Starbucks Reserve Roastery

It's nice that it's been cold out recently because it's given me more opportunities to use the fireplace. I've had gas fireplaces in previous apartments but this is the first time I've had the pleasure of operating a wood burning one. One on hand it's kind of a pain because once I light a fire I feel like I have to babysit it until it's out, but I think it's kind of cool to have a "real" one. I experimented with burning normal wood but I've settled on the fire logs they sell at the grocery store. They are much easier to get started and I can more or less estimate how long they are going to burn.

We headed into the big city today to see some sights. Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood just got a new little spot selling Japanese onigiri. Sankaku had a few different flavors of rice balls to choose from, and we went with salmon basil (sockeye salmon, basil, sesame) and ume konbu (pickled plum, konbu seaweed, sesame).

I had been sort of dodging the Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room because I don't drink coffee, but I'm glad I finally made the visit.

The place is very much a fancy coffee version of a craft brewery where you can see how they roast the coffee and then nerd out with it in various ways. You can even order coffee flights which is very beery of them.

There's a bar area where you can order concoctions that blend coffee and booze.

Luckily they had some tea related stuff for me too. The thing on the right is a Maharaja Chai Nog (Teavana Maharaja Chai Oolong tea, coconut milk, almond milk, Aperol, Banks 5 Island Rum, cream, ginger, nutmeg, star anise).

The place was rad and I will be taking future visitors here whether they like it or not.

On our way back to the car we spotted Pie Bar. They inexplicably sell both pie and booze. I can't decide if this is insane or genius.

Seattle Skiing

I must have lost a bet or something because I let Lydia rope me into buying a season pass to the Summit at Snoqualmie, a ski resort on Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains. It's kind of wild that skiing used to require a big expensive trip to a place like Park City and now we can just pop over and ski after work on a weekday.

The place is really well lit so it's a great place to ski at night. It gets dark here pretty early in the winter so it works out well.

It's a pretty nice place.

I seem to have forgotten what little I ever knew about skiing. Luckily I've signed up for an entire season of falling on my butt repeatedly so that I can remember.

I Did a Poo Poo

I showed Lydia some of the liquid treasures that I imported from New Belgium in the far away land of Colorado.

Fact: Poo Poo point is the best named geographical formation in the United States.

Things got very Poo Poo almost immediately.

And the Poo Poo quickly ratcheted up from there.

Apparently the area is perfect for paragliding because there was a lot of activity.

At the top you can see there's some fake grass which I assume the gliders use as their runway. The view was pretty solid. I was thoroughly wiped by the end but I'm glad I didn't give up on this Poo Poo.

I've got this thing and it's (expletive) Golden

Took advantage of the rental car and checked out some spots in my travel book that were nearby Denver, Colorado.

The town of Golden was founded as a gold rush boomtown and became important enough during its heyday that it served as the capital of Colorado Territory.

Montucky is the capital of Cold Snack Territory.

I checked out Red Rocks Amphitheatre which was super cool. I liked how natural and part of the landscape it was. Pity there wasn't a show to see.

In an effort to keep up my pace this week of a new Colorado brewery every 24 minutes, my last official action was to drink some beers at New Terrain Brewing Company.

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.