A VISIT TO BEAUTIFUL BOULDER COLORADO

Hello!

You may remember that in my recent post entitled “TOO BUSY TO BLOG”, I mentioned that I was packing for a visit to beautiful Boulder Colorado. My husband Brad and I took our youngest son Austin to visit The University of Colorado at Boulder. The day we left it was a lovely clear day, affording us this nice view of coastal California.

While I have made several trips to Colorado, including this visit to Denver that I blogged about here, I had never been to Boulder. Everyone I talked to described Boulder as spectacularly beautiful. Everyone assured me that we would “love it”. And love it we did, including our son Austin, who, after visiting the campus, said “YES” to the offer of admission from the university. So, it appears that this trip was just the beginning of many more visits to come.

As I do every time we travel, I studied up on hotels in Boulder. Frankly I was disappointed with what appeared to be the usual cookie-cutter chain lodging establishments with few boutique type hotels (my preference) to choose from. That really surprised me because I figured a lovely town like Boulder would have some charming hotels in restored old buildings. Other than one called the Hotel Boulderado which was too Victorian in style for my taste, and another one called the St. Julian which looked nice and I will try next time, nothing had a WOW factor for me. But I finally settled on reservations at a place called Chautauqua, whose designation as a National Historic Landmark intrigued me.

It is nestled at the base of the famous Flatiron rock formations which are also referred to as the “Chautauqua Slabs”.

Chautauqua is a collection of 100 cottages that make up the most historic neighborhood in Boulder.  In fact, the City of Boulder started when its founders purchased the land that encompasses Chautauqua.

Approximately 60 of the 100 cottages are owned by the Colorado Chautauqua Association. The others are privately owned, some by families that can trace their heritage back to the earliest inhabitants of Chautauqua.

In 1898 the Chautauqua organization of Texas founded what was then a summer retreat to educate its Sunday School teachers. While there was once a religious aspect to the organization, the philosophy of this formerly very popular cultural movement exemplified simple living, a love of nature, an appreciation for the arts & music, with lifelong learning as its core value.

So they constructed these cottages in what is known as the Vernacular Style of Architecture. Wikipedia defines this style as, “A category of architecture based on local needs, reflecting local traditions and using local construction materials. It tends to evolve over time reflecting the environmental, cultural, economic and historical context in which it exists.”  The style makes sense when you consider the Chautauqua philosophy of “simple living”. While their cottages are quite simple and basic, they also have character and charm.

This was our two bedroom cottage #401 which was called “Rest Cottage”. It had a large screened-in porch at the entry.

Step inside and I’ll show you around our spacious cottage. While it is not my taste in furnishings, it was a comfortable place for the 3 of us to stay as a family.

This was our large living room, which was simply furnished in Stickley/Craftsman style furniture.  It featured a brick fireplace, a leather couch and several rocking chairs.

The cottage had a galley style kitchen and this dining area in the living room, neither of which were used during our short stay.

This was the bedroom my husband and I shared.

Here are some other examples of rooms (taken from their website) in other cottages around the property, which I find preferable and are what originally motivated me to reserve a cottage here. Maybe next time I’ll ask for this cute red and white cottage.

I also thought this bright yellow room was cheerful.

Actually, the best part about Chautauqua was its wonderful location that includes a large city park, flower gardens and wide open spaces. Also dedicated to conservation and sustainability, the Colorado Chautauqua Association is committed to making it the country’s “greenest” National Historic Landmark.

The  Chautauqua cottages are situated along the famous and popular Chautauqua Meadow Trails, which is the trailhead for 48 miles of hiking trails that start here at the base of the Flatirons.

It was just loaded with hikers. I can see why, because it was breathtakingly beautiful!

I wish we had had time to hike, but our two days in Boulder were all about visiting the University which, as it turned out, provided its own form of hiking, all over the gigantic campus!

We did take a drive up into the foothills of the mountain Sunday afternoon.

It was also a very popular drive with students, some of whom took their own form of a Sunday drive perched precariously on top of this Jeep.

The views of the city below were spectacular, giving us a real perspective on the layout of Boulder.

The tall buildings you see there are part of CU Boulder’s housing. Called William’s Village, it is where Austin will likely be living in the fall.

To the left of “Will Vill” is the main campus of the university with its famous Folsom Field. I have a feeling we may be seeing a few football games in that stadium in the coming years.

And looking further to the left is the lovely downtown district and the charming Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian only walking street lined with restaurants, bars and boutiques.

So, that’s my bird’s eye perspective of Boulder, Colorado. Stay tuned and in my next post we”ll tour the CU Boulder campus. I’ll also show you where we dined. Boulder is loaded with good restaurants that serve innovative dishes prepared from locally sourced suppliers. It was a delicious weekend!

So there you have it: A VISIT TO BEAUTIFUL BOULDER COLORADO