Colorado - Day 2
I woke up bright and early just after Jeff left for work and attempted to get ready for the day without waking anyone else up. But as the bathroom was originally a pantry that they put a toilet and shower in, it was nearly impossible to do anything without them hearing me. So I left a little note saying I went in search of coffee. I walked along the river to downtown, past lots of cute shops and statues and a park set down by the river with a twirly slide as an entrance. The town was even better in the daylight.
I finally found the Windy Saddle coffee shop where I got coffee and looked at all the mosaic wall art that I decided I would have to purchase before we left. When I got back Chris and Jocelyn were up chatting and getting ready and around 10:30 we decided it was not too early to take the Coors Brewery tour. We were able to walk over to the brewery where they gave us little bracelets and headsets and sent us on our way to see how beer was made. We listened to the man talk about the process as we stared at giant copper pots used to make the beer. It's a miracle that anyone ever thought of the process, it's so involved and honestly a little gross until the final product. When we reached the end of the tour we were given three free full sized sample beers and we sat to talk, and drink for an hour or so. When we finally stood up around noon we realized that sadly, we were already a little drunk lol. Turns out the "death factory" was not only much prettier on the inside but also one of Chris's favorite places.
We strolled back into downtown Golden and decided we'd take the edge off the morning buzz by grabbing some lunch. We stopped at D'Deli (interesting name I know) and grabbed sandwiches and sat outside in the sun. D'Deli had everything from typical turkey to corned buffalo which was surprisingly good. All of the food was. Beer and delicious sandwiches - Chris was offically obsessed with Golden. After we had taken the edge off our buzz we decided to, go figure, check out another brewery.
Golden City Brewery is a little house with a large barn like garage behind it that had been turned into a brewery. The lot next to the house had been filled with patio furniture and string lights with a walk up service window for people to sit down right in the middle of their neighborhood and enjoy microbrews. Jeff and Jocelyn have the most wonderful summer night hang out just blocks from their house. We sat and enjoyed a sampler of all their original brews including Mad Mollie Brown (the lady from the titanic that Golden proudly calls a local) and Javapeno (a very strange spicy stout) and played a rousing game of garbage and listened to a little boy make up his own version of the Jetsons theme song (my favorite line change - doctor dooty) until Jeff was off work and walked up to meet us.
Next stop, a little nature goodness. We hopped in the car and took a curvey mountain road up to Gross Resevoir, a giant water resevoir set on top of a mountain. We hiked up over boulders and through snowy patches speckled with glittering pink and white rocks (that I found mesmerizing) to take in the resevoir and the mountain skyline in the back. It was so peaceful and beautiful it was hard to leave. We stopped on the side of the terrifying mountain road to take some pictures of the Denver skyline and see the lay of the land and then decided to shift gears and see another aspect of Colorado life.
We had already done cowboy/beer town, amazing nature and scenery and now we were onto Boulder and the artsy/hippy crowd there. We drove 20 minutes north to the Pearl Street Mall where our first stop was a three story bookstore. I was in heaven. I had to pull myself out of the shop to have any chance of checking out the rest of the mall, which was wonderful. The outdoor mall was made up of two streets of stores with a huge public gathering place in the middle where all sorts of crazy stuff was going on - hackey sac games, obvious frist dates, hyper high schools groups, beautiful sporatic trees, ornate street lamps, art and jewelry venders and my personal favortie a didgeridoo player whaling away (see link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLOkPZsSgdo). We hopped in and out of vintage stores, sampled cabernet flavored merlot at the candy store and soaked up all people we could take in until we stumbled upon, what is boasted as one of Denver's must do's, The Catacombs Bar. So, we decided to take a break and check it out.
We took a steep staircase down into the building from street level already giving us a Catacomby feel. The brick hallways and less than perfect tile floors led in all directions to secret nooks and craneys in the building. It was one giant sprawling catacomb of interesting hang outs. After being sat in the main area near the bar we hopped up to see all the other rooms, which I'm not exactly sure that we even managed to do. We found an old school sitting room with comfy chairs and dim lighting that seemed as if it would foster intellectual conversation, a room for a huge party with a sprawling table and one for a very private party in a corner tucked away, a rooom for pool players complete with a giant bull inserted into the wall and a room for hyper fast moving types, lit by black light and containing air hockey tables. It really was an amazing gem! I could not imaging why on earth such a building had been constructed and I am yet to find an answer. After our little underground adventure we made one last stop in a few open stores, including the bookstore one last time and then made our way home to collapse after a fantastically exhausting day.
I finally found the Windy Saddle coffee shop where I got coffee and looked at all the mosaic wall art that I decided I would have to purchase before we left. When I got back Chris and Jocelyn were up chatting and getting ready and around 10:30 we decided it was not too early to take the Coors Brewery tour. We were able to walk over to the brewery where they gave us little bracelets and headsets and sent us on our way to see how beer was made. We listened to the man talk about the process as we stared at giant copper pots used to make the beer. It's a miracle that anyone ever thought of the process, it's so involved and honestly a little gross until the final product. When we reached the end of the tour we were given three free full sized sample beers and we sat to talk, and drink for an hour or so. When we finally stood up around noon we realized that sadly, we were already a little drunk lol. Turns out the "death factory" was not only much prettier on the inside but also one of Chris's favorite places.
We strolled back into downtown Golden and decided we'd take the edge off the morning buzz by grabbing some lunch. We stopped at D'Deli (interesting name I know) and grabbed sandwiches and sat outside in the sun. D'Deli had everything from typical turkey to corned buffalo which was surprisingly good. All of the food was. Beer and delicious sandwiches - Chris was offically obsessed with Golden. After we had taken the edge off our buzz we decided to, go figure, check out another brewery.
Golden City Brewery is a little house with a large barn like garage behind it that had been turned into a brewery. The lot next to the house had been filled with patio furniture and string lights with a walk up service window for people to sit down right in the middle of their neighborhood and enjoy microbrews. Jeff and Jocelyn have the most wonderful summer night hang out just blocks from their house. We sat and enjoyed a sampler of all their original brews including Mad Mollie Brown (the lady from the titanic that Golden proudly calls a local) and Javapeno (a very strange spicy stout) and played a rousing game of garbage and listened to a little boy make up his own version of the Jetsons theme song (my favorite line change - doctor dooty) until Jeff was off work and walked up to meet us.
Next stop, a little nature goodness. We hopped in the car and took a curvey mountain road up to Gross Resevoir, a giant water resevoir set on top of a mountain. We hiked up over boulders and through snowy patches speckled with glittering pink and white rocks (that I found mesmerizing) to take in the resevoir and the mountain skyline in the back. It was so peaceful and beautiful it was hard to leave. We stopped on the side of the terrifying mountain road to take some pictures of the Denver skyline and see the lay of the land and then decided to shift gears and see another aspect of Colorado life.
We had already done cowboy/beer town, amazing nature and scenery and now we were onto Boulder and the artsy/hippy crowd there. We drove 20 minutes north to the Pearl Street Mall where our first stop was a three story bookstore. I was in heaven. I had to pull myself out of the shop to have any chance of checking out the rest of the mall, which was wonderful. The outdoor mall was made up of two streets of stores with a huge public gathering place in the middle where all sorts of crazy stuff was going on - hackey sac games, obvious frist dates, hyper high schools groups, beautiful sporatic trees, ornate street lamps, art and jewelry venders and my personal favortie a didgeridoo player whaling away (see link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLOkPZsSgdo). We hopped in and out of vintage stores, sampled cabernet flavored merlot at the candy store and soaked up all people we could take in until we stumbled upon, what is boasted as one of Denver's must do's, The Catacombs Bar. So, we decided to take a break and check it out.
We took a steep staircase down into the building from street level already giving us a Catacomby feel. The brick hallways and less than perfect tile floors led in all directions to secret nooks and craneys in the building. It was one giant sprawling catacomb of interesting hang outs. After being sat in the main area near the bar we hopped up to see all the other rooms, which I'm not exactly sure that we even managed to do. We found an old school sitting room with comfy chairs and dim lighting that seemed as if it would foster intellectual conversation, a room for a huge party with a sprawling table and one for a very private party in a corner tucked away, a rooom for pool players complete with a giant bull inserted into the wall and a room for hyper fast moving types, lit by black light and containing air hockey tables. It really was an amazing gem! I could not imaging why on earth such a building had been constructed and I am yet to find an answer. After our little underground adventure we made one last stop in a few open stores, including the bookstore one last time and then made our way home to collapse after a fantastically exhausting day.