Colorado Adventure Day 2

Day 2 - Boulder, CO

On the second day of our trip we drove about an hour Northwest to Boulder, CO. We let the kids sleep in after the late-night concert and got a late start, so by the time we got to town it was time for lunch. I did a quick google search on best places to eat in Boulder and found KT's Real Good BBQ listed as the winner for BBQ for best places to eat in Boulder. We plugged that into the GPS and made our way there.

Delicious! I had the Pig Pile, which was more than I could eat. The baked beans were spicy but delicious. The red skinned mashers were fantastic!

From there we drove to Celestial Seasonings to do the factory tour.

I had looked online and it sounded like tours started every hour, so we were going to kill time until the 1 p.m. tour. I'm glad we walked inside to check it out, because there was a 12:30 tour we got in. They give you a teabag packet as your "ticket."

The hairnets are very fashionable!

You can't take photos on the tour because it's in the actual working factory. All Celestial Seasonings tea is made right here. It was a really nice tour. I survived the Mint Room! (They open the metal doors and let you stand in the room where they keep the mint. The smell is strong. VERY STRONG! They can't even keep the doors open because the smell would permeate all their teas.)

They have a tasting room where you can sample teas before and after the tour (and it seemed like you could come in and sample without doing the tour).

They let you try EVERY one of their 70 tea blends. They say, "We're open until 6 if you want to try them all!"

Around the room is framed art from all the teas. I liked this one, which is also on a large poster on a wall in the factory - Tension Tamer. Looking at the art was cool.

After the tea we drove to see NCAR - the National Center for Atmospheric Research. I especially wanted to see the building itself.

Inside there are displays on weather, which the kids enjoyed viewing and touching (most are interactive). It's not big, but we were there just under two hours. We also walked around the building.

Photos inside of I.M. Pei, the architect, diagrams of the building and a large model of it before construction.

The building itself is really neat.

The views from the building are fantastic!

After NCAR we drove back toward Bouder and stopped at the trail along the river. We didn't hike today, but we walked the path a little and stopped here, where we could put our feet in. The water is very cold!

We had a little difficulty finding Boulder Falls. Luckily I found a site that listed the GPS coordinates for it. It turned out we just hadn't driven far enough. You can't really climb near the falls, but you can walk up fairly close to see it.

Dinner was at Chipotle in town. It was our first time eating at one. It was ok. The portions were large. I think I prefer Qudoba better.

Then we walked around Pearl Street for about an hour. There are lots of shops to see, and it was crowded. Everyone seemed friendly. They have a lot of street performers.

Day Two was busy!