Honeymoon Days 4-5: Boulder

My yin and I had the most amazing Memorial Day weekend in Boulder, staying with her cousin and his family. They have, without doubt, the most charming, well-behaved child I have ever seen in all of my entire life:

Morris and Allison

This kid is a veritable dynamo, joining us not only for the Creek Festival downtown, but also for hikes up into the Red Rocks behind their house:

It was on this hike that I was overcome by a desire to climb something, and much to my yin's chagrin, I took the opportunity to scale up the tallest rock formation:

Satisfied with myself, I scaled back down the rocks and took the opportunity to tell a young child, "The mountain always wins... It's more patient than us humans." She looked at me with that mixture of admiration and confusion that only a ten-year old can muster:

Morris was along with us, of course, carried along by his proud father. Andrew was in training for the "Boulder Boulder"; and although I have no precise idea what this is, it apparently involves some sort of intense physical exertion in the morning followed by barbeque, potlucks, and/or inebriation.

Andrew cross-training with Morris

In fact, all of Boulder was abuzz with the onset of spring, and one could see it from the wildflowers growing along the roadside:

to the blooming poppies:

to the beets at the farmer's market:

Best of all was the Creek Festival, which fills up the entire town with all sorts of freebies ranging from breakfast at the Kashi tent:

Andrew and I eating cereal

to copious sample-sized giveaways:

my yin counting the loot

There were also Zen-esque stone statues in the Boulder Creek itself, but I was unable to decide if these were an official part of the festival or merely part of Boulder's overall enlightened attitude. I suppose these made an impression on me because they represent the interplay between the strength and stability of stone with the fluidity and movement of water.

balance in all the things

More than anything else, this sort of cultural attitude epitomizes Boulder more than anything else. Besides Naropa University and a half dozen or more yoga studios, there are also two separate yoga merchandise outlets (Gaiam and Prana). This curious mixture of commerce and progressive ideologies struck me time and time over the weekend, and more than once I wondered how to reconcile the aspirations embodied by these endeavors with the underlying bedrock of consumer capitalism.

the studio where my yin and I took class Sunday morning

But this is beside the point.

The point is that, internal contradictions or not, Boulder is the sort of town to which I find myself drawn. It has all the conveniences of urban areas, the atmosphere of a college town, and enough open spaces to not feel like people are stacked one atop the other. In fact, over the course of the weekend, my yin and I walked and rode virtually everywhere.

one pant leg up, Boulder-style

On our final day, we hiked up above town once more to Royal Arch:

Along the way we got beautiful profile views of the Flat Irons:

And encountered all sorts of people hiking, walking, and running up the trail. As Andrew told us, Boulder may be the only town in America where the dogs can't keep up with the people:

dog trying to catch up with his owner

To sum it up, it felt bittersweet to leave Boulder. Not that we didn't want to go on to the next stop on our honeymoon, but that we would like to live someplace like that on a full-time basis. There was an electricity in the air that goes beyond merely the excitement of travel or love of the open road. People seemed to genuinely connect with one another, to truly want to help the community to be a stronger place.

my yin and I at the Creek Festival

Next stop: Yellowstone...