October 7th – 9th, 2024
We decided to take a couple of relaxing days in Boulder so on Monday we read most of the day while waiting for our astronomy tour later in the evening. We found the tour through an email Marriott sent us with suggestions for what to do while in Boulder.
The astronomy tour looked interesting, so we signed up for a Monday night tour.
Wow. That really sounds like fun. Here I am taking the ‘Run the Dog Gauntlet’ tour every day. Let’s compare notes later.
We were instructed to drive to a local trailhead where the skies were darker than closer to the city. We found it quite easily at the end of a dirt road. There were six of us as well as our guide, Aislynn. She gave us an astronomy 101 lesson as we waited for it to get darker and for our eyes to adjust so we could see better through the 4 inch, 8-inch and 16-inch telescopes Aislynn brought with her. Sandy is the backyard astronomer so we won’t bore you with her details, but just image seeing the Ring Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy through a 16 in Dobsonian telescope or a huge Globular Cluster of stars so close together they look like a sprinkling of salt. Truly amazing. We also saw what appeared to be the Aurora Borealis for a short period of time. It wasn’t predicted, but it had all the markings. Again, truly amazing.
I can’t see it inside you know.
Tuesday morning, we were quite hungry, and Sandy found a breakfast place not too far from the hotel called the ‘Village Coffee Shop’. As we drove up to it, Michelle remembered reading something about it on some website about the best diners in each state and lo and behold, a copy of the article was on the door! It is as their tag line says “890 sq. ft. of reality surrounded by Boulder.” The article goes on to say “Village Coffee Shop is an oasis of Formica and bad lighting…with superb sausage gravy, oversized orders of French toast, and other things you don’t normally associate with one of America’s healthiest cities. It’s like finding a smoking lounge tucked into a destination spa.” Sorry we couldn’t get a good picture of the article, the sun and people trying to get in and out of the door as we were taking the picture worked against us.
So, Monday was about Sandy’s love of stargazing and Tuesday was about a massage for Michelle. Michelle talked to the front desk at the Marriott, and they suggested a place called ‘Boulder Therapeutics’ and Michelle was so glad she took their recommendation because her massage was amazing! Zoe, her massage therapist, has 15 years’ experience and is also a licensed chiropractor so she really knows how to get into knots and work them out. After getting home and a quick shower for Michelle, dinner was on our minds. We picked an Italian place in Boulder called “Sforno Trattoria Romana”, situated on the promenade part of Pearl Street. The food was good and Peyton, our food server, was charming if a bit distracted. Michelle’s trout was delicious, and Sandy enjoyed her seafood pasta. We splurged on chocolate mousse that was made in-house and consisted of scoops of super chocolaty mousse alternating with fresh whipped cream and drizzled with caramel sauce. A heavenly desert! We headed back to our hotel and early to bed as we had a very early wake up the next day.
The alarm went off at 5:30 AM because we wanted to go to the Denver Mint, and you can only get tickets at the ticket office which opened at 7 AM and closed as soon as all the tickets for the day are issued. So, off to Denver we went. It will surprise no one who knows us that we were one of the first in line and got tickets for the first tour at 7:30 AM. The tour was really interesting and Derrick, our tour guide really knew his subject. We were allowed to see the production of pennies – I think most people are fascinated by how things are manufactured with the production of money being especially enthralling. Did you know that $50,000 of quarters weights 2,500 pounds? We saw a container holding that amount and it became obvious why our purses/pants pockets become so heavy if we accumulate too many coins. We also learned that Denver makes all the new coins for the Western part of the country and the Philadelphia mint makes all the coins for the East. There were displays of money through the ages and the ubiquitous gift shop. During the tour, Derrick openly admitted one of the aims of the tour is to turn all of us into coins collectors (called numismatists) because that helps creates the demand for more coins. We’re sure some of you have heard it takes more than a penny to manufacture a penny and more than a nickel to manufacture a nickel. That is true (3 cents for a penny and 8 cents for a nickel) but the production of the higher value coins can be made at a profit. The mint sells the coins to the Federal Reserve for face value who sell the coins for face value to banks and other financial institutions, so the mint is one of the very few departments in the government that makes a profit. What do they do with that profit? It is used to pay down the national debt. Last year the profit came to about 3.5 billion. Yes, a drop in the bucket for the debt, but nevertheless, it is something. We’re still not convinced we still need pennies, but it takes an act of congress to get rid of pennies (literally), so that’s a remote possibility. We also don’t have any pictures from inside the mint because it is prohibited. They made us turn off our phones before we were allowed to enter After the tour, we went looking for breakfast and through the help of a local, found a great breakfast place called ‘Dozens” and yes, the eggs were very good! We then returned to our car and picked up our purses that were not allowed in the Mint. Then it was off to the capital building. It was very quiet as the Colorado congress is not in session, but it is a very impressive and beautiful building. We almost had to hike back to the car (in an all-day lot for $18) because we realized Sandy had a very nice pocketknife in her purse. The parking lot was a fair distance, so we hid her knife outside the capital building with the squirrels and confidently went through the security checkpoint.
I carry a Samurai Sword and no one ever stops me.
We spent an hour wandering around the building and admiring the art, architecture and trappings of power and then recaptured Sandy’s knife and walked back to the car. Once in the car, we realized we were only about 30 minutes away from the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater! We both have always wanted to see it so off we went, and we are SO glad we did! It is set amongst stunningly beautiful red rock formations and drop-dead gorgeous landscapes. We only had a few minutes to see the amphitheater because a show was scheduled for that evening and the artist (Still Woozy – I looked him up, he is an indie singer/songwriter) needed to start his sound check. However, there is a gift shop (nach) and a Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame so we spent some time examining the displays. There are listings of every act who has been there by year – back as far as 1941 regularly and the early 1900s for sporadic concerts. We were very tickled to find Joe Bonamassa’s name on a few of the years. We also went to the trading post just down the way from the amphitheater. It is just a much bigger version of the gift shop, but they did have better t-shirts and post cards. For anyone who loves music and rock n roll specifically, this is a must-not-miss experience. We were able to mark this off our bucket list, though we would still love to actually see a show there – preferably Joe Bonamassa!
By the way, on the way there we stopped at the Matthew Winters State Park. This is an extremely beautiful place just outside of the Red Rock Amphitheater. Our visit there is a shout out to our friends whose namesake donated the land to the state. A most wonderful gift of conservatory!
The drive back to Boulder was quick and uneventful. For our last dinner in Boulder, we decided to sample the local sushi. We picked a place called ‘Hapa Sushi Grill and Sake Bar”. Wow! The food was fantastic and Charlotte, our very talented and helpful food server made the experience ever better! She suggested the Pacific Isle Roll, which contains spicy tuna, tempura asparagus and jalapeno rolled in rice and topped with albacore tuna, cilantro and chili ponzu. It was amazing, so amazing we ordered another one after we finished the first one. Back to the hotel to pack up for our journey to Santa Fe tomorrow. We also get to pick up our little Eddie tomorrow! We miss her so much!
Really?
As noted above….
The tour was SO cool – we wish we could show you pictures.
Part of the Colorado Capital building rotunda.
More of the rotunda – it’s really impressive.
The view from outside the capital building. This is looking away from the capital. We believe the white building in the background is the state court house.
The aforementioned Matthews/Winters Park right outside the Red Rocks park.
Some of you may recognize this from our Facebook post. One of the magnificent red rock formations in the park.
The amphitheater is surrounded by majestic rock formations. Seeing a musical act here must be akin to seeing opera in Santa Fe. Surrounded by nature’s beauty.
The amphitheater as seen from above.
Just the two of us…
Yummy, yummy sushi!