For the past 3 years Scotty, D and I have all ventured out to Denver, Colorado for the annual Great American Beer Fest. For our 4th year together, we decided to expand our weekend horizans from the lovely downtown area. We arrived on the evening of Thursday, September 16th and picked up our lovely rental car from the airport. We had a whole row of cars to pick from and we went with a Kia Soul, that's right. We figured it could handle our epic adventure. I decided to document most of the time we spent there, so with out further explanation, I'll show you our time in Denver.
This was our first beer in Denver. We decided to go and try out a local restaurant that we saw on Man vs Food called Cherry Cricket. The boys loved all the crazy different things that they could put on their burgers. We spent most of our first night there, then checked in to our oh so fancy (not so much) Ramada Inn.
This was pre-GABF and we were playing around in the shops down town. We thought the head gear was pretty appropriate.
Every year we have to decorate ourselves with foods (mainly pretzels) so we have something to munch on while trying all of the different beers. I wasn't going to settle with the 'normal' pretzel necklace this year. I was experienced and made sure to have a few different key food groups: Pretzels, Bag of Goldfish, and had to do FruitLoops. Scotty decided on those, and they were the best decision.
The boys and their gear. Scotty full of FruitLoops and D decided to go for the Peanut M&Ms. Oh, and did I mention that this was the first year we were smart about the line. We got our tickets through Scotty's American Home Brewers Assocation. That meant that instead of having to camp out 2 hours early, we could come later, got to wait inside and got released into the Fest earlier. Basically that means that we got to go and get in our favorite beer lines first. Some of the more popular ones run out of their new items quickly.
Best idea EVER.
This is what the plastic glasses looked like this year. They will pour you 1 oz which is up to the red line.
This is the first place we went - Dogfish Head. Yum.
This is actually the owner of Dogfish Head who poured me his favorite that he brought along called Bitches Brew. It was delicious.
Funny sign one of the booths had up. I laughed.
I laughed at this sign too. D made the best monkey.
Silly magnets. This was a new vendor this year, and there are now a few of these magnets on our mini fridge. They also had a chalk board where you could write what new magnets they should make.
One of my favorite parts of the GABF is the silent disco. Whoever came up with this idea was genious! We could spend hours in there.
D showing off his sweet dance moves.
This was our friend Andrew, who I hit his glass down and broke it. All in good fun, but I must say, I am the best at hitting the glasses out of peoples hands.
We actually stayed the majority of the time at GABF, and we even felt up for going out on the town afterwards. We probably should have gotten some food, but over all it was a great 1 night at GABF!!
This was the start of the next day. We decided to spend the day climbing the mountain!!!
This was the good view of the mountains.
Scott captured my excitement out to the mountains!!
This was a picture of a crazy house that sat above the trees right outside of Denver. I had to share it.
Nothing but road and mountains ahead!
Had to throw some of D's excitement in there as well.
The trees were just starting to turn colors, and the yellow leaves were absolutely breathtaking! I love nature!
They love nature and each other. A little bit higher up the mountain.
Gorgeous.
About half way up Mt. Evan there is a lake that we stopped at. I could have stayed there all day, it was so calming.
Scotty decided that he should test the water... Super cold.
A little higher up there was another stop. I'm attempting to capture the beauty.
We are such goofs.
Love this picture. He makes me laugh.
Again, so pretty.
That was the lake that we were at a few pictures ago.
Only the Kia could make this venture up the highest paved mountain in the country!
Yeah it was a little windy.
We are almost to the top of the tree line, but love all the yellow in a sea of green.
We tried to take a few group pictures by setting up the camera. Basically it took a few attempts and Scott trying not to kill himself climbing on the rock to make it on time.
This crazy animal that we saw super high up on the mountain and on the very edge of the road.
This was my attempt to show just how crazy these roads were. There is no ledge, no railing or guard, just straight down. No messing around while driving here.
This was taken on the side you just saw looking back.
Sadly, for some reason we could not go all the way up the mountain. We had to stop at this lake and we could venture by foot, but not by car.
This is probably my favorite picture of the trip. Again, we used the timed feature.
The boys had to go get their jackets from the car and I decided this was the perfect napping rock.
This was the view after we climbed a little bit up the back side of the lake. Super windy, but really pretty view.
We learned what our little bushy friend was called.
After our adventure in Mt. Evans we drove to Dillon Co and went to the Damn Brewery. We drove through the Dwight D Eisenhower tunnel on the way there.
Did we mention that there was also the Oktoberfest going on in another area of downtown Denver. We had to partake one night. I was so happy that I got a funnel cake and Scotty got a delicious turkey leg. The best part of the night was sitting and watching all the drunks come from GABF. I love drunk people.
The last day of our trip we spent down in Boulder, Co. We went to the Avery Brewery and enjoyed a few beers there. We then went downtown to find a Green/Firefighter/Hippie festival going on. It was quite interesting. The funniest part of the trip there was that we ate at a brewery and the options to pay were cash, check or mail in the check at a later date. So funny. Once back in Denver that night, we ended the evening at the Great Divide Brewery. Such a fun trip. Now we need to start planning year no. 5. Who wants to join up for 2011?
Cheers, B.
Looked awesome, great pics!!
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