Colorado: The Non-Running Stuff Part Three (Off to Nederland!)

We're in Colorado. So we thought we should do something nature-like.

Dave did a little research and found a place to have breakfast in Nederland. On the map it looked like a 1/2 hour drive from Boulder and went through the Roosevelt National Forest. Once we left Boulder-proper it was all trees, streams, and rocks, We noticed a lot of people parked on the side of the road to observe nature, hike, or rock climb. This was a very pretty drive. In a 1/2 hr we went up in elevation +3000 ft. The last two miles of our ride was a steep climb with some sharp turns.

We made our first stop at Sundance Lodge and Cafe. Dave picked this place based on the website photos. We sat outside and got the best seat in-the-house. It was chilly up here, warmer shirts were required. This is not a foodie destination based on our experience, but it's worth the view.

After breakfast we were in search of the Carousel of Happiness. Our friend Craig told us about this one. Short story: this was a carousel at a park in Salt Lake City that was ruined. Some guy bought it and took 26 years to restore it with new hand carved animals. Now it's in the center of town and costs a dollar to ride it. Really a nice piece of art.

It looked like there were a few more points-of-interest in town: a woodcarving shop, microbrewery, and obligatory crystal shop plus something named after "Buffalo Bill". Since we had some more stuff planned in Boulder we headed back. On the way back we stopped at the Barker Reservoir:

After that we stopped at Boulder Falls. This location required a little bit of climbing on slippery rocks to get to. Not a good idea in Crocs (the nicer ones that look like shoes - not the rubber things) and Berkinstocks. Once again, another pretty sight:

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping Pearl Street and having a rooftop lunch at Lazy Dog. After that we stopped at King Soopers for race day supplies: bottled water, Lara Bars, Diet Cokes, and a Styrofoam cooler. Off to the room to relax before dinner.

Dinner was at Pasta Jay's. This place is popular! This was going to be a fun dinner because we were meeting up with some Teammates from Team AllEars! We had some great food with huge portions. It was a lot of fun talking with everyone and planning some things for our weekend together in Walt Disney World for Marathon Weekend.


Since the next day was race-day we called it a night.

Our next post will be about the Boulder Marathon. Stay tuned.....