Escape to Denver

Keith invited me on his skiing trip multiple times which I thought was nice. I couldn't believe he wasn't sick of my face by now after staying at his house for most of a week. I declined though. I'd recently bought a ski pass for a place near Seattle that was pretty expensive so I wasn't interested in any more ski related outlays. Plus I didn't have any warm enough clothes here in Colorado. Lastly I'd already booked a hotel for a couple nights in Denver and I was excited to take a look around.

I heard breakfast burritos were like the food of the Colorado gods so I drove to town to pick some up as a partial thank you to my gracious hosts.

I booked a room at the Curtis which was fun and full of pop culture stuff. There was even a room that had arcade games in it but I think it wasn't available.

I decided to do a walkabout sort of barcrawl and see the city sights.

Coors Field looked inviting. I think the people that roadtrip to all of the baseball stadiums may be on to something. Going to games in other cities is pretty fun.

The Denver Central Market is fun and filled with all sorts of little eateries.

I ate some gnocchi al telefono.

The creatively named wine bar the Infinite Monkey Theorem was classily furnished and came complete with some antique typewriters.

Even the elevators at the hotel were fun.

Shopping then Beering

Keith was about to go skiing for maybe the first time, but either way he didn't have the necessary clothing so we all headed to Sierra, which amazingly is like TJ Maxx where they sell discount stuff but it was exclusively for cold weather outdoor gear.

I was impressed with how popular skiing must be here to support this type of joint.

All that shopping left us parched so we knocked back a couple at Stodgy Brewing Company. The atmosphere there was very grandma's house with cozy couches and such.

These guys were having another of their famous deep conversations. I couldn't get a word in.

We hit a liquor store on the way home.

What will those geniuses at Anheuser-Busch think of next?

The treasures I brought back from the store included more winners from my favorite Colorado brewery, Weldwerks. This one had an awesome name to go with the fun flavor: Churro laser sword fight sour wheat ale which was brewed with churros, cinnamon, milk sugar and Madagascar vanilla.

S'Mores Achromatic was part of a fancy line from the same brewery. "Striving to reach new levels of decadence. s'mores achromatic is an imperial stout brewed with unreasonable amounts of chocolate malt, flaked oats, toasted marshmallows, milk chocolate, and graham cracker. We boil for more than 6 hours to achieve the unbelievably rich, chewy, thick mouthfeel of the base beer, which is made even more creamy by a generous addition of flaked oats. Then we aged the final beer on more than 5 lbs per barrel of toasted marshmallows, along with milk chocolate bar and honey graham crackers, producing a beer surprisingly reminiscent of everyone's favorite camp fire treat, and the perfect treat for the middle of winter!" 

Keith picked a new board game to whip me at. Luckily I had my delicious beers on hand for consolation.

Einstein witnessed the beating but offered no assistance.

All the Breweries All the Beer

Today in Colorado we really went crazy and switched it up... no we didn't we went to more breweries. I guess Keith and I's friendship is built on beer so it's fitting that that is nearly the only thing we do together.

Keith had a respectable board game library going. I like playing games but man I don't want to have to carry this many of them around.

We hit Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins, CO which I was pretty impressed with.

I especially liked how organized and colorful their flights were. It seems like good branding/business as well. I'm much more likely to grab one of these in the supermarket now that I've seen the label.

There was a lot of fun hoppy metal work all over the place.

Sweetwater isn't local so I wasn't sorry when we got there and they were closing soon.

Around this point we lost Keith to some work social event so Becky and I were on our own in the mean streets.

Lucky Joe's was so Irish that there were a couple of dudes playing bagpipes and a random girl who just happened to know how to dance Irishy popped up and started twirling around.