a one hour walk in the foothills behind their house and then showered and drove to Longmont to meet with Guy and Carol for lunch. We first went to their house and caught up for a while and also saw Amber and Savannah for a few minutes. We then drover over to Sushi Hana where we had a couple of rolls for lunch.
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| Hike in Boulder foothills |
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| Lunch at Sushi Hana |
Denver
We arrived at Sarah's house around 4pm and got settled in - we stayed here for 10 days so it was nice to finally stay put for a while. Shawna cooked a meatball tagine for dinner for the three of us and we hung out for the evening and did a short walk in City Park to let our food settle.
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| City Park |
While in Denver, we went on walks/hikes every day and met up with a friend each day as well, mostly for dinner. We had intended on doing longer hikes each day but Shawna had developed some pretty bad blisters on both feet so some of the time was walking around parks (Wash Park, Cheesman Park, City Park) in flip flops!
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| Wash Park Walk |
Some of the hikes we did were:
- Mt Galbraith Loop via Cedar Gulch Trail - a 4 miles trail with 928 feet elevation located near Golden. We had intended on going further on the Nightbird Trail to make it a 7 mile hike but we had started later in the day and it got too hot. The hike was OK - nice views on the backside but it was very exposed so not great for heat and views of the front was just of Golden.
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| Mt Galbraith Hike |
- Bear Peak Canyon Loop - Keith and Kim did this hike in Boulder while Shawna stayed home to rest her feet from all the blisters. The hike was a 5 hour, 9 mile and 3k elevation gain hike. They both really enjoyed it.
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| Bear Peak Hike |
Our main purpose for this part of the trip was catching up with friends and we had such a blast meeting up with everyone:
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| Dinner at Root Down |
We had an amazing time enjoying the great outdoors of CO and catching up with so many friends!
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