CO Trip Day 1

Day 1 of our CO trip started very early! 6AM flights out of JAX usually require a departure from our house around 4AM. Air travel was some-what typical with a 1.5 delay in Dallas due to a mechanical and an eventual plane and gate swap. Finally though, we were on our way northwest out of Dallas headed to Colorado Springs.


On the flight to COS, one of the flight attendants noticed my pack and asked if we were headed on a vacation. Katie exclaimed that we were on our honeymoon and before we knew it the flight attendant handed us a bottle of champagne and two ice glasses! Not a bad way to make up for a delayed flight!


Arrival in COS gave us a few glimpses of the front range, but the scenery really sank in as we drove north towards Denver, our first destination of the day.



The rolling grassland and mesa country was beautiful. It reminded me of driving in New Mexico. The skies were clear and the temperatures were comfortably warm in the low 80s with a breeze and NO humidity. It was a beautiful drive.

Our destination in Denver was the REI flagship store. The building was once a power station but now it houses three stories of outdoor camping, biking, paddling and misc. gear. We managed to only get out the door with things on our shopping list (except for one astronaut ice cream sandwich :) ). The staff there were not the friendliest folks (except for the store 'greeter' and the gentleman working in the camera section) and we were somewhat put-off by their attitudes. It was a nice store and we still enjoyed ourself.


Behind the store, we explored a river and bike way that was full of people playing in the water, biking and generally enjoying the great weather.


From REI we skooted out of Denver and headed north towards Boulder and our eventual dinner destination in Lyons. As we headed north, the views of the front range just improvved


We stopped at a 'Scenic Point' on a hill overlooking Boulder and watched a whole village(?) of prairie dogs and rabbits romping around a field.




We stopped on our way through Boulder to cruise down the Pearl St. Mall - a lovely outdoor pedestrian only series of shops and restaurants several blocks in length. It was a blast just cruising some shops for an hour or so and enjoying the spectacle of it all.


These folks were a choral group just hanging out singing popular songs around a piano.

After cruising Pearl St. we headed north again, towards Lyons and dinner at Oskar Blues
an unlikely Cajun beer-pub tucked into the front range of Colorado. It had excellent reviews and lived up to it's expectations. It was hopping that night with folks in town (tiny) for some sort of trick bicycle street fest. The food was great - as were their own craft brews.