Who doesn’t love a summer roadtrip? When my husband found out he had to travel to New Mexico for a few days this summer we decided to make a trip out of it, opting to drive rather than fly from our home in Montana. It’s a good thing that he loves to be behind the wheel because in truth he ended up doing 99% of the driving himself.
Our first stop on our roadtrip was Boulder, Colorado where we planned to meet up with friends for dinner and get a chance to see what all the fuss was about regarding a town referred to by many as “The People’s Republic of Boulder“.
Google Maps calculated our driving time to be 11.5 hours to get from Bozeman, MT to Boulder so we set out in the dark and were well on our way as the sun rose in the sky.
I put my husband in charge of the food breaks and he decided that Eggington’s , located on Caspar, Wyoming’s historic Main Street was just the place to enjoy our first meal of the trip. The restaurant was filled with locals, including many multi-generational tables enjoying a hearty breakfast.
My husband opted for cheese smothered Huevos Eggington’s while I chose a Greek Frittata which had a slightly alarming greenish/blue tinge to it, perhaps from the spinach? Thankfully it tasted alright, but the color was off-putting.
Once we had successfully fueled up we set off towards Colorado, but before arriving in Boulder we found ourselves at Buc-ees which is like the Disney World of rest stops and turned out to be the absolute highlight of the day thus far. Buc-ees is truly an American phenomenon, and I loved everything about it, not least of which were the cleanest bathrooms I have ever encountered on the road (they are widely celebrated for this achievement).
Once inside there is a mind-blowing array of food and Buc-ees branded items to tempt one’s wallet, and it seemed as though every single person left with a bit of paraphernalia (a red Buc-ees tee for me). It just goes to show that even the most jaded of us has a soft spot for a well-run spectacle. I am a convert!
The stop at Buc-ees re-energized us and we arrived in Boulder at the St. Julien Hotel with a sense of vigor and curiosity. The St. Julien has the reputation of being the nicest spot in town and while it is in a terrific location it would most certainly benefit from a refresh. The lobby was welcoming but the people at reception seemed to want to be anywhere but behind the desk.
An enthusiastic bellhop (he shared the fact that it was his last day) showed us to our room, and deemed it one of his favorites. When we arrived we found a glorified Hilton Garden Inn style bedroom with a terrible (truly) smell of cleaning products; causing us to open up all of the windows as wide as we could and wait for the smell to dissipate. There is not much more to report on the room aside from the fact that it did had a view of the mountains and the sheets were clean.
The true highlight of our visit was meeting up with our friends who had lived in Boulder for many years and were the perfect guides. We managed a quick walk around town before our dinner reservation and popped in to several stores including a truly fabulous bookstore aptly named the Boulder Bookstore, I could have stayed for hours!
Boulder reminded me of a grown up version of Ithaca, and I could easily see why it has gained the nickname of The People’s Republic of Boulder.
Our dinner reservation at Frasca Food & Wine was one which my husband and I were very excited about as the restauranteur and Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey is highly acclaimed, receiving both a Michelin star as well as repeat James Beard recognition.
There are several dining options at Frasca, but we decided to go with the four course prix fixe menu (without the wine pairing). In all honesty everything sounded appealing and they were happy to accommodate my dietary preferences (gluten free, pescatarian) so after studying the menu while enjoying a tasty cocktail we placed our orders.
There were a couple of items ordered for the table in addition to the four course tasting menu and literally everything was delicious. The scrumptious food coupled with outstanding service made for an ideal night with our friends. At about 10 pm our long journey finally caught up with us and we returned back to our (still odiferous) hotel room with full tummies and went right to sleep.
We woke up early ready to hit the road once more, but first…breakfast! My husband identified The Buff as a local spot worth stopping at and it did offer a hearty meal (my husband’s is pictured, I just had scrambled eggs) and endless refills of coffee.
I can see the attraction of Boulder, it is a beautifully situated highly evolved college town, but I don’t think it holds a candle to Bozeman MT, another town which it is frequently compared to.
En route to Taos (our next stop) we made a detour to the US Olympic & Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs which is well worth the trip. If you are a Team USA Hockey fan a real highlight is the final scoreboard from the Gold Medal US Russia 1984 Hockey match as well as an incredible collection of memorabilia and iconic Leroy Neiman artwork chronicling the games. Unfortunately we only had a limited amount of time to spend, but you could easily while away several hours examining all of the exhibits.
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