One of the luxuries of having a job that requires some
travel is the ability to take full advantage of that travel for personal
pleasure. Most of my travel includes visits to exotic destinations like
Amarillo, Mobile AL, Tulsa, OK, or the ever-confusing Columbus, Indiana
(every place has its charms, of course…), but every once in
a while I get to go somewhere a little more compelling. A Memphis, New Orleans, Austin… or Denver.
When it happens, I usually try and
maneuver the trip so that I’m there on a Monday or a Friday, and arrange to
stay for the weekend. Cummins picks up the tab for the airfare, and I just have
to arrange for lodging, transportation, and entertainment. Not a bad deal at
all. In this case, my opportunity came a few weeks ago disguised as a Project
Management class in Denver.
So, I left behind the 65-degree late-January weather of the
DFW metroplex, and walked off the plane into a climate fully 40 degrees
colder than what I’d left. Driving to the hotel, there were mounds of ice in
the parking lots, where the snow had been ploughed to the side weeks ago and
left to partially melt into rock-like sculptural formations.
The project management class was informative if unremarkable,
and I got to meet some key colleagues, tour the Denver branch locations, and gather
helpful information for a number of projects. Beyond that, there were a couple
of late nights of “networking” (aka, drinking and playing darts and pool),
which made the days in class seem far, far longer than they actually were.
On Friday, I put my coworkers on planes back to their
various destinations, rented another car, and headed to Boulder where my dear
friend Ben and his wife and kids have a house right in the shadow of the breathtaking
Flatiron Mountains.
Boulder is one of my favorite places in the world – it is
beautiful, big-hearted, and profoundly active, with an adorable earthy, hipster
streak. The people here care about the integrity of their bike shops and
sustainable sourcing of their food. The farmer’s market is a major attraction,
and there’s a minor festival whenever notable new crops come in. There are bike
and walking trails everywhere, buskers on the streets, and in the summer the
local kids splash in bone-chillingly cold streams of pure mountain runoff. The
Pearl Street Market is a heart-warming celebration of locally-minded shopping
and craftsmanship, with shops specializing in everything from gorgeous
old-school wooden puzzles, to tea and teapots, to beautiful hand-crafted hats, to
art glass, to kites, to chocolate.
Boulder is also a great chocolate town; one of the few places where kitchen supply stores and bookshops alike have entire end caps dedicated to gorgeous, delightful locally crafted chocolate bars.
This particular weekend was of the sweet, quiet, domestic variety,
making up for the carousing of the week with plenty of wholesome company, good food,
and early bedtimes. I went ghost hunting and made paper crowns with the
4-and-a-half year-old and cooed at the baby while he chewed on my knuckles.
With the grown-ups, I talked a little work, some politics, and about parenthood,
poetry, minimalism, family, bravery, and goodness knows what all else. We got the kiddo new boots and took a hike down a local
trail, where I got to walk on water. For real. It was frozen, but whatever. I
was psyched.
Ben and I also watched The Lobster which received a well-deserved
nomination for Best Screenplay at the Oscars. It’s super weird, but truly
amazing. (Like, SUPER weird. Be prepared. Definitely watch it, but be
prepared.)
It was a soul-nourishing weekend at high altitudes, and
although I didn’t get to spend as much time playing in the mountains themselves or
perusing the chocolate selection downtown as I would have liked, I was able to snag a bar from the local bookstore while Ben & co. were picking up supplies for dinner. .
Enjoy, my friends. Preferably in front of a crackling fireplace with a dog at your feet and a 4 year-old narrating Amelia Bedelia to you.
Item: Blueberry Nib
Percentage: 65% cacao
Made By: Concertos in Chocolate
Made In: Boulder, CO
Purchased At: Boulder Book Store
Purchase Price: $4.25
Review: At 65% this one is on the lighter end of what I typically go for. Concertos is a local Boulder chocolatier that keeps it simple and classy with classic, time-tested combinations of flavors combined in fun, interesting ways. Check out their "Dirty Chai" bar if you're feeling feisty. With both dried blueberries and cocao nibs this one is very texturally busy - the cocao nibs lend it a nice, darker edge and anchor the chocolatey flavor, while the blueberries bring an unexpected sweet, chewy pop. This is whimsical chocolate, folks. I still haven't really figured out how much I like weird textures in my chocolate, and my relationship with cocoa nibs is complicated, but this definitely is a fun, charming bar. Would eat again.
Recommend
With love, Kat
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