A few more observations

I am well behind on posting photos and blogging the real adventures.

At some point I will catch up and there will be entries about roller skating, a visit to the hi fi store that Dave and I spent many hours at in college and rafting down the Cache La Poudre river today.

In the meantime, here are just a few more things that we technically know but still tend to be surprised by after being out of the US for so long:

1. Sales tax!  Yes, we are fully aware it exists (and it does in Germany too)--but we are so used to having the VAT tax included ih the marked price that we have had our exact change ready to go a half dozen or more times, only to realize that the tax was not included and our "exact" change is anything but.

2. The size of drinks.  A small here tends to be the same as a large in Germany.  I now get a deer in the headlights look when they ask what size I want and have to ask to SEE the cups.

3.  Right on red.  I seem to have completely forgotten this essential driving skill.  We have ONE stoplight in Heidelberg with the special sign that allows a right on red.  Just being able to make them any time it might be safe?  Yeah, I am not sure I will ever remember that I can while here.

and things that we just ENJOY:

1. Ranch dressing, need I say more?

2. Iced water at meals.

3. Good iced tea.

4. All the ketchup I want with my fries (or other food).

5. KBCO (if you are not from the Boulder area, you'll have no idea.  Sorry.  I miss this station any time I am not in Boulder, so it isn't a USA thing--just a Boulder thing).

6. Really friendly waitstaff.

and things that annoy me:

1. Car alarms!

2. All the money is the same size and color--makes digging out the right bills a pain.

3. Exceedingly slanted political TV shows (maybe we have these in Germany and I just miss them?  But I kind of doubt it--things seem less polarized in Germany).

4. Drivers who weave in and out of lanes, and generally drives who are not focused on the road.



So, there you have it, a few things that are striking us as different in the last couple of weeks--after nearly 5 years away.

--Hadley

A small outdoor fest, American style

So last night Jan, Marika and I headed to Boulder's Pearl Street Mall for this season's final Bands on the Bricks.  This is a little outdoor "festival" of sorts--in which live bands play every Wednesday night during the summer season.  It is a nice time, and we very much enjoyed the 90s cover band, JV3 and the fabulous weather.

After several years in Germany, a few things struck us different, so I thought I would blog the other side of the coin; what feels odd in the US from a German perspective.

The strangeness was all around the alcohol--that drink that is ever present at German, and even most American, events.  The Germans are so much more casual about it though.  Last night in Boulder, a local brewery was out and there was a local Mexican restaurant serving margaritas with them music.  Both were serving in the "Beer Garden"-- a little fenced off area behind the main viewing area, and with virtually nowhere to sit.  The people standing behind the fence, looking out to the band almost looked like animals in a zoo when compared with the "take it anywhere" attitude in Germany.

Germans love their beer, but I reasonably doubt many would drink one if they had to be caged in away from the main music scene to do so! LOL

Marika and I also got a chuckle out of the announcement made before the band started.  We were told that behind us was a "no waste beer garden" and the "fully recyclable" plastic beer and margarita cups had to be placed in the recycle bins before leaving the fenced in area.  Boulder is about as environmentally friendly as the US comes--but, really, plastic cups being recycled is "no waste???!!!  We just shook our heads while thinking of the real glass glasses and mugs used and washed at virtually every German fest.  THAT is no waste!

--Hadley

Boulder to Logan, Utah, and back, in 3 days

Last week my mother in law, the kids and I made a side trip from our Colorado vacation.  We drove out to Logan, Utah to tour Utah State University (one of the top contenders for Marika).

From Boulder, to Brigham City (the nearest town with available hotel rooms--there was a pretty big conference in Logan while we were there) is right about 8 hours of drive time--and nearly all of it through Wyoming.  Now, if you have never lived in Wyoming, you may not realize just how much "wide open space" is still out there in the American West.  Driving I-80 through Wyoming means going 50 or so miles at a stretch with only the highway, power lines and snow fences as far as man made items as far as you can see.  The towns you pass through from time to time are often tiny.  It makes for a very easy and fast drive, if not particularly entertaining.

Somewhere along the way, someone got very enterprising.  Near Cheyenne, and also about halfway between Laramie and Evanston (about in the middle of a 100 mile stretch between towns), you will find Little America stops.  For MILES before hand there are billboards advertising the hotel, swimming pool, marble showers for truckers, playground and, the piece de resistance--50 cent soft serve ice cream cones.

It is a funny little slice of pure Americana.  Of course, we did stop to stretch our legs and have some ice cream, but we had wisely tanked up before entering the long stretch between towns and had no need for their gas (priced about 25 cents a gallon higher than the towns on either end).  

Pulling up to the Howard Johnson at about 6:00, my heart sank.  It was SO run down from the outside.  I almost just left and lost out money and hoped I could find another open room--but I knew most everything had been booked when I was looking a month ago.

Fortunately, the room itself was clean, though dated, with new mattresses and clean bedding.  They even "upgraded" us from a room with a queen bed and pull out sofa to a two room suite with two queen beds and a pull out sofa.  It wasn't nice, but it was doable for a couple of nights (thank goodness my mother in law is a GREAT sport).

(it was not messy like this when we arrived--I forgot to take photos until the next morning)

The next morning we drove up the "canyon" (four lane road, not at all what those of us who grew up in Nederland think of as a canyon lol) to Logan for a tour of the university, lunch and then Marika was scheduled to meet with an adviser for the department she is considering.  

The campus is really pretty.  It is up on a hillside overlooking the town, and right at the foothills of some lovely little mountains.  There is lots of nice landscaping, and a mix of new and historic buildings--everything new also seems designed to have lots of natural light.

view from "the quad"

"Old Main"

Library interior

"The Barn (right in the central campus)

Marika was pretty impressed by what we saw and heard on the tour (as were the rest of us) and USU is still a top contender for us.  When all was said and done, we were on campus nearly 7 hours (she had to wait a while to meet with the adviser).  Afterwards, we wandered in downtown Logan just a little bit (it was over 100 degrees that day--not conducive to lots of walking around in the sun).

Once we were too hot to walk around more, we grabbed a quick dinner and headed back to our sad little hotel for a night of rest before driving back across the vast expanse of the not yet inhabited American West on Thursday.  

It was a whirlwind three days--but actually quite fun and we saw lots of good scenery and got a good feel for a university that is truly a likely place that Marika will end up.  All in all a great little side trip (HoJo and all).

--Hadley

A day at Denver's Museum of Nature and Science

On Monday, we had the chance to visit Denver's museum of Nature and Science (which was called the Natural History Museum back when I was a kid).  My father in law had jumped on a special and bought half price combo tickets earlier in the summer that we could use through the end of August.  What a deal!  Only $8 for kids under 18 and $12 for adults for museum entry, a planetarium show and an IMAX show.

I am pretty impressed by how well the museum has managed to add on new things, while keeping the old exhibits fresh and in good shape--nothing feels out of place or dated and the building is very bright and open feeling (like many others, the old building is still there and you can see once exterior walls in interior spaces now).

The dioramas, the highlight in my youth, are still really pretty and well done--even if these days we look at them while joking about wondering where "College Marshall" is.  

The dinosaur displays are still a huge hit with all ages as well.  They continue to add new finds all the time, with the newest being mammoth skeletons only recently unearthed.  We also liked that you can watch them working on cleaning off new arriving fossils, and even speak with the workers.

The final "older" part of the museum is the very impressive rick and mineral displays.  All four teens thought this was a highlight.  It may have been around a while, but it is still really well done and a big collection.  It is all set up to look as if you are walking in a mine shaft.  

The newer areas include one on health and fitness with lots of fun interactive displays.  The most interesting is the age progression computer which takes your photo and progresses it to age 70.  Everyone had a lot of fun with that.  There are also many hands on space related exhibits in the area near the planetarium entrance, that even big kids can have fun with.

There is also a not to be missed (and easy TO miss if you do not know to look for it) little fourth floor terrace with lovely views of Denver.  There was a telescope set up for viewing sunspots and solar flares--which was really nice.

The shows themselves were also really good.  We all went to the free 12:30 show in the planetarium.  That one was really aimed at very young kids, and we were a little surprised by how lacking in knowledge the speakers were, given the question and answer format.  The paid entry shows, on the other hand, were very nicely done.  Rio, my youngest niece and I all saw Black Holes and found it very interesting and well done.  Marika, my father in law and older niece were equally impressed by Cosmic Journey.

My nieces chose to see a 3-D Imax film (Great White Shark) and the kids and I as well as my father in law ended up picking the only one NOT in 3-D (lol--just coincidence, it just sounded interesting to us): Rocky Mountain Express.  We were all happy with what we saw and would recommend it to others.  

By the way, we took sack lunches and were able to eat them at the tables in the lobby.  However, food prices were not bad--sodas for $1.50, pizza slices for $2.25, etc--so for a small group dining there would be a viable option as well.

So, that was our adventure on Monday.  The next three days were a whirlwind trip to Logan, Utah for Marika to tour Utah State Universality.  I'll try to get a post up about that soon.  

--Hadley

Outdoors in Boulder

One of the things that I absolutely LOVE about Boulder is that the city and its residents do not take their lovely location for granted.  Much of the city itself is planned to encourage people to get outdoors--and residents respond. The town is dotted with parks, bike paths and open spaces.   This is not a sit in the house and watch TV kind of town.  There are also lots free of outdoor events to attend, especially in the  summer time.

Yesterday the kids, Jan (my mother in law) and I got out to a couple of different areas.  After seeing my mother off (she flew down to visit her mother yesterday), we just had an hour or so before lunch time.  So, we ran up to a nearby park here on the north end of town: Foothills Community Park.

This is a nice, large park that runs right up to the foothills on the north end of town.  It is a newer park, which means it is pretty sunny there; the trees have not grown up much yet.  There are lots of wonderful smooth paths to bike or rollerblade on, a roller hockey court, huge fields for flying kites, or launching rockets, or flying remote controlled planes, etc.  There are also two playground areas (one for bigger kids and one for younger ones), covered pavilions, restrooms, and a climbing area with just a couple of pieces of equipment--but it is fun.  Here are some photos of us dinking around in the park, to give you an idea of what it looks like:

After lunch, we headed downtown to the heart of Boulder, Boulder Creek.  As a child, I loved wading in the creek, and I still enjoy it (though that water is generally quite cold--mostly run off from freshly melted snow in the rockies).  It is also simply a lovely area.  Boulder has done a great job of keeping the area around the creek pretty, clean and very accessible to all (there are even wheelchair accessible platforms along it in spots).  

(there is quite a bit if art along the creek areas as well)

After dinner yesterday, we headed back outside one final time.  One of the local shopping areas (29th Street) has live bands and a food truck out every Saturday night (no charge), so we headed down (with my father in law and my nephew in tow).  

The band played lots of covers, from several decades.  They did a great job of keeping the crowd energetic and never having a lull on the "dance floor."

And YES, Marika and I danced to pretty much every song (for 2 hours):

I hope you had a chance to get out of doors and have fun this weekend too!

--Hadley

An afternoon in Nederland

There is a little mountain town up the canyon west of Boulder, Colorado where the residents tend to be a little more hippie, or off the beaten path than even the Boulderites.  Much, but certainly not all!, of the Boulder "uniqueness" always feels a little contrived--people trying to "fit in" to the Boulder look of defiantly not fitting in with the rest of the country.  Nederland, on the other hand, always just feels like a true bunch of mountain loving misfits--no "hippie affectation" at all LOL

It was in this little Mountain town with the gorgeous views and oddball residents that i spent the years from fourth grade through ninth (explains a lot, doesn't it?!).  So, when we awoke to an actually sunny day on Friday, mom and I jumped at the chance to drive up the canyon to see it again.

Having determined, thanks to the internet, that our old favourite pizza place, Neapolitan's, had closed own, we started off with lunch at one of our Boulder favourites--Old Chicago (yes, I know it is a chain and all over these days--but the Pearl Street location was a hangout for us for many years in the 80s).  It is a lot brighter and more open these days and they have a greatly expanded menu with plenty of salads, burgers, pastas and the like as well as the pizza.  It is still very good though.

(this may be a good time to mention how much I am LOVING being bale to get good, freshly brewed iced tea, with lots of ice, when out, and how much I am loving being back in the land of free refills).  

After lunch we started driving up Boulder Canyon, where clouds came over and it promptly started to rain!  Oh well, so much for the sunshine.  It was still a lovely and dramatic drive.

Up top, I was tickled to see that Nederland has undergone substantially fewer changes than Boulder/  It is still very much the same town I remember (even my old dentist is still there and open--though I believe his son has taken over the business).  We parked by what was the rodeo grounds when I lived there, but has been Chipeta Park since the time my kids were born and walked towards town.  First stop was the old railroad cabooses.  These were various stores when I was a kid and are a coffee shop these days.

Then we headed down the walking path and across the river on the covered bridge.

Boulder Creek is always so pretty from up there.

Right across the bridge puts you in the middle of the small town.  You can turn right to go down the main shopping and restaurant street (which isn't big), or cross over to the left where there is some free parking (which is always full--why parking at the park is nice), a staffed tourist center and free and clean bathrooms.  I thought the sign for the crosswalk was cute:

The old courthouse looks exactly like it did when I lived there.  The Whistler's Cafe (originally Whistle Stop Cafe) is much bigger though!  Probably 2-3 times its original size.

Nederland was founded as a mining town (it was once the tungsten capital of the world), and lots of mining memorabilia is still around town as a reminder.

There is also now a mining museum.  It was free!  It's small (one room) but very interesting and worth a visit.  The staff were very friendly and happy to explain all about the displays as well.

There was a break in the rain, so we headed back out and walked around towards the main street.  There is a big rocks and geodes shop , which has been there 20 years or so, a new souvenir shop that handsome really cute t-shirts, hoodies and jewelry (I bought a Nederland t-shirt, a very touristy and out of character thing for me).  The co-op food store is still exactly where it was when I moved to Nederland and still looks exactly the same.  And the place we used to have dinner and stay for live music most weekends is still there too:

By the time I had taken that photo it was starting to rain again, and picking up steam, so we headed back towards the car.

It was as short visit--but lots of fun for Mom and me (and hopefully fun for the kids too!).  When I was in college, my parents had a lovely house in Coal Creek Canyon (one canyon over), so we drove along the ridge and went down that way so as to drive by.  it is buried deep in the trees--but from what we could see from the road that old Cape Cod Colonial in the mountains is well cared for and pretty much the same as it was when Marika was born.  It was a bit of a thrill to see that too.

All in all we had a nice walk down memory lane--and some pretty views, in spite of the rain.

--Hadley