Let's say you find yourself somewhere one night; you've never seen the place before. It's dark, and you're lost, and you see a sign. It reads Boulder, Colorado, and it's Christmastime. Not necessarily Christmas Eve or Day, just the holidays, the season, the time of year, and you find yourself there one night. You don't know how you got there, where you're going to stay, or what you're going to do. As long as you're there, you'd like to enjoy yourself, really experience the city and the holidays. You don't have a car. You have to get a room somewhere. What do you do? How do you make the most of it?
There will most likely be snow on the ground throughout most of December, which is good. The air will be frosty. Smoke from the chimneys. And there is plenty to do. First you need a place to stay. Stay at the Pearl Street Inn.
1. The Pearl Street Inn is a bed and breakfast in a century-old brick building, right in the heart of the city, walking distance to Pearl Street Mall, just blocks from the Rocky Mountains and Boulder Creek. You won't need a car if you stay there. And you won't need a fireplace; each room has one. But you might need the fire.
So you get a nice sleep, possibly even as snow falls outside. You wake and look out the window—possibly fresh snow on the ground. Probably blue skies and cold air, some trees, and the mountains. You need something to eat. The Pearl Street Inn specializes in baked goods, potato-crust quiche, buttermilk-berry pancakes, or shirred eggs. You'll sit by the fire. You'll have hot chocolate or eggnog. You'll finish eating. Then what?
2. The Pearl Street Mall is the place to start. There are many unique and specialty shops, and there are brand name stores as well. There are cafes and restaurants and trees and rocks. It is all outside. It is very quaint, brick pathways, arching trees that will be decorated with tinsel and lights, the Rocky Mountains standing grandly in the short distance. You can get all of your Christmas shopping done here, or you can look for a one-of-a-kind gift. The shop-owners are friendly and play Christmas music. The cafes are warm and cozy and good. And, after you shop and pick a place for lunch, you will need to stop by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
3. Christmas would not be complete without some good sweets, and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory certainly has plenty of that. Specializing in boxed chocolates and fudge, you'll enter the store from Pearl Street and find chocolate in abundance, display cases, tables, cauldrons of it. There's even a table full of caramel apples. It's a sugar lover's dream, but they also have sugar-free confections and other non-chocolate items. They have homemade hot cocoa mixes. When it comes to Christmas there's sugar, and when it comes to sugar there's Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
After that, you might want to go back to the room for a nap. If not, you can venture beyond Pearl Street, over to serene Boulder Creek and/or a mile or two past that, over a bridge and up to The Hill (more shops and cafes next to University of Colorado, a stone's throw from the Rocky Mountains). If you find yourself up there the rest of the day, the sun will go down and the moon will come up, and the lights will come on, and you'll be happy to be there. And if you're not still full from the chocolate, there are plenty of places to eat, maybe a hot slice of Abo's pizza.
4. The Hill is a great place to look for decorations. People go all out and the homes are beautiful. You can look over the entire city, and you might even see a deer in someone's backyard. The air and mountains will be very cold and you will feel a certain chill, the mystery of the mountains, the eternal quiet, the long presence of them, the dark mystique that looms over you as you stand beneath them. It is breathtaking, almost literally, to be near the mountains at night. It is lonely. But not during Christmas. There are pretty lights and singing, happy people all around. It is a wonderful feeling. One that must be experienced.
Then you can stroll down the hill, cross the bridge over Boulder Creek again, and return to your room and fireplace. You can look out one more time at Pearl Street, the Christmas lights, a big tree in the center of town, and know it is Christmas in the mountains, and that you were lucky enough to find yourself there.
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text content of post from www.associatedcontent.com
photos from www.flickr.com and www.ilankelman.org
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