A Weekend in Ft. Collins

One of my goals for this year is to take advantage of the all these places which I live near: Ft. Collins, Denver, Rocky Mountain National Park, the Black Hills, the Snowy Range, Medicine Bow...I could go on, but you get the idea. I mean, I've lived out here for almost two years, and I STILL haven't been to Rocky Mountain National Park

Fiesta! So festive! So colorful!

                                             
My first stop of the list was Ft. Collins. Why? Well, Ft. Collins is just over two hours away, it has both indoor and outdoor attractions (always important when planning travels in the western mountains in January), and I have a co-worker at our Ft. Collins office who has graciously offered her spare bedroom to me. Some of you probably already know this, but I find staying in hotels by myself to be rather depressing and lonely. Hostels now, hostels are a different story. Hotels though? Not my cup of tea, even if I do get to watch cable t.v.

I had MLK Jr. Day off from work, and decided that would be a good weekend to head down to the front range. Sunday morning I packed my overnight bag, and headed off to explore. I've been to Ft. Collins a few times prior to this trip, mostly for work-related purposes, and I'd not spent much time exploring what old town has to offer. After finding a place to park, I wandered the streets looking in shop windows, reading restaurant menus posted in doors, and absorbed the feel of a bustling city downtown.

            Old Town Ft. Collins has a great bike-vibe. Bicycles that is, although I'm sure motorcycles are welcomed too.

Coffee-Beer-Bike Bar: What more can you want in life?

First stop was Savory Spice Store. I'm a bit of a sucker for spice stores, and also I was running low of some of the herbs and spices that I use regularly. While the grocery store here in Scottsbluff does, in fact, have a bulk spice section, I've only ever seen 3 people using the bulk spices. Which leads me to question the freshness of said spices. I also picked up a few new mixes to try, including a delicious-sounding mole spice mix, and some vanilla beans to try my hand at homemade vanilla extract.

Next up was a stop for coffee at one of the local coffee shops in old town. There were some beautiful prints on the walls that were for sale, but as they were located over the register, it was difficult to take surreptitious photos of them. You'll just have to visit and see them for yourself.                             

Those lampshades are actually paper.

As often happens at coffee shops, I was sucked into the time vortex, and hadn't seen much else of old town on Sunday. Except to buy a ham and cheese croissant from this charming little corner bakery. I don't remember the name of this place, so you can just look for Tintin instead, and follow him to a tasty, freshly-baked treat!
                                 

Quick! The pain au chocolate ran this way!

 Monday morning my co-worker Angela and I headed back to old town to continue exploring, indulge in some window shopping, and enjoy the beautiful weather. First up: a kitchen store. I could spend hours exploring in these places. So many fun things to see and play with. The only thing better is a good bookstore.                                     

Why yes, that is, in fact, a bright pink stand mixer!

There really is a KitchenAid to go with the color scheme of every kitchen.

The colors!

So many colors!

     

There were other, equally lovely dish sets, on display as well, but between the rainbow palette and the buttery sun streaming through the windows, the Fiesta dishes were begging to have their photos taken. Friends of mine here in Scottsbluff have these dishes, and quite wisely, in my opinion, have a bowl, plate, cup, and saucer of eight different colors. Because really, how could you choose just one color?

After some more wandering, we ended up at Beau Jo's pizza for lunch. Beau Jo's is a fixture along the front range and into the mountains, and their pizzas are delicious and well-deserve their reputation. I've eaten there a few times now, and haven't been disappointed. Go if you're ever along the front range and craving pizza. Better yet, go and tell me you're in town so I can drive down and meet you for pizza. And perhaps after we'll go tour one of the many breweries that call Ft. Collins home...

After lunch we browsed through a little alleyway bookstore that we happened across, and I was quite excited to discover this little hole-in-the-wall store sold Theo Chocolate! My brother John introduced the family to Theo Chocolate while he was still living and going to school in Seattle. A Seattle-based chocolate factory, Theo creates some remarkable bars such as Chai Tea, Coconut Curry, and my personal favorite, Fig, Fennel, and Almond. Sadly John has moved to D.C., so I can no longer go to Theo's when I visit him...

Our last stop was a local artists gallery tucked away down a side street in the pedestrian area. This little store reminded me very much of Hannah Grimes Marketplace in Keene, NH, except that this shop is staffed by the artists themselves. As much as I really wanted to bring these clocks home, I ended up with a simple clay spoon rest featuring a contentedly sleeping cat.

Repurposed electronics clocks designed by a local artist.

A good use for those old floppy disks...

After that we headed back to Angela's so I could collect my things and hit the road so as to not arrive home too late. Good thing it's not too long of a drive because there are still many things to explore in Ft. Collins, and in the surrounding mountains when the weather warms up! And I will leave with a photo of my furry companion for the weekend, Prairie.

This is Prairie Dog. C'mon, you know you chuckled at that one.