Cororaro

Colorado PART 1 (I'm doing a figure 8. Colorado is my midpoint)

Boulder is like Burlington on crack.

It's the same kinds of people, with the same attitudes about the same things, just exacerbated by the fact that it is way bigger and also, in the middle of nowhere. Don't get me wrong, Boulder is right by Denver, the whole area is certainly Colorado's most populous, and there are other happening little areas scattered about, but don't lose site of the fact that it's statelocked.

Anyways, the people I met in Boulder were very friendly, pretty much all smoked weed, were more healthy seeming than most people, and all carried a liberalness about them. Much like Burlington, only bigger! Burlington's Church street is littered with shops, bars, restaurants and more, including head shops, lots of head shops. Boulder's Pearl street is exactly the same way. Bricked laden for pedestrian only traffic, covered with novelty shops, pubs, and, you guessed it, head shops. Some good ones, too. I guess Northern New England and California aren't the only two places in this country with good glass blowers.

As marijuana is medicinally available under state law in Colorado, and as there is such a high demand for “sick” patients in a big giant stoner town like Boulder, there are not just head shops, but weed stores. If you have a card, you can go in and buy weed. Neat! They sell weed candy, weed baked goods, weed, hash, whatever you could possibly make out of weed to get you high, you can by it with a medicinal marijuana license in Boulder. I was told there are some places where you go in, sample weeds, can get a massage, purchase weed, and go home. Awesome.

Not far from Boulder is a town called Nederland. Hey, friends of mine who smoke weed and ski/snowboard: Move here. They're even more liberal about smoking weed than Boulder. It's a small town right by a mountain resort, 30ish miles from boulder, 60ish from Denver, and a 1 road drive from Aspen. If you wanna be a Liftee somewhere in CO, I recommend here. I have nothing to back this up other than the culture I experienced round these parts. Ooh! I saw snow here, too. Well, not here, but look!

The drive between Boulder and Nederland is dope, and has a bunch of little pull off locations. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to one with a good setup for a view for a shred vid, so here's what we got:

While in Boulder, I was visiting Mark and Kaelyn Hevert, who moved out there after getting married last year. They took me to a few awesome places, the first of which was called The Lazy Dog, I believe. Had an amazing roof deck. Got a few beers there and went over to The Boulder Cafe. Go here. Go here. Go HERE. After 3 p.m., it is happy hour until close, every day. This includes cheap beers, cheap mixed drinks, and half price on any appetizer. Mark, Kaelyn, and I all got a smorgasbord of appetizers. I must say, the rustic fries were an amazing steal at it's half price. Might be the only thing we didn't finish.

On our way home, we stopped at a place called The Mountain Sun. Amazing beer selection, knowledgeable staff. Go here if you're a beer nut in Boulder. You won't be upset.

Colorado is a sweet place, it stays pretty warm almost year-round, and is, while still a mile high, at the foothills of where all the big mountains are, which is where most of the snow falls. As far as climate goes, the only thing that was uncool was how dry the air was. I've never been so frequently concerned with my hydration. My lips were getting chapped and it was like 70°F. Oh well, it was an amazing place, and it was amazingly beautiful. If I could find a music program, or find a reason to go any further with social psychology (at CU Boulder), or land some fitting job here, I wouldn't be opposed to living here for a bit of my mid 20s.


addendum: I forgot to mention how amazingly predominant beer brewing is in CO. It's amazing. Boulder has more brewers per capita than any other city (Vermont has more per state, ha). All the bars had a bunch of local beers on tap (sound familiar, burlington?) I highly recomend Avery, Great divide, and O'Dell's brewing companies. I'm sure there are far more amazing ones, I just didn't get to try.

After Colorado, I drove up to the badlands, and got lost in South Dakota for a few days. Now it's off through Wyoming!

See you on the road,

Skwar.