Warning: this post may be short. Because the truth of the matter is we spent a whole lot of time not sightseeing in Colorado. Instead, we met up with a great friend and drank/ate our way around Denver and Boulder. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Our first stop in Colorado however wasn’t a major city. Nope, we went to The Stanley Hotel (aka The Shining Hotel). Insert creepy “redrum, redrum” voice here. Or a creepy gif? Ok.

 

The hotel, big surprise, was packed with other people just like us. Maybe they weren’t here to see the hotel from The Shining, maybe instead they were the few that remembered this hotel was actually featured in Dumb & Dumber? Two points for them.

A major bummer about the hotel is that if you aren’t staying there, you really can’t see all the iconic creepy shots from The Shining. Instead you get to pay $10 for parking and then visit…the lobby…and bar. No creepy twin hallway scene for you. But you do get to pick from drinks named after the movie.

And have an old man that works there ask to take your picture in front of some random old car in the hotel lobby. Neat.

The one great thing about our visit though was a storm that came rolling through right as we were leaving. No joke, dark, creepy clouds brewed above this creepy hotel.

I’m sure the irony would make Stephen King real proud.

Through pounding rain and some slight hail, we made our way through the winding roads to Denver. We rented an Airbnb in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and highly recommend Ginger’s place for one or two people visiting the area. It was in a nice quiet building, had a cute balcony and off-street parking (which is good since street parking seemed to be a nightmare). Our host left us a list of recommendations, so for dinner we took her up on one, a vegan restaurant name WaterCourse that was within walking distance. Simmi, my traveling spirit animal met up with us and we had delicious champagne and kombucha cocktails while we caught up on all things San Francisco, travel and bareMinerals (we used to work together).

We called it an early night. Which is good since Simmi and I booked a workout class at a place called Fierce45. The name should have told us everything, but we went and looked like baby giraffes just learning how to walk. Wobble, Wobble.

They should really change the name of the studio to Death45. Because after 45 minutes, I wanted to, you guessed it, die.

A shower was definitely in order, so we went our respective ways and then met up for lunch near our Airbnb. From there, we had grand plans of checking out the sites, but the sites just turned into breweries and English pubs. And ended with us stopping in at a bar right across the street from our Airbnb, making fast friends with the bartender and his epic 90s playlist, taking shots with locals and then…lights out.

We stayed up way past our bedtime and I woke up with my entire body being sore from workout class paired with a pounding headache. I blame Simmi. And Craig.

Denver, thanks for reminding me I’m not in college. Time to move on to an actual college town, Boulder. God I feel old. Craig has always had a dream of moving to Boulder. And having never been there, this was a great test. Boulder is to Colorado what Bozeman is to Montana. Super chill, filled with bars and restaurants and filled with young people.

We found a quaint, does-this-girl-do-VM-for-Anthropolgie type of Airbnb, dropped off our stuff and walked to our host’s recommendation for The West End Tavern, aka “the best rooftop in Boulder.” Simmi joined in on the Boulder action and met up with us for, shocker, drinks. From there we hit up a classy jazz fest to soak in the arts, but it was shutting down. So let’s not kid ourselves, we wanted another bar. So we found one. And Simmi finally got her Guinness Float and we chatted with said college student. Simmi discussed dating apps with him. And discovered that he’s far too young so he doesn’t pop up on her app thanks to age filters. Awk.

Dinner was calling and no, we didn’t make ramen in our dorm room. We classed it up and went to another recommendation from our Airbnb host. We ate and then our age started to show and we decided we should all just go home instead of pretending to want to see the Fourth of July fireworks. I mean, who stays awake until 10pm, anyways? Sleep is what all the cool kids are doing nowadays.

The next morning, before leaving the great state of Colorado, we channeled our inner Dave Matthews Band (it’s what the college peeps would want) and stopped by Red Rocks Amphitheater. It’s totally clear now why everyone says “you must go to a show here” but instead, we just pretended. And snapped pics.

Well, it’s time to mosey our way to Moab and check out what Utah has to offer. Rumor has it there are goblins…