Relaxing in Northern Colorado

For the latest adventure in the Chronicles of Life by Rain, I ventured out to Fort Collins, Colorado to visit the Adam and some family. I had been debating taking this trip for a while, like a lot of millennials I know I have a hard time taking time off of work. But after a rough visit from the parents, I decide a trip to see family was much needed. Stress is one of the big triggers for my condition. Sometimes the best treatment for your physical health is to take of your mental health. For me, that looks a little bit like this!

Adam and I started our day out with breakfast at Snooze, in Old Town Fort Collins. This place has, hands down, the best gluten free pancakes that I have ever had. So naturally I got the blueberry pancakes and bacon!

This place is the best place to start any mental heath day. They have a pancake of the day option that never disappoints. If you go here go before 9am and the pancakes and a cup of coffee are a must order!

After breakfast, we jumped in the car and headed up to Red Feathers to hit the trails! Back when I lived in Colorado, this was one of my favorite places to go off-roading. Car rides have always been my go to when I need to think. They’re a great place for deep conversation about life. It started snowing as soon as we got to the trail so we unfortunately didn’t get to spend much time up there. Can’t trust the rental car off road in a snow storm! For an easy drive with plenty of great views, check out Deadman Lookout. The road up to the lookout is open from when the snow melts, usually memorial day, through right before the first snow, usually Labor Day. This drive takes us about 3 hours round trip from Fort Collins, if we don’t get stuck that is.

I don’t know about you, but when I get hungry nothing sounds good. So we went to McDonald’s for lunch. As long as I’ve been going to McDonald’s the only thing I have ever ordered is the chicken nuggets, there’s no rhyme or reason to why that’s just what I do. Old habits die hard… right? This McDonald’s just so happened to be out of nuggets. Apparently their fryer caught fire earlier that morning and they hadn’t gotten the go ahead to turn it back on. Perfect opportunity to branch out and try something new! I had my first Big Mac. Disappointing might be the only way describe it. For a lunch spot that is not McDonald’s check out Choice City Butcher & Deli in Old Town Fort Collins for sandwich’s that are worth writing home about.

Adam somehow managed to score two free coffee coupons at the Alley Cat, with the snow falling we decided to go play board games! The Alley Cat is a staple in the college scene in Fort Collins, this makes it a prime spot for people watching. I’d avoid it during the last couple weeks of November though, finals tend to make it unbearably busy. We got our free coffee and spent a couple hours playing Dominion and mastermind. Even without the free coffee coupons, the Alley Cat is a great place the spend a couple hours people watching and board games with a fairly priced cup of coffee. For the chai lovers, the chai shake is a must!

For dinner we wet and got sushi at Sushi Zensai in Old Town. This might be one of the only places in Colorado that still does all you can eat sushi. Coming from Reno, the capital of all you can eat sushi, that’s automatically a win in my book. They might be the cheaper sushi place in Fort Collins, but they still serve good sushi! For the non-sushi lovers, try BeauJos Pizza. It’s a Colorado staple and pizza is the best comfort food to wrap up any mental health day.

Hopefully this can give you some ideas for ways to med your mental health. If you’re interested in other Colorado reviews, check out my review of Stranahan’s Distillery in downtown Denver Colorado or other Colorado Brewery reviews.