Boulder is a tiny college town about 45 minutes from Denver,
and most people highly recommended we go there. We had some good experiences,
but overall the place was kind of a letdown. Just too small for us, I suppose.
A few good notes: Twisted Pine Brewery was actually pretty decent. They have 5, 10 or
15 sampler trays, and we went with the 10. Most of them were really good, and
the Greek Pizza I had was fantastic! Standouts included the Honey Brown and the
Razzy Xpress, which was described as a “Raspberry and Espresso Stout Truffle.” Avery Brewing Company is the one
everyone we met in Denver told us we had to go to, and they were completely
right! There is some seriously crazy good beer here. Everything we had was
delicious, but the one we had to buy a bottle of to take home was The Reverend,
a Belgian Quadrupel Ale. Seriously people, go find this beer! Atlas Purveyors was a cute little
coffee shop with free wifi. I had an amazing veggie burger and roasted beet
soup at Salt, which was part of this
outdoor mall, where I also found a fantastic toy store that easily rivals Toy
Joy in Austin! There are also lots of Tibetan stores that smell like incense
and sell Buddha statues and awesome clothes, and street performers every block
or so. That evening we stopped by Redstone
Meadery for free samples of at least ten different meads, and I realized
when I arrived that they make the mead we drink at the Renaissance Festival! We
had dinner and another taster round at Mountain
Sun Brewery, which made some decent beers and even better food. At about
8:00p, when all the breweries closed, we realized there was absolutely nothing
else to do in this little town.
FORT COLLINS (MAY 4-6)
Fort Collins was actually pretty awesome! Another, slightly
larger, college town north of Denver. We hit up four more breweries here: Pateros Creek, Equinox, Coopersmith’s
and New Belgium. They all had some
solid beers, but New Belgium (the guys who make Fat Tire) was the best! They
had something like 20 beers on tap that were small batches I’ve never seen in
stores. We bought a growler of this one called Cocoa Mole that tasted like Mexican
hot chocolate. Oh, man. We later made Cocoa Mole Floats, which seemed like the
correct move. I also finally found a bar that I would totally hang out at: The
Astoria. They had a beer on tap that was made specially for them by the Pateros
Creek brewery that tasted like vanilla! The Forge Publick was also
extraordinary… super hidden with amazing beer choices. Seriously.
So the other big event in Fort Collins was that I sliced my finger open really bad while
cooking… definitely the worst injury I’ve had in recent memory. This was about
three weeks ago, and in retrospect, there definitely should have been stitches
involved! It finally sealed up after a couple of weeks, but it’s still super
tender, and I can see where there’s going to be a massive scar. Lame!
ESTES PARK (MAY 6-7)
I went to Estes Park once with my family, and it was a
gorgeous little town with cute, esoteric shops and an amazing view of the
mountains. On the day we went, however, it started drizzling right away, you
couldn’t see the mountains, and it was a Sunday so all the shops closed at
6:00p. Whoops! We managed to make lemonade by finally seeing the Avengers,
which was SO GROOD!
BRECKENRIDGE (MAY 7-9)
Wow, was this place beautiful! Unfortunately, we arrived
during “mud season,” which is in between ski season and the summer tourist
season, so almost everything was closed. Oh well! We had the view of the
mountains I had hoped for in Estes Park, along with perfect weather. We’ll just
have to go back!
Ok, since it’s been so long, and there’s so much to talk
about, I’m going to break this up into a few separate blog posts. Up next:
MOAB! With pictures!
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