DAX, that's a good attitude. It is beautiful outside! Stay safe out there.

I-70 is closed about 50 miles east of Denver. Everything east of Denver is consider the plains. In other words, the flat, or at least the flatter areas of the state. The wind and drifts just causes all kinds of problems so CDOT is quick to close. The last I saw I-70 west into the mountains is still open. You will be fine by Monday and most likely Sunday will be OK. We are on the south side of Denver on a ridge. The visibility is worse in the last hour and down to a quarter mile at best and less most of the time. The drift on my deck is at least four feet. Hoping for a wind shift so I don't have to shovel as much.

Watch the basketball games. I was hoping you had picked a downtown hotel. Today that would have been a great advantage.

Wow. Wish we were there--and settled somewhere. We absolutely LOVE snow!! I'll have to check with my kids. I would guess that DS did not do his usual 50 mile bike ride!!

I hope the DAX family is settled by now.

We are at Broadway and C470. Little surprised by how much snow we have. We were only expecting 5" but guessing it is closer to a foot and it is not letting up.

We are near 6th & Monaco. Maybe have 8". Really tiny flakes all day. Seems to be brightening now and maybe letting up.

Not an easy intro to CO! I hate when that happens.

Hey all you Denverites..Lived there for 10 years before returning to Calgary and remember those unpredicted snow falls (or deluges???) and miss The Mile High a great deal. Hope the DAX group loves the experience and BTW, Peaceout..jewels in your crown for your westen hospitality and generousity..( Is that spelled right??)!! We all can be such nice people and usually are.

I think our kids are in Frisco this weekend skiing and boarding.
Had dinner with our local crew that are all heading out. Peaceout--thanks again SO much for the vouchers!!
Amer--doesn't matter about spelling (but no!! LOL).

Gretchen, it's my pleasure. I have 4 more if you need. Just let me know. I am leaving town on Thurs myself.
I'd be glad to send. No reason to let them go to waste.
Amer_can, thank you.

Another jewel in the crown!!!

Hi All, we had a great day in Boulder today!
Our drive to Boulder was slow due to limited visibility, we passed a few crashed cars and witnessed one short chain car accident, but Boulder is very rewarding.  The whole town looks like a christmas village scene from Dept 56 collectibles. 

It seems that most hotels and restaurants are half empty (multiple cancellations) so we got a good discount for our rooms.  We even got a saturday night dinner reservation at Frasca on short notice. We spent the afternoon exploring the entire downtown on foot despite the on & off snow flurries just because we didn't want to spend another day in the hotel.  As we were walking back to rest we found a great french brasserie right across the street from our hotel. We just wanted to have a happy hour drink with some oysters, but hunger got the better of us, so came a couple dishes of bone marrow, a couple crepes, salumi, french sliders and 5 orders of their good steam mussels!  We asked the concierge at the hotel to move our Frasca reservation to tomorrow. After a couple hours of rest, we drove to Hotel Boulderado for dessert (too cold/far to walk). We could not find any parking space anywhere near the Boulderado, so we gave up, maybe tomorrow. 

Peaceout & Gretchen : Copper mountain has a special deal going, something like $240 for 4 tickets which you can buy at any Safeway. It's anounced on their website and today the Safeway in Boulder confirmed it.

If you see this in time--Q's at the Hotel Boulderado is wonderful for Sunday brunch. http://www.qsboulder.com/
And the downtown parking garages in Boulder are free on Sunday. There is one about a block west of the Boulderado. http://tinyurl.com/bnnlthb

Thanks for the Q's brunch tip, I enjoy breakfast and brunches but unfortunately my wife & daughter don't, we usually start our day with an early lunch.

DAX, so glad to hear you made it. It is a great feeling to make your destination in a storm like that. And Boulder is so picturesque. Good to know.

And today you have blue skies! That's Colorado.

Thanks for the Copper information. That is a better price than the vouchers give you, but make sure they are 4 tickets that can be used for 4 different people, on whatever days you want. Sometimes those deals are multi-day passes for a single user.

Have Fun! Keep checking in, if you can. It's fun to hear what you're doing.

FYI Q's brunch has lunch dishes also. Riffs is also good for Sunday lunch http://riffsboulder.com/

That's good to hear as we're now deciding between Oak at 14th and Riff's for lunch. The local gallery on Pearl St highly highly recommended Riff's over Oak at 14th. Oak seems to be very noisy that we won't be able to chat at all, but I sure am curious about their pickle tempura and kale salad.

Peaceout: Boulder looks totally different today with the sun out! It's even better now that we can see the Rocky mountains from our bedrooms especially now that our daughter is sick with a fever in the room. Thankfully we're staying right in the middle of downtown, we feel less guilty leaving her in the hotel.

Oh, your poor daughter! This trip will go down in your memory book, for sure.

You have plenty of great restaurants to choose from in Boulder. My friend highly recommends this place, called Shine:
http://www.shineboulder.com/food
http://static.tumblr.com/a6gopbu/FIp...nch-011813.pdf

And the Teahouse is special and unique to Boulder:
http://www.boulderteahouse.com/

Have fun!

Thanks Peaceout, our daughter is feeling better now so we dragged her to Riff's but no she didn't like the menu so we walked to the Kitchen which I would be extremely happy with but they only serve brunch so I called our concierge who recommended a new organic italian place, Pasta Vino, right next door to the Kitchen. Their chef from Trieste in Friuli makes authentic italian pasta dishes that are great comfort food, light, modern, the kind that our Italian friends make at home. Every dish was spot on good but not exactly dishes to show off/brag about. I like our hotel concierge who used to be a chef in Hamburg, she always asks people what they like and then match her recommendations accordingly. Actually we really like the entire staff at St. Julien.

We'll try to drive to the Dushanbe for teatime later. I have to read up on Shine to figure it out since Frasca is closed on Sunday.

The St Julien is gorgeous. The Teahouse serves nice meals, too. I don't know if Shine would suit you for dinner.

The Flagstaff House is a Boulder classic with nice views. I don't know about the drive up Flagstaff Road, though, with snow. But at the top you can see a sweeping panorama of the Divide (in clear weather).

Another cool and unique restaurant is Gold Hill. But it would be a nightmare to drive there.

I am sure your concierge will have good ideas. Boulder is great for foodies.

Gold Hill is closed for the season. Dumb idea, anyway!

If you find out the newest, hottest restaurant in Boulder, please report back.

Flagstaff was in my radar being number 1 on tripadvisor, but we ended up eating dinner at Jill's which is the hotel's restaurant due to our daughter's situation. Beautiful restaurant, nice service but the food was just OK, we can literally cook their dishes better at home :).

My wife and I did walk to Dushanbe and we really enjoyed the exotic atmosphere and food, we only had bratwurst and short ribs, both very enjoyable though we wished we had ordered the incredibly aromatic peanut fettuccine. They had traditional ethnic live music starting but unfortunately we had to to go to feed the kids dinner. We took the Boulder Creek path back to our hotel which was the one simple thing that my wife had been wanting to do before dinner.

Nice you got to take the walk and the weather cooperated today.
The CU campus is great for walking, too.
The Sink is the burger joint where Obama visited, on the Hill across from campus.
Did you decide about skiing or going to a mountain resort?

Peaceout: My gut feeling is no skiing on this trip, we just have to come back now that we understand what's there. Thanks for all the ski vouchers and abundance of tips.

Boulder has been a great place for us to hang out in spite of the weather. Very unique, upscale, rich but liberal, plenty of homeless begging, there is a whole supportive community of them. Yet there are residents who are seriously proud of this town, they look down on Denver. The only thing we regret is the fact that we're missing out a lot on its most important outdoor aspects, so we need to come back for RMNP estes park etc.

TODAY we're planning to visit Celestial Seasonings before heading out to downtown Denver. My wife wants to stroll through CU if the temps are not too cold for DD. Last night was unbearable to be outdoor. Any suggestion for the shortest route with the most bang for our stroll through campus?

Our kids said the skiing at Copper this weekend was GREAT!!'
Why aren't you going?

Oh, but if you are going to spend the days in Denver go to Pearl street for some food and shopping--can't remember if i recommended it earlier or not. Five Green Boxes--fun stuff.

Yes you did, thanks, I have it in my notes. We decide not to ski because our daughter continues to have high fever as soon as the Advil expires. She's been deprived of sleep during her finals week before flying into Denver.

DAX, I don't want to over-sell the campus. It is one of our favorites, since we enjoy school settings and love the red stone and tile architecture. If you go, the we usually find easy street parking on University Ave, off Broadway (there's a Starbucks in a renovated gas station at that corner. That is the oldest part of campus, with Mackey Auditorium, the original school building, and the large Norlin quadrangle. Walk due east to the stadium. The student union is behind and o the right of the library, as you are facing it.

Too bad your DD isn't up to skiing, but there's no way around that.

It's funny that in your short visit, you picked up on the "they look down on Denver" feeling. It's always been that way. We lived in Boulder while I finished my grad school work, but after three years we were ready to move to Denver. Boulder is wonderful, but it is a bit 'homogenous'. Our Boulder friends think ALL the crime and pollution is in Denver. haha

I hope you have fun in Denver. Keep in touch!

Oh, too bad. Maybe need to see a doc?

PS Maybe today is a good day to do a 'drive by' with your DD in the car. Drive to Chautauqua Park for beautiful views of the Flatiron mountains, look at the old buildings, drive up the hill to Flagstaff and lookout on the Divide. It is probably snow-plowed now.

Sounds like a great idea! We're having lunch at the Dushanbe now and will drive to Chautauqua park before heading to Celestial Seasonings.
I asked all 3 concierge persons what is the latest trendiest lunch/dinner place to eat in Boulder, they all said: Oak at14 & Kitchen, but they don't really push them.

Thanks for restaurant name.

You are on your way now, so I imagine you have figured that route would be out of the way.

If you do go south to Chautauqua and Flagstaff, you drive on Baseline up the hill, than back down and you can hop on the Bldr turnpike from Baseline. Really easy.

Gorgeous day for your sightseeing.

Hey, DenverCrown, what kind of total idiot are you? First of all you registered here then proceeded to ignore the rules you agreed to. This is not a site for advertising your scam limo company. Meanwhile you've totally screwed up this site by turning the US forum into strictly a Denver one.

We don't want you here. Go away. And hopefully no Fodorite with an IQ over 50 will even consider booking your cheesy limos!

You can review this spammer at https://plus.google.com/106346396072...33/about?hl=en and http://www.insiderpages.com/b/152537...service-denver

Let their potential customers know how ethical they are.

Keith, that is NOT the same limo company that was spamming. Be careful before you feed a fire....sounds libelous, eh?