August 2017
On day 4, we left Estes Park and drove to Boulder. We walked around downtown visiting the Pearl Street Mall and the ornate Dushanbe Tea House before taking a tour of the Celestial Seasonings tea factory. Even though I'm not a tea drinker, it was a lot of fun. The peppermint storage room was like nothing you've ever smelled before! I could’ve stayed in there all day. We then embarked on the scariest afternoon of the trip and perhaps the decade, a drive up to the summit of Mount Evans. Narrow roads, shear drop-offs, no shoulders, no guardrails, mountain goats, hairpin turns, switchbacks, clouds and a hailstorm made the drive a bit terrifying. My mother did the driving, and I was busy using the GPS to guide her because neither of us could see the road ahead in some areas! We did make it safely to the top and back down. We saw some decent views despite being in heavy clouds at the summit. Once we were off the mountain, we headed to Colorado Springs.