East coast to the Rockies

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(Again, apologies for this blog- I lost it in the crash, so here's the re-creation.)

Last night I said goodbye to Madeline & my mom & flew to Boulder to begin the next part of my journey. It was great to see Becca at the airport- I was happy she could come & get me so I didn't have to lug my bags on the bus. We went home & chilled out- she has an awesome condo in Boulder, with views of the Flatirons, so pretty! And so different from city life in Philly. You instantly sense that everyone is far more chilled out & relaxed & happy than people on the east coast (of course there are exceptions!). We went to a great sushi dinner with a friend of hers from work, and then got some drinks at the local brewpub. Note to anyone going to Boulder or another high altitude city--- the alcohol goes straight to your head at altitude, so go easy on the beers!

The next day, I got up fairly early since I was on east coast time. Becca gave me a quick rundown of the city & tossed me the keys to her car & a map & said good luck as she ran out the door to work. Let's just say, my friends call me Toonsis (as in the talking/driving cat from the Saturday Night Live sketches from years ago), since my driving is not exactly the smoothest it could be. Well, I decided not to be a wimp, so prepared myself with the map & headed off in the car. Or rather SUV, which incidently used to be mine, so I really have no excuse for not knowing how to drive it, except for years of not practicing. Anyway.... I immediately got lost and had to ask people where to go, which they did so very nicely. I finally made it to REI, where I stayed for hours (literarlly), stocking up on everything I thought I might need for the rest of my round the world trip. The people there were really helpful, as were the customers, and everyone answered my million & one annoying questions about the products. If you do need outdoor products in the states, check them out- you can also order online (rei.com).

I was starving after so much retail action, so I headed to Wahoo's Fish Taco for some killer lunch. Go for the fish tacos with the green sauce, very yummy!

I spent the rest of the day pottering around, and had a funny experience at the supermarket while shopping for dinner. As I wandering about trying to find everything i needed among the millions of foreign products, store employees kept asking me rather sincerely how I was, and if I was finding things OK, and if I needed any help. Well, when I was in the produce section, I thought I'd put their niceness to the test, and asked the produce chap what the red bananas were like. He said, "do you want me to go in the back & cut one up so you can try it?" This was too strange of an offer in a supermarket for me, so I grabbed the bananas & legged it out of the store- I couldn't handle everyone being so nice! While it's totally great, it's very unsettling coming from London or even the east coast where people may be polite, but are generally not so genuinely nice.

When I got home, Becca & I headed out for a walk around her neighbourhood. She lives on the edge of a little park/nature reserve, so we went & snapped some shots, and befriended some lovely golden retrievers & their dogwalker. One of the dogs was obsessed with the ball & kept running at full speed to get it, while the other contented itself with rolling around in the grass & ignoring the ball- very un-golder retrieverlike of it!

When we got home & de-dogslobbered, the hard work at the supermarket payed off, and we had a great BBQ- using the Weber cookbook to time the courgettes, corn & steaks perfectly!

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Photos

Boulder sunset
The view driving back from the airport

Nice doggie in the park
Was covered in doggie slobber at the end of our fetch session, but the dogs were so cute.

Boulder mountains
On our park walk around Becca's neighbourhood