Rocky Mountain High – 2 Girls and a Dog

October 3^rd – 6^th, 2014

As mentioned in our last blog, Thursday was a ‘regroup’ day for us. But before we attacked our chores, as we also mentioned in our last blog post, we went back to Rembrandt’s for breakfast. Lisa was our food server this time and bless her she was VERY concerned when we told her about Michelle’s nut allergy. We managed to convince her it was OK to feed us, and we had another delicious breakfast and enjoyed visiting about our road trip with Lisa. Since we were at an Airbnb and had access to a washer and dryer, we did loads of laundry and repacked our suitcases for the next few stops. We also reorganized the car because after 18 days on the road, it had become somewhat chaotic. A few additional words about our Airbnb in Boise. It was a perfect place for us to stay. It is very close to Tammy and Byran’s and has lots of room for Eddie to run. Michelle even played ball with her on our last full day there. She loved being on squirrel patrol and proudly chased them off when they dared to appear in ‘her’ yard. She also met Louie, the very friendly neighbor Lab who visited with her through the fence.

I like this yard. Playing ball is really fun, but Louie looked really big to me. He was nice and all, but I’m really happy there was a fence between us.

We spent some time creating and posting another blog entry and filled out more postcards. We decided we wanted one last nice dinner in Boise and, to our delight, found they had a ‘Land Ocean’ restaurant not far from us! It is one of our favorite restaurants in Folsom. CA and we always make it a point to go there when we are visiting family in that area. Thoroughly sated, we headed home and to bed to be rested for the drive to Oden, UT for an overnight stay.

Hmmm. I don’t recall going to that nice restaurant. Hmmm. I don’t remember going to one in that Folsom place either. What are you talking about?

Our departure from Idaho the next morning included one last breakfast at Rembrandt’s because when you’ve found the perfect breakfast burrito, (for Sandy) and the perfect cup of tea (for Michelle), why go anywhere else? Our food server that morning was Heidi, and she was just as fun and friendly as Lisa. In fact, Lisa came over to visit with us and wish us safe travels. Good wishes are always welcome. A big shout out to Lisa and Heidi all the staff there! We finished breakfast and were on the road by 8:30 AM. Our plan was to stop at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument and the visitor center which is reportedly in the town Hagerman. I say, reportedly because we never found the visitor center! We did drive out to the marker for the national monument and took a picture of it to prove we were there. However, it was not a total bust, because we saw the prettiest small waterfall at Salmon Falls on the scenic bypass you take to get to the fossil beds. Lemonade out of lemons and all that…

We didn’t find that place they talked about. I don’t know why you want to see old rocks anyway. We drove back and forth trying to find it. The Drunken Goat Tour continues with the Moms.

We arrived at our Comfort Inn and found that there was a Mexican restaurant connected to it called ‘Cactus Red’s’. We were quite happy we could just get takeout there for dinner as we needed to be up at “oh dark thirty” the next morning to get sure we could drop Eddie off at the dog hotel in Boulder by 5PM.

Sorry, what did you say? Dog hotel? You didn’t mention that when you were feeding me chips. Do you really think I wouldn’t figure it out?

The next morning, we left before sunrise, so we got to experience it as we were driving east toward Cheyenne WY. As it grew light, we noticed that the main crop for that part of the world appeared to be snow fences. Dozens of them line the fields on either side of the highway. The secondary crop seemed to be wind turbines which is no surprise at all given how blessedly windy it can be there. If you read our blog from last year, you may remember how Eddie practically became a kite the day we left Cheyenne!

I remember. Mom nearly lost me. Flying poodles. That’s just not right.

We stopped at the Summit rest stop just outside of Cheyenne, and to our delight, realized we were once again on the Lincoln Highway as was evidenced by the giant bust of President Lincoln at said rest stop. We stopped at this same place last year and marveled at the sight of a giant Lincoln head in Wyoming. We eventually made our way into Colorado and drove through many, many acres of agriculture that we ‘think’ were potatoes. Of course, Idaho has bragging rights about potato production, but Colorado claims to be the second largest fresh potato growing region in the United States. We can only believe it’s true as we read it on coloradopotato.org website. We dropped Eddie off at The Pet Spot (we’re sure you’ll hear more on that from Eddie later) and made it to the Boulder Marriott just in time to check in, have a drink and dinner in the Canyons restaurant at the hotel and get to bed after a very long day.

Hey! This isn’t right. There are DOGS here. Where’s my one phone call. This is all wrong. How can they do this to me?

Sunday morning found us up and searching for breakfast. We didn’t feel like eating at the hotel restaurant again, so we headed for the restaurant right next door called “The Buff”. Their clever and somewhat risqué tag line is “eat in the buff”. The University of Colorado, Boulder is located here, and the mascot is Ralphie the buffalo and this is a huge football town. Hence, the name of the restaurant. The food was pretty good, and the service was great. We then headed to the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was about an hour away on a winding road. The landscape alternated between golden plains and dense forest with the winding mountain road occasionally veering into the scary for Michelle. We noticed very tall brown, thin towers all along the remote sections of the path and wondered about their purpose. Certainly not earthquake, hurricane or tornado warnings, right? Given we were in the mountains, maybe avalanche warnings? When we got to the visitor center, we asked, and we weren’t even close. They are fiber optic cell towers. Apparently, there are lots of accidents on that particular stretch of road and there was no cell service, so a private company completed the installations in 2022. The things you learn while traveling. As we were nearing the Beaver Meadows visitor center, we started seeing thicker and thicker smoke. We also noticed there were SO MANY PEOPLE! It was a bit of a culture shock having been in the Dakotas. Montana, Wyoming and Idaho for the last two and a half weeks. Even in Yellowstone, the crowds were not as heavy as they were once we hit Estes Park. Yowzah! They were everywhere…for that reason and the smoke (coming from fires in Wyoming and Utah) we decided to forgo the 39-mile loop around the park and saw what we could on the drive to and from the park. We’re very glad we went and not at all surprised it is one of the most visited National Parks in the country. We were a bit concerned that we’d taken a wrong turn and ended up in the Great Smokey Mountains rather than the Rocky Mountains.

Hello? All alone am I…..

After getting back to our room, Michelle was jonesing for a steak and found a very highly rated steak restaurant called ‘Steakhouse No. 316’.

I like steak. I’m on bread and water.

It was rated as the best steakhouse in the area, so we made reservations for later that evening. What we didn’t know, and anyone who plans to visit should know, is that the parking is a bit of a mess in Boulder. We will be taking Lyfts if we go out to dinner and it’s not walking distance. The restaurant is truly one of the best dining experiences we’re had – and not just for this trip, but in general. Our food server, Stephanie, was impeccable and super friendly and fun. We made use of Josh, the sommelier and he introduced us to an incredible Greek (I know!) wine that was so delicious. We had oysters, halibut crudo (OMG, heaven), Sandy had amazing crab cakes and Michelle was tempted by the Dover Sole on the bone (so hard to find in the US) but eventually gave into her steak craving and had a Kansas City Strip that was truly perfect in every way. For dessert, Michelle had blood orange sorbet and we each had a glass of Chateau Closiot, a White Boudreaux that Josh selected for us. Again, an amazing glass of wine that was a good compliment to the Greek Hatzidakis Santorini Cuvee. Completely stuffed, we drove back to the hotel for a sound night’s sleep.