Since my last post focused mainly on the Bluegrass festival, I’ll focus this post on non- festival related things.

I had dinner with my friend Kate last week and she asked me what my favorite thing about Colorado. “That’s easy,” I replied, “the stars!”

On our first night in Telluride we were walking back to the gondola and when we got to a particularly dark stretch of road, free of street lights, Chris told me to look up. I gasped. I have never in my life seen that many stars. That is by far what I’ll miss the most. I wish I could see those stars every night of my life and I made sure to look up and appreciate them every night.

Our first two full days in Telluride were mostly spent going in and out of the festival, but we mixed it up on our last two days.

On Saturday we relaxed and lounged around the condo for a bit before heading out for a hike. My amazing friends Becky and Ben were back home in DC participating in the Walk of Hope in memory of their daughter Cecelia Grace and many of us around the US and Canada took our own walks in solidarity.

#walkforcece

The scenery was absolutely stunning and it was a great way to show Becky and Ben our support and to honor Cecilia Grace. After our hike we cleaned ourselves up and headed back to the festival.

When we got in to town Chris decided to stop at Baked in Telluride for a doughnut. As we waited to pay we noticed this sign at the register and had quite a laugh. I’m pretty sure there are like 4 Jewish people in all of Telluride, including Ralph Lauren who has a house there, but us New Jersey Jews really get around, huh?

On Sunday there was no one we particularly wanted to see at the Bluegrass festival until the “house band,” who would close the show so we planned a day of activities. We started the day out with another hike. This one brought us 10,000 miles up to Bear Creek Falls. The last 100 feet of this hike is a bit more challenging as the path up to the falls becomes narrow and you have to hop over some streams and climb over some fallen tree branches to get there, but it was totally worth it for these views.

Unfortunately, what goes up must come down. As a New Yorker who walks all the time, the distance of this hike, about 5 miles round trip, didn’t intimidate me at all. And walking uphill, well you’re excreting yourself more than on a typical New York City sidewalk, but I can handle that. Downhill though, that’s another story. I am a huge klutz and not known for my grace, elegance or balance. I was pretty much terrified on those first 100 feet back down from the falls, but I stayed calm while Chris helped guide me and I managed to climb down without inflicting serious or even minor injury on myself. I’ve been known to inflict injuries on myself while walking from the bedroom to the bathroom so this was quite and accomplishment for me.

After our hike we cleaned up and headed in to Telluride to watch the US vs. Portugal World Cup match. (Please note that I have not mentioned World Cup at all in my previous posts because I’m so depressed about how it all turned out. I really thought we’d make it to the quarter finals this time. Sigh…)

We met Dan and a bunch of other friends who’d left the festival to watch the game at a local “pizza” place. The place was so packed that I wondered if anyone at all was still at the festival! Our large group gathered around a very small table, ordered drinks and settled in to cheer on Team USA. At this point Chris and I were starving and ready for some food so we ordered the boneless spicy bbq wings which were delicious.

Chris and I actually both prefer bone-in wings, but there were so may of us gathered around this small table that Chris and I had to hold the basket in our laps and so we went for the easier option. The things we do for our love of food and soccer!

After the bittersweet game we headed back to the gondola to get back to our condo. For days we’d been seeing a cart in front of the gondola station advertising, “Teddy’s Doughnuts,” and Chris decided it was time to try some. As he was placing his order a thought occurred to me and I asked the woman frying the doughnuts if she was the owner. She answered that she was so I told her about my allergies and she assured me that her doughnuts were safe for me.

We ordered the cinnamon sugar doughnuts which she served us hot right out of the fryer. They were so good! The doughnuts weren’t very sweet at all and they were so light that they melted in our mouths. I’m also a huge fan of cinnamon sugar and loved licking it off my fingers like a little kid

After freshening up at the condo we headed back to the festival to watch the house band, which featured; Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Del McCoury, Alison Krauss and others, close out the show. The band was great! We danced and soaked up the last of all the great live music before heading back to our condo for our final night sleeping in the mountains.

The next morning we were up and out bright and early for our 6 hour drive back to the Denver airport to catch our flight home.

This was a truly magical trip and I miss Colorado already. I visited Alaska in 2006 and that is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, but Telluride is a very close second and I feel blessed to have been able to spend time there.

Where is the most beautiful place you’ve ever been?

I decided to make the focus of this post the festival itself and focus the next post on non-festival related things.

On our first full day in Telluride, we made ourselves a quick breakfast at our condo and then hopped on the gondola to take us down the mountain and in to town to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

The gondola was an interesting experience. Mostly I didn’t find it too scary during the day, though I was not a big fan of that stomach dropping feeling you got when it first started heading down the mountain. The gondola at night, now that was a different story. You are in the mountains! At night! It’s pitch black! You are hanging from a cord above a mountain in a glass bubble and you can’t see the hand in front of your face. Need I say more?

During the day however, you got to take in some beautiful scenery from the gondola and you got to meet some interesting people like this guy:

The dog’s name was Rudy and he was the friendliest, cuddliest little guy ever. In what may have been the cutest event I have ever witnessed, Rudy climbed up on the bench next to Chris and put his little head on Chris’s lap. Chris started petting him and the little boy who was with Rudy looked at Chris very seriously and said, “I think he likes you.” I’m pretty sure that’s the very definition of totes adorbs. Good thing Chris and I are both dog lovers.

My first glimpse at Telluride during the day did not disappoint. As I said earlier, it’s a great little town which is surrounded by these views.

Even the festival itself had a stunning backdrop.

Food was a little tough for me in this environment, but I packed some snacks from our condo and was also able to eat some “pizza” and grilled corn at the festival. Chris was super excited though, to get these chicken and basil dumplings which are apparently amazing and one of the highlights of the festival for many. They contain lots of stuff that I’m allergic to so they were a no no for me, but I was glad to see Chris enjoy them.

For me the highlight of the festival was meeting The Lone Bellow!! They are one of my favorite bands and I highly recommend checking them out. The members of the band all live in Brooklyn and the female in the group, Kanene Pipkin, and I actually have a friend in common. They were so nice and it was so fun to talk about our shared love of Brooklyn and our mutual friend.

Days two, three and four of the festival was much the same; great music, extraordinary weather, not so great “pizza” , Chris alternating between dumplings and chicken tacos and sunsets that looked like this.

Chris kept worrying about me, as this festival definitely skews hippie and I’m decidedly un-hippie (for the record he’s pretty damn un-hippie too), but I love live music and generally I enjoy a festival atmosphere. My only issue with this festival is that because of the dry mountain climate and all the people dancing, there is dust everywhere. It gets in your eyes and nose and you need to scrub it off of yourself when you get back to where you’re staying. Still the pleasures of the music and the atmosphere far outweighed any of the annoyances.

Do you enjoy live music? Have you ever had the opportunity to meet one of your favorite artists?

Telluride was the longest and best portion of our trip, but I think it’s going to have the shortest amount of blog time dedicated to it. This is a food blog and I have nothing much to tell you about any special food I ate on this portion of the trip so I guess I’ll try and turn this in to a travel blog for now and hope that my words and pictures can convey to you how absolutely amazing Telluride is, though I don’t think they can.

We woke up bright and early on Wednesday morning, grabbed breakfast at our hotel in Denver and headed over to pick up our rental car. Does the idea of two New Yorkers who don’t drive at all, driving 6 hours through the mountains scare you at all, because it sure scared us! It was ridiculously expensive to add me to the insurance too; so Chris, who hadn’t driven in 2 years, drove the entire 6 hours. Luckily, he did great. I swear I’m not saying that because I’m all googley-eyed in love, he really did great.

So we had a nice ride, snacks, music on the radio and more importantly, stunning scenery. Seriously, if you ever have the opportunity to drive through the mountains in Colorado, take it.

We were eager to get up to Telluride, especially since we found out that one of our favorite bands, The Lone Bellow, would be playing a free show that night as part of the festival we were attending, so we didn’t plan to stop much. We made one stop at a supermarket to pick up some food since we’d be staying at a condo with a kitchen. Our only other stop was for a late lunch at Horsefly Brewing Company in Montrose, Co; about an hour and a half from Telluride. Though I understand that sometimes when you’re on a long car trip your best and only option may be a chain restaurant on the side of the highway, but if it can be managed I far prefer places like Horsefly; local and unique.

We both had the patty melt and fries and I had a beer while Chris had there homemade root beer since he was driving.

We arrived at our condo in Mountain Village in the late afternoon and we were greeted by these views.

We quickly freshened up and headed part way down the mountain via the gondola to check out the Lone Bellow show!

After a great show we hopped on the gondola again and headed further down the mountain where I got my first glimpse of the actual town of Telluride. One of the many things that makes Telluride such a spectacular place is that it’s surrounded by unimaginable beauty and then the town itself is filled with all these lovely shops and restaurants so it’s the best of both worlds.

We met up with Dan and some other friends and Chris grabbed a quick bite before we headed back up to our condo where we got right in to bed for some much needed rest.

Do you often take long road trips? Do you enjoy driving?

Picking up where I left off last week.

On Tuesday morning, our second day in Colorado, we decided to head to Boulder. Boulder is only about an hour’s bus ride from Denver. I’d been told by a number of people that Boulder was worth a visit and Chris, who’d been there before, concurred so off we went.

This is what greeted us on arrival.

Not bad, huh?

Boulder immediately had a different feel to me than Denver did. First, it’s the home the University of Colorado so it’s got a bit of a college town feel. Second, it’s much smaller than Denver and felt more like a big town than a small city. We strolled the main drag and flitted in and out of all these adorable little shops before heading to the pedestrian mall to stroll some more.

Finally we’d worked up an appetite and since we’re craft beer lovers, Chris wanted to take me to the Mountain Sun Brew Pub.

Mountain Sun operates under a very cool concept; every employee there does every job. So the person taking your order may have cooked the food yesterday and may be washing dishes tomorrow. I really like this idea as it gives everyone an appreciation for each job and an understanding of how the whole process works. We each had a super delicious beer and Chris ordered a burger, his theme of this trip, while I went with the blackened chicken quesadilla.

The quesadilla was really fresh and tasty and they served it with plenty of guacamole and spicy green chilies, both of which are sure ways to my heart.

Fueled up on food and beer, we decided to take a walk/hike along the Boulder Creek Path. The reasons I refer to is as a walk/hike rather than a hike are twofold. First, parts of it are paved liked sidewalk while parts are dirt path. Second, I was wasn’t prepared for a hike and was wearing those super flat thong-type sandals. Though the terrain was pretty flat, my feet were killing me by the end. Still, I kept insisting we go just a bit further as the pain in my feet was worth it for the views.

Finally, it was time to head back to Denver.

We were exhausted and hungry by the time we got back to Denver so after quickly freshening up at the hotel we headed out to dinner. We ended up at Lucky Pie, which Dan had recommended to us.

Now I must digress. You may have heard me talk about Pizza vs. “pizza” on this blog before so let me just give you a quick refresher. In New York and New Jersey we eat Pizza. In the majority of the rest of the country they eat some sort of cheese/bread/sauce combinations which they refer to as pizza, but which is actually “pizza.” Here’s something important to note though, while “pizza” is not Pizza, it is comprised of carbs and cheese so it’s very often delicious in it’s own right. Ok back to my previously scheduled posting….

We started out by splitting the braised lamb meatballs with fresh mozzarella.

The meatballs were delicious and the texture was perfect. As Jersey kids, Chris and I are pretty particular about all Italian-American food and we both gave Lucky Pie’s marinara high marks.

For the main act we ordered the Napolitana pizza which featured spicy salami, chilies, roasted garlic and smoked mozzarella.

As expected it was “pizza” and not Pizza, but man what delicious “pizza” it was! The spicy salami and chilies had just enough kick which was balanced perfectly with the rich, slightly smokey cheese and just a hint of sweetness from the roasted garlic. It was a meal we both very much enjoyed.

After dinner we took a quick stroll down Denver’s 16th street pedestrian mall. I didn’t see much of Denver so I don’t have much to go on, but the 16th street mall was my favorite part. I love how cities in Europe so often have pedestrian malls and I wish more major American cities had them. A big thumbs up to Denver for having a pedestrian mall.

At this point we were walking zombies and were ready to call it a night especially as we planned to be up bright and early the next day for our 6 hour drive to Telluride.

Have you ever visited Boulder, Co? If so, what was your impression of it? Do you enjoy pedestrian friendly cities or do you prefer being in your car?

A few months in to our relationship Chris invited me on his annual trip to Colorado and of course I said yes! Chris’s oldest friend, Dan (they’ve known each other since Kindergarten – totes adorbs, right?) moved to Denver after college and Chris has been out there to visit many times. Five years ago Chris started joining Dan and some other friends in attending the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

Telluride is a 6 hour drive from Denver, but due to it’s high altitude it’s best to spend a couple of days at a midway point when you’re coming from sea level so Chris suggested we spend two days in Denver before heading even farther up to Telluride.

We had to be up at 5am to catch our 7am flight from Seattle to Denver so, as you can imagine, we were exhausted. When we arrived we headed straight for our hotel which luckily had a room ready for us. We cleaned ourselves up a bit and then headed out to walk around downtown a bit. After a very little bit of walking I was starving. At this point it was 2pm and all I’d eaten was a handful of craisins and a bag of potato chips.

Denver is a great foodie city and Chris very sweetly was trying to find a really good restaurant to take me too, but I was hangry as hell at that point and insisted we walk in to the first place we found. We ended up in the Blake Street Pub which actually ended up being really good. I ordered the portabella sandwich; pan-roasted potabellas mushrooms, red pepper and onions with avocado and tomato served on a brioche bun. I opted for a side of sweet potato fries which came with a honey barbecue sour cream dipping sauce. The sandwich, fries and dipping sauce were all really fresh and delicious and definitely hit the spot.

Having transitioned from hangry to fappy, we were off again and headed to meet some of Chris’s friends at a bar in town. The bar was about 3.5 miles away, but we decided to walk because we’re New Yorkers and also because we were planning on making a very important pit stop.

For months Chris had been telling me about Little Man Ice Cream shop in Denver and their signature flavor, Salted Oreo. I could not wait to try it and it did not disappoint. This ice cream is not for the faint of heart, it’s got quite a bit of salt so you really have to be a lover of the salty/sweet combo. Luckily Chris and I love salty/sweet things. The ice cream was rich creamy and the salt paired perfectly with the chunks of crushed up Oreos. Also, the server (scooper?) was totally cool about my food allergies; she assured me that the Salted Oreo had no nuts and used a clean scoop for me. I’m pretty much still dreaming about how good that ice cream was!

After hanging out at the bar for awhile with Dan and his friends, we were ready dinner. Dan and another friend took us to The Kitchen. The weather was beautiful and we got a table outside which always makes food and drinks taste better. I ordered the pasta bolognese which was really tasty. I liked the vibe of the restaurant and especially loved their emphasis on fresh, seasonal food, but I was too tired to really appreciate it. This is definitely a place I’d like to go back to if I visit Denver again.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and got straight in to bed for a much needed good nights sleep.

Have you ever visited Denver? Did you enjoy the city?