10 Things Coloradans Do that Confuse Everyone Else

Bring dogs and kids to breweries

Colorado understands that some things are only criminal if you criminalize them.  Among them, taking your pets and children to the 'bar,' as there are actually bars I've done this at for years; or better yet, breweries, which are oftentimes designed specifically to entertain everyone at once.

Stand outside in the snow in flip flops and not much else

Anything from menial outdoor tasks to barbecuing or even hanging out at a fire pit with your mug and your growler jug sitting in the snow.  Ain't nobody got time to suit up for all that.  It's beautiful out!

Sit in a hot tub in the snow – sometimes naked

Without looking at statistics, I'm pretty sure there's a lot more of us who enjoy hot tubbing with a swimsuit on than not.  But the option is there, at the Strawberry Springs in Steamboat and Pagosa Springs, just for example.  Regardless, sitting outdoors, in super warm water, while it snows on you is something I love, whenever that happens to come together.

Ride our bikes… a lot – and other exercise

My wife and I are far from being exercise fanatics, but we do enough to not be super overweight, and even we oftentimes leave our cars parked at home for days at a time, bicycling to everywhere we need to go.  Which is super mild, compared to all our bicycle friends who go long distance at high speed.  Hiking and jogging seem like pretty good ideas too, in this spread out land where everything is beautiful, because it feels great to be a part of that (perhaps even add to that beauty!)

Play in icy cold water

I admit it:  I'm still trying to get myself to white water raft, or at least go tubing.  I realize the clothing helps immensely, but it's hard to get past all the times I've gotten into a river and it was so cold it was painful.  I shall evolve.

Sit in traffic for longer than the concert, the camping trip, etc.

As much as we complain about how crowded it is "nowadays," sitting at a near stop on I-70 or I-25 just to go out for some weekend recreation goes back about as far as I can remember, and as much as it sucks, has always been something you can expect to me.  So I envy you if you remember when that was more of a shocker!  What's great is, with a little extra thought and planning, I've found workarounds for this almost 100 percent of the time, because sitting in traffic is like a short jail sentence.

We take California stops to the next level.

A "California stop" is not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign.  Not sure how we got from that to seven or eight cars turning left AFTER the arrow has turned red.  We can do better, people.

Celebrate dead people

Frozen Dead Guy Fest in Nederland and the Manitou Coffin Races are huge parties!

Dress in layers

It doesn't matter if you're going skiing or just going to knock out a list of errands.  You might want a tank top and gym shorts, you might want a winter coat.  It all depends on whether the sun decides to go behind a cloud for a few seconds.

Listen to great music.

Do you realize how great we have it compared to most of the U.S. when it comes to radio stations?  I have relatives from Florida, Chicago, Arizona, and Nebraska who have never heard tons and tons of the stuff that's playing almost anywhere you go here.  (I'm thinking mostly of alternative rock, but perhaps it applies to other genres as well?)  Having some new music to chase after makes me feel more alive.

Please comment with anything you would add to this.  If you're new to Colorado, you might notice a lot more of these, as well!