Boulder, CO/Chicago, IL

On the way to Boulder, Colorado from Arches National Park, we stayed at a KOA campground in Grand Junction, Colorado.  The picture shown above was the sunset right after we crossed into Colorado and it was the most beautiful sunset I have yet to see in my life.  No picture will ever do justice, period.  Grand Junction was only an hour and a half drive from Arches.  We were able to get there early enough to set up camp and then head into town to grab a bite to eat.  We ended up going to Applebee’s where we stayed almost three hours!  They had their first ever trivia night there and of course we played and won every round.  With prizes in hand and belly’s full, we slept like champions to get ready for the 4.5 hour drive over to Boulder, Colorado.

Once in Boulder, we immediately looked for a microbrewery where we could try some local brew and great food.  Thanks to Trip Advisor we stumbled across the Walnut Brewpub in downtown.  They had great beer, great guacamole, and great food; all we could ask for!  While eating, we looked for activities in the area on our phones and Cory hit the jackpot: a bouldering gym.  If you are not familiar with bouldering, it is basically rock climbing but without the ropes and on more difficult terrain (indoors, that is).  Follow this link to get a better visual idea of what it involves.

With our stomachs about to burst with beer and pub food, we decided to go through with it anyways.  Bouldering in Boulder had a nice ring to it.  When we walked in it was like an adult playground, filled with challenging courses and sculptures.  It was only $13 for a full day pass with shoe rental which was absolutely worth it.  After a few easier routes up to the top, we moved onto some more difficult routes to the top that we were failing more than succeeding on.  There was one route that we just couldn’t figure out.  We must have tried 20 times until this girl came over about 5’0″ and showed us how to do it first try.  After getting deflated a bit from that, we were able to finally succeed thanks to her instruction.  It was a very eye opening experience to me at just how much of a workout rock climbing and bouldering is and how it is a great way to stay in shape while having fun!  I plan to get a membership at a gym near us back home that has both rock climbing and bouldering as well.

With another fun experience in the bag, we packed up the car and braced ourselves for the 15 hour drive over to the windy city: Chicago, Illinois!

 

After 15 hours, we got to Chicago around noon time.  The traffic was horrendous to say the least, even mid-day on the weekend.  When we got into the actual city, it was back to the world of jay-walking, fast and furious style taxi drivers, and way overpriced parking.  At first we grabbed a parking spot right outside Millennium Park at a meter for $4/hr. which was pretty steep, but better than $52 overnight parking!  Walking around, we were able to see how massive Lake Michigan is, the Cloud Gate which was a bean-shaped mirror sitting in the middle of the park, and all of the skyscrapers of the city.

Once the pay meter was up, we moved on to find a $14 full-day parking lot after searching forever.  We walked around a little bit more and got onto Michigan Avenue where we found a Potbelly’s sandwich shop.  Anything would do for food, anything.  I had remembered that my friend Andrew from Merrimack who I played soccer with had recently moved to right outside Chicago.  I gave him a call to see what he was up to and if he could show us around the city a bit, but he said he would be discovering just as much as we were because he hadn’t been in the city very much at all.

When we pulled into the city, we checked out Hotel Tonight app to see if there were any good deals to stay in the city for the night and I couldn’t believe the prices, even at the “deals” that they were.  We were getting dangerously close to sleeping in the car for another night.  Andrew was kind enough to ask his parents if they could accommodate us staying there and they were glad to help.  After eating we jumped in the car and head out to Andrew’s house which was only about 30 minutes from the city.

With our things set up at his house and a game plan in mind, Andrew dropped us off at the train station to go into the city to watch the Boston Bruins take on the Chicago Blackhawks on their turf.  Andrew had actually tipped us off to an all New England sports bar that was in the city which was awesome to hear!  When the train rolled up we were kind of excited at the fact that they were double-decker trains because we don’t have those back home, so of course we sat up on the second level.  Once in the city, we got a taxi to bring us directly to Tripoli’s Tap which was the Boston sports bar.

“Maximum capacity”, the bouncer told us.  Disappointed, we began to walk away and then he called us back as 3 people left the bar.  It was absolutely packed!  It took us almost 20 minutes just to get a beer order in.  Getting a bit claustrophobic, we saw an opening to a backyard setup and made our way over.  There had to have been 100 people out back with 2 big-screen TV’s set up.  We stood out back for the whole game and when the Bruins scored the place was electric!  It felt just like being back home with all of the trash talking, potty mouth Boston accents.  When the Bruins scored in OT, we were working our way back into the bar section and the place exploded in excitement.  I got more hugs and high fives than I can count!  Great bar with a great atmosphere if you are a Boston fan from outside of Chicago.

Getting back to Andrew’s after a long train ride, his mother had set up sleeping mats for us with our sleeping bags, pillows, and left us towels to shower.  I couldn’t thank her enough the next morning when she had a bacon and egg breakfast ready for us with bagels and orange juice.  I can’t explain to you how great it felt to stay in an actual home, have food prepared for us and everything.  The family dog, Fenway, was a great addition to the stay.  He was a 89-pound, fluffy golden retriever with the mindset that he was a lapdog.  He was nothing but a cuddle-bug and I loved every second of it.  Dog’s have such a way of cheering you up, even when you aren’t remotely sad!

With a great stay in Chicago thanks to the Suttle family, we were fully rejuvenated for the final 17-hour leg back home.  As some of you may be thinking, the trip got pretty skewed from the original game-plan, but that was bound to happen.  This trip was all about variability and going with the flow.  We made a decision pretty early on that we were going to be home for the 17th of June instead of the planned 21st of June.  We didn’t tell anyone but our parents because all of us have girlfriends and we were going to give them a big surprise by getting home early.  An especially big surprise was planned by Cory because on the 17th, it was his 6-year anniversary with his girlfriend, Kayla.  My next posts will consist of a list of trip favorites along with what I gained from this whole experience, so be sure to check those out as well!

Check out all of the pictures from Boulder, Colorado and Chicago, Illinois on the Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

 

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah

 

Coming off of a great stay with our good friend Heather and her roommates, we made the four and a half hour drive down to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah for a day trip.  After talking to Tay about going to Arches, she said it is absolutely a must-see while in Utah.  When we pulled into Moab, it was a scorching 106 degrees with about 50 mile-per-hour wind gusts.  We were hoping to do the 3.5 mile round-trip hike out to Delicate Arch, but the elements were going to get the best of us so we played it safe.

We drove around the national park, stopping at different landmark pull-offs that looked interesting.  Getting out of the car was like stepping into a dryer with nothing but scorching hot temperatures and heavy winds.  We tried to see as many major landmarks as we could, including the Balanced Rock, Window Arches, and Delicate Arch.  Most of these you can see from pull-offs with parking lots, but there are also numerous trails that can get you right out to the arch to get up close and personal.  We were on a bit of a tight schedule so we made due with just snapping pictures from a distance.  Seeing them was a great enough experience!

When we got to the Delicate Arch trailhead, there was also two different viewpoints: lower lookout and upper lookout.  The lower lookout point was only 100 yards from the parking lot so we checked it out, but you could only barely see Delicate Arch.  A half mile walk would get you to the upper lookout point and so we went for it.  Getting up there was a much better view, but someday I will go back to Arches and do the hike all the way out to Delicate Arch.

On the walk back to the car, we noticed some sand dunes that were off the beaten path that were aquamarine.  They stood out boldly among the sea of red and orange sands, so naturally we made our way over to one.  I’m not a scientist by any means so I’m not sure why these sands were greenish-blue, but my best guess would be that they were some sort of salt deposit.  However, I still was able to grab an aquamarine rock for memory and make my way back to the car with the guys.

After a few hours of driving around, seeing the land, and snapping some great pictures, it was time to start the next leg of the trip out to Boulder, Colorado.  I never thought I would say this before the trip started, but Utah may just be my favorite state on the trip.  It has so much to offer with the most beautiful landscape I have yet to see, so many action sports and activities to keep occupied with, and Salt Lake City which will give you a city feel within all of the nature.  I will absolutely make it a point to get back to Utah at some point in my life, but for now it was time to move onto the next stop: Boulder, Colorado!

Check out the rest of the pictures from Arches National Park in Moab, Utah on the Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah

Only a 6-hour drive south was our next destination of Salt Lake City/Park City, Utah.  Sean, Cory and I all know a girl named Heather Thomas that we went to school with in both middle and high school.  Heather moved out to Utah after high school to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional skier.  Keep an eye out for her and all of her edits as she climbs the rankings to get professional!  Heather was nice enough to let us stay there for a couple nights on some air mattresses which was a luxury after sleeping on gravel in Yellowstone.  Heather lived in a great little community in Park City which was about 10 minutes from the mountains, 30 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City, and 5 minutes from some major outlet stores.  She lives in a townhouse-like setup with her girlfriend Tay who is also on the verge of becoming a professional skier, Stoops who moved to Utah from Juneau, Alaska, and finally Mike who moved from St. Louis, Missouri.  It was great getting to know all of them, hear their stories of what brought them to Park City and share some laughs as well.

When we first got to Heather’s, we hung out for a little bit, told stories and tried to start filling in the four-year gap that was there after not seeing her throughout all of college.  She informed us of some awesome places in or near Park City like the Olympic training grounds, Jupiter Bowl and some indoor trampoline gyms.  We went to the Olympic training grounds in Park City first.  We pulled up and it was amazing to see all of the events that you seen on TV in front of you.  They also had more general activities like the alpine slide and ziplining of the premises.  We encountered some young skiers working on their technique while hitting some jumps into a giant pool.  It was very interesting to watch because the ramps and jumps were made of wet turf like the kind you would find on an artificial field.  Also, the pool had piping that went all across the bottom that caused bubbled to come up right as the skier went off the jump to break the flatness of the water for a smoother landing.  It was definitely cool to see in person all of the history that was made there throughout the Olympics and the training that goes on there.  Jupiter Bowl was next and it was by far the nicest bowling alley that I have ever been to.  First off, it was big ball bowling which is something that we do not have very many of around us back home.  Also, they had a full bar for those who are of age.  You can order full meals of just as appetizer while you are bowling as well.  Within Jupiter Bowl, there was also a sit-down, upscale grille restaurant which I was very impressed with.  Overall, this place was awesome!  I highly recommend it to anyone who is going through Park City.

The next day, we went to the wAIRhouse which is an indoor trampoline gym where you can play in a trampoline dodgeball arena, jump into a foam pit, do acrobatics, and if anyone remembers what “SlamBall” was, you can do that too! For those who don’t remember SlamBall, it was an old basketball league that was on TV where they would wear full pads and play basketball on trampolines and slam dunk almost every time they got the ball.  Although the wAIRhouse was a bit more of a younger demographic, I had more fun than any other time on the trip I think!  Heather brought her GoPro camera and we had a blast using that, doing flips, doing crazy slam dunks, playing dodgeball, and acting like 10-year-olds.  If you are ever staying in Park City, I would highly recommend going to any trampoline gym if you haven’t been to one already.

After a long day on the trampolines, we got back to Heather’s and she informed us of some super cheap retail outlets that were less than 5 minutes from her townhouse.  She didn’t want to accompany us due to the amount of money she had already spent there, but we were ready!  I went straight to the Vans outlet and got 2 pairs of shoes for $30 which is an absolute steal!  Also, I picked up an $8 fedora from Old Navy because I was feeling like adding a little pizzazz to my wardrobe.  I could definitely get used to this place!

We stayed at Heather’s for another night to watch the Bruins game as they look to win the Stanley Cup.  After a disappointing triple-overtime defeat, we hit the hay to get ready for the next stop on the trip: Arches National Park in Moab, Utah!

Check out the rest of the pictures from Salt Lake City/Park City, Utah on the Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!