This week has been largely comprised of unpacking, ordering pizza, and crying for no specific reason. When I suggested we take a quick trip to Boulder just because we could, Dan responded with a resounding “sounds good.“

Because the IKEA trip took longer than the 158 hours we’d planned for, our time in Boulder was limited. We packed it in anyway, starting with a quick dinner at West Flanders Brewing. On our way to the pub we started noticing many people dressed as cows… but considering it’s late October, we didn’t think much of it. We had a table by the window and eventually noticed dance squads and a full marching band heading up Pearl Street. By the time we’d finished our pretzeled pot pies and bison meatballs, everything culminated into a loud, festive homecoming “stampede parade” for University of Colorado. Go Buffs!

While the town caroused, Dan and I beelined up to Piece, Love and Chocolate. They make their own chocolates but I am also a fan of their “Exotic Bar Armoire,” full of bean-to-bar offerings from around the world.

Dan is a big fan of Topo Designs so we popped in there as well — it’s not the kind of place one can afford to make an impulse buy very often, but the design of both their stores and their products makes it worth the visit anyway. (There’s another Topo right down the road from us in Fort Collins, which could be… a problem.)

We were originally planning to hit Boulder a day earlier, but my dear friend Paul Strickland suggested we try to catch a performance by Gemma Wilcox, who just happened to be putting on a show in Boulder a day later. Wilcox is an award-winning Fringe artist who creates and performs one-woman shows including Magical Mystery Detour, which Dan and I were fortunate enough to see. Very touching, creative, tightly executed.

I miss Paul and all of my theatre-loving friends back home so much… getting a taste of the local Fringe scene made me feel less far from home, if only for an hour. 

 

So much more to do in Boulder. I have to keep reminding myself it’s only an hour away…