Giddily Getting Acquainted With Boulder, CO
My first day in town, I went to walk around campus. Climbed a little hill and came to a parking lot with those mountains in the background. They're east (west! Thanks @badastronomer!) of town and visible from everywhere.
Wow, the intervals between posts seem to be getting longer. This time, the lag is at least partly owing to my outdated view of myself as a whippersnapper who can load up a rental truck, drive across the country (camping out along the way with a cat and dog), unload said truck in a strange new city, and be bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to write. Evidently, those days are over and I need extra time now for regrouping!
On a travel/adventure note, I’m finding Boulder to be tailor made for outdoorsy, sandals-and-jeans-wearing people like me. In fact, I HAVE found enough energy each day, sometimes more than once each day, to explore the extensive bicycle/pedestrial paths. Really, it’s an amazing network and I hope to learn someday who had the inspired vision to put it in place. I’ve been downtown, to the CU Boulder Campus, to the 29th Street Mall (which contains or borders Target, Whole Foods Market, coffee shops, book stores, super hip clothing shops, an AT&T AND an Apple store), to the Dog Park (with my dog) and numerous schools and parks (also with my dog) all without setting a foot or a bike tire on a dangerous road. In the few places where I actually have to exit the paths to join a road, wide bike lanes and sidewalks are always available. I’m in fitness heaven.
There are lots of dogs around here, and strict rules to keep them all in check. One of the legal off-leash places is this fenced park with a "dog beach," which Cedar really loves.
Oh! And last week I checked out the bus system by riding out to the Celestial Seasonings tea plant, just north of town. What a happy place that is! I bought a bunch of tea at low, low prices and will go back soon for a full tour (and tasting, mmm).
Also in nearly every direction, there’s a new research institution that I can’t wait to visit. I started making the calls today: the National Snow and Ice Data Center and the Space Weather Prediction Center (both at NOAA), plus the Southwest Research Institute, will be among my first stops. May the story gods smile upon me as I interview these accomplished researchers about their projects!
But first things first. It happens that next week, the American Astronomical Society’s Solar Physics Division is meeting right here in town. Hopefully some of my outlets will be keen to carry a story or two about the Sun’s crazy recent behavior, solar wind, flares, coronal mass ejections or irradiance. Even if they’re not, I’ll have a ball wrapping my head around these topics (and updating the blog as I do, provided I can stay off my bike long enough!).
