48 hours in Boulder

A couple weeks ago, we spent four fun days in Colorado - two in Boulder, two in Denver. This was our "Random City Rendez Vous" with Kim and Eric, who live in NYC. We convinced them that Colorado was halfway between them and us - okay, so it's much closer to California, but we still had a blast exploring two cities none of us had ever visited.

Since (per my usual sloth-ness) I've let so much time go by, I'm just posting some highlights here. Caveat: there was no time for skiing, as my Texas-raised-now-beach-living self has never done it, so these are very eating/drinking/art-hopping type things.

BOULDER

Lodging: I highly recommend The Bradley Boulder Inn. It's a fabulous B&B, and while it's a little larger than your average B&B, it's just as cozy and homey as you'd hope for when staying at the base of the Rockies. The rooms are large and quiet, the breakfast is really spectacular (the homemade granola and apple brie quiche were to die for!), and the entire staff of young ladies were all so remarkably lovely and sweet, we started to wonder if they were a new kind of specially-designed robotic hotel personnel (I mean that in a totally complimentary way). It's also just a block from the Pearl Street Mall and all kinds of hikes, so thumbs up on location.

Out on the town:
DO NOT go to Boulder without embarking on Banjo Billy's Bus Tour. I'm sorry to say I don't remember the name of the guy otherwise known as Banjo Billy, but he was a hoot, and his 90-minute tour of Boulder in the school bus/log cabin hybrid was a blast. And, it was BYOB! You'll get some some mediocre but lovingly told ghost stories along the way.

Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (It looks like their site is having problems). A funky and cool little museum with no collection, it seems to host some interesting and challenging exhibitions. We saw work by Yumi Janairo Roth, Wang Jing, Susan Lee-Chun, and, our favorite, really engrossing photographs from North Korea by Hiroshi Watanabe. The photos from his series "Ideology of Paradise" are so gorgeous, like the one above, Li Min Gyong, Pyongyang Schoolchildren's Palace, North Korea. The colors and flavor of these North Korean residents were so rich and vibrant - but it was all tainted by the knowledge that they live in such a repressive society. I'm so happy to discover his work!

Dushanbe Teahouse
A real Tajik teahouse, built by artisans direct from Tajikistan (Boulder's sister city); this place is so gorgeous and, apparently, really popular - it was packed! It's right next door to the MoCA. It's worth a peek inside even if you're not sticking around for tea.

Dining:
We hit so many restaurants and I did a crummy job of keeping track of what we ate where, but I can attest these places:
Mountain Sun Pub: this was our first eatery, and one of the best. I still remember the flavor of the blue cheese burger and micro brew ale - sooo good. Their motto says it all: Beer, Food, Music, Love: What Else Do You Need? Indeed!

The Kitchen Cafe
We only had drinks and appetizers here, but the food was fabulous, and they pride themselves on seasonal, organic produce. It's a very "green" restaurant; they use wind-power generated electricity, and all of their paper products and straws are biodegradable. They give the remaining uncooked food and open bottles of wine to our staff at the end of each shift and all of our food scraps are made into compost. I love that!

Lastly but certainly not leastly, the Mork and Mindy House! Proof that we're children of the '70s, we sought out the house where the TV show took place (at least the exterior). Here's Kim and Eric doing the special shake. Makes me think of those goofy suspenders I used to wear...I think I even said "Nanoo Nanoo" instead of hello for a good long while. Thanks to Watts for making this happen.

Still to come...48 hours in Denver.