A Week in Colorado

There’s an unspoken agreement that if our family is going to get together, it’s going to be in New Orleans.

Unless you’re my uncle. Then it’s very much a spoken agreement.

But while my sister and I were in NO in February we somehow managed to convince our cousin Emily to come visit us. For the record, it didn’t take that much convincing.

So how do you show an out-of-towner what Colorado is all about?

You take her to the Med for the best happy hour in Boulder.

And you order 18 plates of tapas. Yeah, 18. And we ate them all.

You take her to your favorite froyo spot.

I adore Smart Cow and judging from the crowd that’s gathered every night, I’d say the general consensus is that it’s pretty good.

You drive through the mountains.

When you’re used to seeing the mountains every.single.day. it’s easy to forgot how amazing they are, but when you see them through the eyes of someone who doesn’t see them every day, you remember just how beautiful they are.

Especially when there’s not a cloud in the sky.

You take her to Chipotle.

I had a minor freak out when I realized there’s no Chipotle in New Orleans.

Chipotle in a North Face? Doesn’t get more Colorado than that!

You venture to Breckenridge and ride the gondola.

I’m a sad excuse for a Coloradan. I don’t ski. I don’t snowboard. In fact, I detest the cold. I’d never even been to Breck before! But what a seriously adorable town. We rode the free gondola up the mountain and hung out on the patio, watching skiers and snowboarders do tricks on the half pipe.

Some of us were a little nervous about riding up a mountain in a tiny shaky compartment.

Others were clearly more excited.

And this was way cool!

You make sure to see lakes, rivers, creeks, trees and snow.

And not the kind of lakes, rivers and creeks that have alligators in them.

You cook birthday dinners that don’t involve any fried foods.

Although that totally would have been welcome on my plate too. And really, I’m just kidding, I’ve had plenty of un-fried foods in New Orleans.

They were just coated in butter and bourbon instead.

And you eat my mom’s red velvet cake.

Which you can totally demand she make, if it’s your birthday.

And you introduce her to the mass chaos that is your Colorado family.

And despite all the craziness, she will claim she wants to move to Colorado.

I think that means she had fun.

Or she really liked that red velvet cake.