Exploring Boulder (or "My improved 5 year plan")

This morning we got up, did computer stuff, and sorted out what our plan for the day.  The plan started with breakfast sitting in the window seats of the house.  A good day so far.

Next we decided to go for a short hike.  Since we didn't want to spend our whole day trapesing around the mountain we did a short one Katie's aunt suggested.  It was (predictably) beautiful.  I had a blast scrambling around on the various boulder formations - taking pictures, looking at the view, feeling tall.  The only down side was the altitude.  We all got winded pretty quickly not only because we're out of shape (or at least I am), but also because you just can't breath deeply enough.  But it was still very nice, and the views more than made up for it.

After the hike we decided to split up.  I wanted to see the campus (University of Colorado Boulder) and Katie and her aunt wanted to go to a fair downtown.  It worked out pretty well, the dropped me off, I walked around then they came by to pick me back up.  The campus was amazing.  I have no idea how the students concentrate there.  How could you possibly do school work in your room when you keep looking out your window to see the Flat Irons (that's what the mountains are called)?  The campus is much bigger than UMW (what campuses aren't?).  All the buildings are made from stone (which reminded me of VT), so the campus had a cohesive feel, and the stone wasn't cut "flat" (as in, the outside edge was rough), so it felt natural.  This lead to an update of my current 5 year plan.  2 years in San Francisco, 2 years getting my master's at UCB, 1 year in New Zealand.  We'll see if it happens.

After they picked me back up we went to lunch at a salad place and walked around an outdoor mall.  Boulder is obsessed with the outdoors.  This mall could just as easily been enclosed like Tysons, but it wasn't.  That's kind of cool most of the time, but what about rain?  Or snow? Or cold?  But they don't seem to care - this way you can see the mountains!

Once lunch was over we headed out to the Celestial Seasonings factory.  (Brief thank you to Aaron who suggested it - we probably wouldn't have gone otherwise.)  It was pretty interesting.  Unfortunately the factory wasn't running because it's Saturday, but we could still do the walk through.  Our tour guide wasn't very good, but the smells were amazing!  All the spices used were packaged up, but you could smell them just fine.  The tea leaves were kept in a different area (or else they'd absorb the flavors of the spices).  The mint was kept in a different room still because it smells so strongly.  Walking into that room was an experience.  When you inhaled you could taste the mint at the back of your throat and your eyes started to water!  Once the tour was over we got some Boulder post cards at the gift shop and headed home.

We had some break time to catch up on blogs and photos.  (The unfair part is we're supposed to do this every day.  I keep being caught up, only to have to do it again.  It's like house work.  But way more fun and satisfying.)  I got all caught up on photos (sorting them out and putting them on facebook), and closer to being caught up on blogs.  There was brief debate about what to do for the evening, but we eventually settled on a plan.

We went out for dinner at an amazing sushi bar.  We got all different types and shared (always a good plan).  One of them was absolutely fabulous, the Ruby Red Roll ("cucumber and avocado wrapped in tuna drizzled with poke sauce, onions and scallions"), possibly one of the best things I've ever eaten.

After that we went to a concert right down the street.  The first group who was playing was really good and we liked them a ton (Dreams are for Rookies).  The second group was terrible and we just left.  Finally we got home, got into PJs and finished today's blog.  What a great day!
Fin