Friday, August 6, 2010
After a late night last night we all slept in this morning. Then plan today was to head to Boulder for some hiking and a tea tour, but we needed breakfast first. The hotel staff jumps to help us, so we asked for a breakfast recommendation.
Brueggers Bagels proved to be a great breakfast choice and we were all able to get something to fill us up. We headed to Boulder and went to Celestial Seasonings for their tea tour. The place was more packed with people than we had anticipated and their on the hour, ever hour tour started at 12:30 for us. While we waited for our tour, we were given small tea cups to sample their teas, both hot and ice.
The tour started with a short movie and then we put on our hair nets, and beard nets for the guys and headed into the factory. We were able to walk right along the equipment, see the bags of seasonings in storage and enter the peppermint room. The peppermint room, as you might guess, holds all the peppermint, spearmint, and wintergreen and has to be in an enclosed room otherwise you’d smell the mint a mile away. Anyway, we went in and my sinuses instantly cleared. It was amazing. I’m going to have to get some peppermint tea to use when my allergies are bad.
After the tour, we drove to Chautauqua Park for an easy 3-mile hike. Well, the visitor’s center promised an easy hike. The first part of the hike was easy and was part of an extensive trail system intended mostly for joggers, dog walkers, and walkers. When it started to rain, we found a shelter and hung out while the rain passed. In the meantime, Maryann taught us some basic yoga moves in preparation for our yoga class tomorrow.
The rain passed in 30 minutes and we headed up the trail to Royal Arch. This trail proved to be challenging and was complete with many switchbacks and some minor rock scrambling to get to the arch. Three quarters of our group made it to the arch, though, and we were treated we a beautiful birds eye view of Boulder through the arch.
Back down the mountain, we headed to a restaurant named Sherpa’s in Boulder. This place was a perfect end to the day. The porch seating was cool in the shade and breeze and the food was terrific. It was somewhat of an Indian/Thai mix of food choices served by servers who could have been from Nepal.
We drove back to Denver, got some groceries for the room, and had some gelato in the restaurant downstairs. Overall it was a good, but tiring day.
Almost feel like I was there . . . 🙂