Go West, young man

Now obviously I'm not a young man but the sentiment stands. Our trip west to Denver and Boise was originally to scout Grad Schools, but we also saw some cool stuff.
We started out by taking an early flight to Denver, like leave for the airport at 415 early. After our flight we went to a restaurant called "The Delectable Egg." I had eggs (obviously) and pancakes (again, obviously).

The best pancakes I've probably had. Honestly, if you are in Denver, go.
 After that we drove around and then went to our hotel. For dinner we went to Ted's Montana Grill. I had buffalo for the first time. I probably won't get it again but it was super fresh so not too bad. 

 The next day we toured the campus and such. The student union was super cool. The building was home of the Tivoli brewery back in the day. Also, part of the campus stand were the gold mining town Auraria was.

Seeing Tivoli was weird because there was a bakery/deli in the Rosslyn Metro stop mall that I saw twice a day pretty much every day while I was in D.C.
The next day we went to the Colorado state history museum, the History Colorado Center. It's new so it isn't completely finished but what was was super cool. The atrium had moveable "time machines" that, when placed over a metal dot in the floor, showed a short video about a certain time period and event in the area. Some dots had multiple times. We didn't get to see all of them but there were sweet.

 One room was about a small Colorado town that no longer exists. It was, again, super cool. (Basically, the entire museum is interactive, so by extension cool. Honestly, there aren't adjectives enough to do justice to how jazzed I was... I mean interactive history! If only all museums were like that!)
The second exhibit was on Colorado Stories. There were storied about mining, Japanese internment camps, Bent Fort, American Indians, and a ski resort. All of it was cool, but the best was the ski resort. They had a virtual ski jump. The first time I tried, I fell, but the second time I went like 400 feet. I can't say it enough, it was cool. Between the internment camp and the ski resort there was a small exhibit on a resort that started as a place for African Americans to go. There was a copy of "The Negro Motorist Green Book": 

 

Basically, it started as a book to tell people where they could go in NYC but over time encompassed the entire country, including St. Cloud:

 They also had a Lego Denver in multiple forms, but, alas, I didn't take any pictures... Sorry.
After lunch, at an Irish place (like normal), we went to the State Capitol.

 There are three markers on the steps for what is a mile about sea level:

That night we went to a Colorado Rapids game. It's their MLS team... soccer, the real football. I got a shirt. It was, following the theme for the day, super cool.

They played Real Salt Lake:

And no, it's not real, it's Re-al... like Real Madrid. Those are their fans. Let me take a moment to explain soccer fans. They are intense. Rarely in American sports do you see fans get so into a game unless it's against a rival or playoffs. Soccer, or football, fans (some of them at least) are like that always. They sing, dance, chant, have flags... the whole nine yards. This is the Rapids banner:

I realize it's hard to read but the point is that it was huge. Non-soccer fans could learn something from soccer fans. The European fans are more into it... watch a game sometime; the English Premier League, the Bundesliga (the German league), La Liga (the Spanish league) all have the same energy. Manchester United, the Yankees of English football, have multiple songs that pretty much all the fans know.
Back on topic: We flew to Boise the next day (Sunday). We got to Boise at a decent time despite stopping in Salt Lake City. In Boise, I realized something: sometimes, in the West, things just stop making sense. Their streets seem to make sense but then, all of a sudden, they don't. The same thing happened in Denver. It's weird.
On Monday we visited Boise State and saw the famous "Smurf Turf":

A football field, cool I suppose. Whatever.
After the tour and lunch, we went to the Idaho State Capitol.

And then visited the Boise Depot, a now closed train station. Originally the Union Pacific passenger train station in Boise. It was cool.

 I was looking into the sun and the sprinklers were getting my legs wet... not the best picture ever but hey, its a cool sign.
That evening we saw the Oregon Trail! Yes the ACTUAL Oregon Trail. The bain of my grade school computer game life:

http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/issue/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dysentery.jpeg

I saw this more times than I can count. I was terrible at the game. The real thing was so cool, in a dry grass and dirt sort of way.... who am I kidding? It was AWESOME!

 Historical into stuff... shaped like a wagon.

 Ruts! Actually, I think this is a track but who knows? They had the actual ruts marked:

 As I said, AWESOME!

And actual Oregon Trail marker! And the only thing I brought back was dirt on my sandals. No dysentery, scurvy, measles, snakebites, typhoid, cholera, exhaustion, or starvation. Our car did not die, nor did we have to kill it for food. So, I finally defeated the Oregon Trail! Obviously a big accomplishment.
Our last day composed of more sight seeing. We drove the short distance to Oregon... it was rather disappointing. Other than seeing huge onions, farmland is farmland. We went to lunch at the Boise Fry Company:

And saw the old Assayer's Office:

And then we went to Idaho History Museum. It was interesting. Inside didn't take very many pictures. One was of the three kinds of chaps. The ones in the middle are called "woolies" because they are made of fur. Yes, fur.

 This is a stuffed marmot. It was terrifying.

They had some stuff outside but I wasn't that into it because, as my dad said, it was hotter than the gates of hell. And it was. We found out on the news that it was 106 that day. 106! If I could put that in all caps I would. As my dad also said, its a dry heat. Yeah, whatever. 106 is 106, I don't care it it's humid or dry. Hot is hot. I even saw a tumbleweed.
In case you don't believe it was that hot, the next day when we flew home we had to go through Salt Lake City and our plane was delayed because we weighed too much with the heat. I don't know a lot about planes and weight and stuff but when you need between 20 and 25 people to get OFF the plane because it weighs too much in the heat, it's HOT. Never have I seen people move so fast off a plane. It was nice to come home to 70 degree weather.
That was the trip in not so much of a nutshell. Overall, a great trip.