So, yesterday we decided to venture north to the hippie and yuppie-populated land of Boulder. If you’ve ever watched South Park, you might be familiar with the hippie circles that sprang up in one episode. While Boulder isn’t quite that bad, it is a college city full of interesting people. We went to the Pearl Street Mall, which is several blocks long and closed to automobile traffic. There are double rows of planters with trees and flowers, which create a nice shaded path. The stores are eclectic, and while we didn’t go into any of them, it was fun to walk around and see what was there. There were also several groups of musicians, guitarists, two older gentlemen playing very long tubed instruments, and a flowing rock waterfall. There were also two semi-homeless guys, and a couple of backpackers. It is also a great place for activists and political parties to have petition signings and surveys (except that we mostly ignore them, since they can be too aggressive with their tactics).

Then we went to Big Papa’s BBQ for dinner. It’s a little restaurant in a shopping plaza, where there’s a big chalkboard menu and you order at the counter. While it’s unassuming (as I think good BBQ places should be) the smell of the food was enough to let you know this was a good choice for dinner. Tony enjoyed the ribs with Memphis sauce, mac n cheese and fries. Louisa had fried catfish, pulled pork with KC sauce, hush puppies and fried okra. The sides were very good, and the meat was incredible. The pork ribs were large and fairly lean, and the sauce was a perfect complement to the meat. The catfish tasted like catfish, but the homemade tartar sauce made that dish. The pulled pork and the sweet sauce to go with it was wonderful, tender but not dry, and very flavorful.

We also enjoyed root beer floats from A&W for dessert. They were a perfect ending to the meal.