Rocky Mountain High

July 11,12,13,14th

57,912 miles

Denver - Golden - Boulder - Salt Lake

We decide to switch hotels for our second night in Denver and naming our own price on Priceline.com yields us a 4-star hotel downtown for $85/night.

For breakfast we check out an internet-lauded breakfast place called Hot Cakes. Yelp.com is our source for recommendations in cities where we don’t have a person on the inside. I use it casually, Christina is an ‘elite member.’

The sweet potato waffle is delicious beyond comparison. Furthering my life outlook that everything is better if you use sweet potatoes instead.

After breakfast we check into the hotel.

There is no free parking.

There is no fridge in the room.

There is no free WiFi.

The no-tell motel we stayed in last night is looking quite posh in comparison, if you’re to consider only amenities.

The one thing our Hyatt Superstay (or whatever) does have is a hotel gym.

Christina visits literary sites and I work out.

We meet up with my old roommate Matt Christoff for a Notre Dame Alumni happy hour. Surprisingly I actually know a couple of the other people at the meet-up as well.

For dinner Christina and I hit up the Lime. It’s a trendy Mexican restaurant in the Lo-Do district that feels more like a dance club to me once we get inside.

The rest of our evening is spent walking around the neighborhood and strolling up to a neighborhood bar called “My Brother’s Bar.” The bartender is friendly and we chat it up with him. He says that the crowd has expanded, not in a good way, over the past year or two due to the bar winning various local and internet awards for best bar, best beer, etc.

He also tells me I have a Philadelphia accent. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten this. I didn’t even know there was such a thing.

Through a series of parking and re-parking my car at various garages, and an error by the payment machine at one location, I manage to park all day and overnight for a total of $3. For downtown anywhere that is a screaming deal.

The next morning we wake up and get donuts on our way to check out the Buffalo Bill Wild West museum, which sits atop a mountain in Golden, about 30 minutes due West of Denver.

The visit is informative but I’m left feeling disappointed.

Boulder is our next stop and it’s as weird and hippie as everyone warned us it would be. We enjoy some bizarre tea and underwhelming food at the Dushanbe Tea House.

The main pedestrian drag in Boulder is the Pearl St. mall area. It’s the quintessential strip of interesting stores, restaurants, art galleries, and various street performers. There is no lack of panhandlers.

We spend the afternoon walking the street and taking in the sights.

After checking into the hotel (Comfort Inn? Days Inn? Value Inn? Does it even matter) we return to the Pearl St. area to scope some dinner.

What we find is a mass of people, adults, on big wheels riding throughout the streets. Doing slide-stops, spins, and other ‘tricks.’ We later find out there had been some kind of big wheel rally that day. They are all dressed like they’re going to a rave.

I feel like anymore it takes a lot to shock me. This sight, and almost getting run over by a woman in a purple wig riding a big wheel, succeeds in shocking me.

The calzone I have for dinner is the size of an NFL football (the waiter’s description when I asked if it would fill me up) and the most delicious I’ve ever had.

Sunday we arise and eat breakfast in the restaurant attached to the hotel.

It’s a long drive to Salt Lake City from Utah, but with the high speed limit and barren roads of Northern Colorado and Wyoming it goes by quickly enough.

Despite the fact that my brother lives in Salt Lake City and knew I was driving almost 2000 miles to see him, he manages to be out of town in Chicago while I’m there.

Salt Lake is a cool city, by all means, but the grid-like structure of the roads and the general sprawl of strip malls and car dealerships that emanates from downtown blurs it in my mind with any Des Moines or Tulsa or Boise. The absolutely gorgeous geography surrounding the city is its saving grace.

We spend one night there and drive to a place that I’m extremely excited to be visiting, even though it could not sound any less exciting to the average person.

Boise, Idaho.