Boulder, CO

Wednesday August 1, 2018

Boulder, CO- 1 hour drive

Our original plan was that we would leave this morning for an overnight hike/campout just Jason, the pups, and I. Reassessing our level of tiredness as well as realizing we have 2 weeks left of this trip, we decided to scratch the hike/camping plan. Neither of us had been to Boulder before so we left the pups at home to rest with Kevin and Chris and we took off on an adventure. I did not eat breakfast this morning because, well I woke up at 10:30 and I figured lunch was right around the corner!

Lunch

If this place doesn’t make it over to the east coast in the next 3-5 years I will have to consider leaving the east coast. Native Foods had everything, and I mean EVERYTHING vegan that you could dream of.

Beyond the adorable decor and extensive menu, we needed to try as much as we could to ensure the taste was there too!(we brought a cooler with ice in it for this adventure because I knew we’d have left overs.)😋😉

Appetizers – Crispy Chicken Tenders and Crispy Brussel Sprouts. Come on! This was unreal! Totally perfect textures and sauces on both!

I got a spin on chicken and waffles with a tamale with jackfruit, pineapple, and avocado. Yup. It was amazing! Jason got a jalapeño burger and he was shook about how good it was! He is super picky about non-meats and having the textures be consistent. Native foods did it and did it right! Some seasoned fries and Mac and cheese rounded out this meal, which we took over half of it home because obviously we could eat all of this! So please, East Coast, get on the plant based diet train that Colorado is doing so well at driving!

Downtown Boulder

We headed to the Pearl St Mall area, drove around a few times to find parking, and started the crawl! Today’s focus was supposed to be on craft drinks and gifts for family and friends. Totally honesty here, I hate going into little shops. I always feel so badly when I walk out not wanting to buy something. Jason could walk into every shop, talk to the owner for 10 minutes about their stuff, and walk out empty handed without thinking anything of it. My goal today is to work on not feeling guilty. This sign helped me because it reminded me of my own small business!

We happened upon a street performance and obviously had to watch it. The man was talented!

I mean, seriously!! No way! He had an infectious personality and was fun to watch. Very interactive with people and kids. Loved it!

I finally found my sister’s name spelled correctly on a keychain! We always look for each other’s name since neither is super common. Usually they spell it “Megan”. I also tried to find all of my niece’s names, but very surprisingly I didn’t find them. (Of course my brother’s name is shown two ways, so insert joke from my brother here about how great he is! 😂)

My brother in law is a champion eater! He has eaten several chipotle burritos 🌯 in a single sitting. When we saw the “51 tacos in an hour”, we figured that would be a challenge that Chris would be able to accept and defeat!

We grabbed a quick beer at Mountain Sun. They gave us several free samples so they was fun!

Happy Hour snack/drinks were supposed to be at Leaf, a highly suggested vegetarian/vegan restaurant. Unfortunately, they are in the process of moving locations and their liquor license is in limbo. So we just had food, crispy harissa tofu and a grilled flatbread with beet hummus, arugula, and Daiya cheese. The food was quite good but their drinks would’ve made it better. They were super unique and we really wanted to try it.

Our last stop was the farmers market! There was a bagpiper playing, lots of veggies and local venders. Jason grabbed some hot sauce and local liquor and we headed home.