Weekend in Boulder - Friday

My husband and I returned yesterday from spending our fifth wedding anniversary in Boulder, Colorado. I arranged the weekend for us and everything was a surprise for Dan. It was the first time either of us had been to Boulder, and we agree it already ranks among one of our favorite cities! The University of Colorado is located in Boulder, however, the students are currently out for summer break, so the town was a little less crowded. We stayed at an amazing bed and breakfast, called the "Alps Boulder Inn." The bed and breakfast was situated on a canyon in the mountains, but was only a five minute drive from downtown. It originally started out as a place for stagecoach riders to stop and rest, then was a bordello for a short time, transformed into a hotel for miners mining around the local area, and now serves as a bed and breakfast. Each room is set up differently, but all include a fire place and a claw foot or jetted tub. Our room was the Caribou room and included a jetted tub. We were served a scone for breakfast each morning along with your choice between two selections for the day. My husband is not a big breakfast eater, but he did enjoy the scone and fresh fruit, along with Belgium waffles served on Sunday. Saturday morning, I ate stuffed French toast; the breakfasts were very good! They also served tea and cookies in the afternoon and dessert in the evening (which we didn't get to try because we never made it back in time).

The two windows on the right was our room.

Friday after checking in to the bed and breakfast, we headed down to Pearl St. which is a pedestrian mall, full of restaurants and shopping. We had some sushi at Japongo and arrived during happy hour which provided some great discounts. We then found an outdoor sitting area where we waited for our photographer. I had arranged for us to get our pictures taken while in Boulder since the last professional pictures of us were done at our wedding! He spent about an hour and a half with us, taking us to various areas in Boulder. Better yet, he called last night and said our pictures were ready to be viewed on his website; they turned out exactly how we envisioned!

After our pictures, we ate dinner outside at the Dushanbe Teahouse. The teahouse was a gift to the city of Boulder from Tajikistan, Japan. They served an extensive variety of Japanese tea along with using tea leaves in their cuisine. I had a chicken shish kabob over rice, and Dan enjoyed a pork loin with fingerling potatoes and carrots served with a tea gravy. The teahouse is surrounded by a garden of roses which smelled amazing, and the Boulder Creek ran to one side.

Outside of the Dushanbe Teahouse

Part of the Rose Garden around the teahouse