Rocky Mountain High… Our Pre Baby Colorado Vacation

Colorful Colorado! Colorado Rocks! Aspen…California…Beautiful. Our Colorado vacation!

Ben and I just got back from a wonderful ½ nostalgic ½ new vacation to lovely Colorado! It was great to go back and visit all of our old grad school places. We found a bunch of new places too!

A little history on Ben and I for those of you that don’t know our CO connection. Ben grew up in Boulder so he has tons of memories from when he was a kid. We met at the University of Minnesota and when we went back to grad school we forged the Oregon Trail and headed west back to Colorado…then back to Minnesota. When we were planning this trip I realized I hadn’t been back to visit since we moved back to MN in 2009. Yikes. It was time to go back.

Ben and I decided to visit all of our favorite places from grad school and do all of the things that we never had a chance to do because we were making ourselves smart…or at least getting ourselves in a ridiculous amount of student debt.

We spent some time in each of our fav cities. We started out in Denver and Boulder then moved up to Breckenridge for some mountain living. I would recommend a trip like this to any prego like me. There were just enough activities to keep us busy but not enough to make me super tired all of the time. A pre baby vacation was a must for Ben and I and I am so glad that we took the time to do this. We got to hang out just the two of us and get back on the same page with life. Colorado was the best place to do this. It’s beautiful, inspiring, and the fresh mountain air breathes new life into everything around it.

Denver

We lived in Denver while in grad school. It’s a great town and boy has it changed since we moved. There are a bunch of new buildings and some cool vintage places. We stayed in a great hotel that had themed retro floors. We were on the big hair floor. It had a ton of 80’s hair band posters. Boulder has some great foothills parks and overlooks. We took some great selfies! It even snowed when we were there. We didn’t let that stop us. Every time there was too much snow we would duck into a coffee shop to get something warm to drink.

Here are our fav activities/food!

Rio Grande – Best Mexican
Denver Biscuit Co – Huge biscuits the size of your hand with delicious toppings
Illegal Petes – like Chipotle but better

Blue Moon Taproom – my dad’s last project before retiring
Platte River – great downtown walking trail

Union Station – Historic Train depot. You can have a beer and wait for the train

Curtis Hotel – cool boutique hotel
16th Street – walking street in downtown

Colorado Springs: Garden of the Gods – most beautiful rocks I have ever seen

Boulder

Ben’s home town. A great part hippie, part granola eating, all dog friendly town that we always have a blast in when we visit.

Salvaggios – best deli in the country, try the Italian. I couldn’t even get a before picture because I devoured it before I remembered to take a pic.

Flatirons – great local hiking and perfect selfie taking backdrop

Lookout – Take beautiful selfies. Everyone spends so much time looking at the mountains, it’s nice to turn around and see the vast cityscape.

Pearl Street – pedestrian street with food and shops and street performers. There is a guy that stuffs himself in a small clear box.

Breckenridge

The least pretentious of the ski towns. I love love love Breck… as the cool kids call it. I had never spent any time here as an adult. Our families skied there when we were younger. The whole town is so beautiful and the hiking is sublime. Ben and I spent time hiking, strolling around town and at a great Airbnb!
Mi Casa – great Mexican food
Breckenridge Brewery – experimental beer place and good burgers
Mountain Top Cookie Shop – I ate turtle and birthday cake cookies

 
Hoosier Pass – Hike the continental divide above the tree line. We even saw some huge mountain lion footprints


Sallie Barber Mine Trail – Want to see an old abandoned mine? This place is so cool!

Airbnb – Such a cute spot. The hosts were great and we will be back for sure. This time of year was a great time to visit. The rates for the condo were super affordable.

Thanks for hanging out! This was a great trip. I feel invigorated and ready to get back to nursery planning and bathroom renovation!