Ah, nonsensical videos from vacation, mostly devoid of people, so you can feel like you're sharing the grandeur of Colorado with me first person shooter style. If you feel like looping, you can hang out in the windy mountains at 12,000 feet virtually forever, embedded in a New Age Scooter video.
Or spend 22 seconds watch a river in blackbox. Watch for Jen's watch!
This is The Mist, coming to get you. It just needs spooky music. I should put spooky music behind all my vacation videos. They'd be more interesting.
Moving camera and more river. If you're easily nauseated, prepare for fast movement.
A river near Vail that's not as noisy as a river in the Rocky Mountains.
See, Rocky Mountain National Park rivers are noisier. Do you have to pee now?
Showing posts with label colorado. Show all posts
Showing posts with label colorado. Show all posts
Thursday, September 04, 2014
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
Vacation: River and an Abandoned Mining Town
Update: hey, the mining town was easy to find. It's Gilman, Colorado. Toxic lead and zinc, but soon to be fabulous skiing and mountain living.
Don't tell me you didn't know it was coming. Until there was legalized recreational drugs, what was there to take pictures of other than mountains and rivers? And the legalized recreational drug pictures seem to be an Instagram thing, so go track down the millennials with a serious preoccupation with strains there.
We spent the day driving up from Colorado Springs sort of taking back roads in the mountains, driving around near Vail and Breckenridge. On this side of things it was sunny. When we went through the tunnel at the top of the mountain the rain kicked in. I was disappointed I didn't have a bicycle in Vail despite the rain. Neat trail down the mountain. There were some people riding, but it looked hit or miss when it came to getting very very wet.
A mountain river. It is illegal to pan for gold here. If I hadn't been told, it wouldn't have occurred to me that was an option.
Jen hanging out by the river with those other side of the mountain cloud lurking in the background.
I'm not sure what she's up to, but she better watch out for rogue beaver, or muskrat, or whatever lives in that lodge behind her.
Most of the river bank looked undermined by some sort of critter although we didn't see them swimming about.
Closer to Vail we passed this abandoned mining town. There are 2,800 abandoned mines with over 10,000 entrances, many of them leaching heavy metal tailings into the water table. That doesn't include places like there where people just packed up and left behind all those structures to deteriorate on the land.
It's eerie, and while I was standing there on the opposite side collecting trash for Litterati, it made me realize that all the trash I ever pick up in my entire life probably doesn't equate to a single house left behind to rot on this mountain.
Another photo of the abandoned houses. It was interesting to see the different sizes. It made me think of my classes at Hamline in immigration where we read a book about how the house sizes increased as you went up the mountain, the richer overseers living near the top, physically above their underlings.
Even halfway down what's almost a cliff of loose tailings and trees someone found time to do some vandalizing.
In Minnesota you see people throwing their grass leavings over the back edge of their property in much the same way. Stinkier, but it also doesn't create a tree-free dead zone.
Panorama view. Here's a link to the 2048 if you like to scroll.
I don't follow signs so well. I'm mining for natural resources. Booger nuggets. In my defense, there's no vehicle up there.
Don't tell me you didn't know it was coming. Until there was legalized recreational drugs, what was there to take pictures of other than mountains and rivers? And the legalized recreational drug pictures seem to be an Instagram thing, so go track down the millennials with a serious preoccupation with strains there.
We spent the day driving up from Colorado Springs sort of taking back roads in the mountains, driving around near Vail and Breckenridge. On this side of things it was sunny. When we went through the tunnel at the top of the mountain the rain kicked in. I was disappointed I didn't have a bicycle in Vail despite the rain. Neat trail down the mountain. There were some people riding, but it looked hit or miss when it came to getting very very wet.
A mountain river. It is illegal to pan for gold here. If I hadn't been told, it wouldn't have occurred to me that was an option.
Jen hanging out by the river with those other side of the mountain cloud lurking in the background.
I'm not sure what she's up to, but she better watch out for rogue beaver, or muskrat, or whatever lives in that lodge behind her.
Most of the river bank looked undermined by some sort of critter although we didn't see them swimming about.
Closer to Vail we passed this abandoned mining town. There are 2,800 abandoned mines with over 10,000 entrances, many of them leaching heavy metal tailings into the water table. That doesn't include places like there where people just packed up and left behind all those structures to deteriorate on the land.
It's eerie, and while I was standing there on the opposite side collecting trash for Litterati, it made me realize that all the trash I ever pick up in my entire life probably doesn't equate to a single house left behind to rot on this mountain.
Another photo of the abandoned houses. It was interesting to see the different sizes. It made me think of my classes at Hamline in immigration where we read a book about how the house sizes increased as you went up the mountain, the richer overseers living near the top, physically above their underlings.
Even halfway down what's almost a cliff of loose tailings and trees someone found time to do some vandalizing.
In Minnesota you see people throwing their grass leavings over the back edge of their property in much the same way. Stinkier, but it also doesn't create a tree-free dead zone.
Panorama view. Here's a link to the 2048 if you like to scroll.
I don't follow signs so well. I'm mining for natural resources. Booger nuggets. In my defense, there's no vehicle up there.
Monday, September 01, 2014
Vacation: Horse Ride and Louis CK
Despite being a last minute decision for what is one of the more popular activities in Garden of the Gods and despite all the rain, we managed to get in a horse ride. Our timing was almost perfect because on the way back out of the park it started to sprinkle and that was the sprinkle that turned into several days of parking lot-flooding rain. Have you noticed a theme yet related to our vacation. Rain.
Eryn loved the horse ride even though the shorter ride isn't a lot of time on the horse, particularly when you factor in the in-town riding on roads out to the park and back.
Here's Eryn on Whinnie. Big smile! Eryn, not the horse. She learned that different horses have different bowel-voiding preferences. Some like to walk while taking a dump. Some like to stop. Some like you to get up in the stirrups while stopped to relieve pressure. Important skills when the apocalypse kicks in and you want to be The Postman. They didn't explain that part in the book or the movie. Get a horse that can void on the run - it'll potentially save you from the bad guys during a chase.
In the park. You can see some of the washed out nature showing that the rain didn't start just because we showed up. It had been going on for a while. A few places, like 7 Falls, were closed down due to flooding damage.
My horse, red. Not the horse butt. The horse ears. He was afraid of flapping rain jackets/ponchos. Nice, eh? Given all the rain. I wore my pullover and decided I'd just get wet if it came to that. Our guide told us that he had always heard Red was afraid of flapping ponchos but hadn't realized how bad it was until a guy tried to change his poncho on him a week or so earlier despite the warning and Red had totally freaked out.
Beautiful place to go for a horse ride. I wished we had done the longer ride despite the impending rain.
Eryn had the back of the team (if you don't include the guide). Nice place to be if you wanted to hear the history tour portion of the ride.
Here you can appreciate the clouds. Supposedly you're able to see Pikes Peak on clear days. We never saw Pikes Peak unless we were on it and turning around because I have ethical issues with paying private costs to see the top of a mountain when I can go to Rocky Mountain National Park and pay the people to see the mountains. I noticed on the tourist web sites that I'm not the only one to have made that decision.
Eryn with some of the Garden of the Gods rocks in the background.
As an interesting aside, I met this guy who may or may not be Louis CK. He's got enough young girls of the appropriate ages to be convincing. My sister is convinced it's him. She thinks I'm holding out on her when I say he's a dad from Oklahoma who moved to Colorado, as though I'm protecting his known desire not to have people invading his space and going all paparazzi on him. She'll just have to believe what she believes.
Some live action footage of riding in the Garden on Red.
And an over-the-shoulder video of Eryn. Literally. I found trying to use a handheld camera to record behind me while riding a horse to be particularly difficult. I should have been wearing the bike camera Ming got me. I bet it works equally well on horses as long as I don't try to mount it to them.
Eryn loved the horse ride even though the shorter ride isn't a lot of time on the horse, particularly when you factor in the in-town riding on roads out to the park and back.
Here's Eryn on Whinnie. Big smile! Eryn, not the horse. She learned that different horses have different bowel-voiding preferences. Some like to walk while taking a dump. Some like to stop. Some like you to get up in the stirrups while stopped to relieve pressure. Important skills when the apocalypse kicks in and you want to be The Postman. They didn't explain that part in the book or the movie. Get a horse that can void on the run - it'll potentially save you from the bad guys during a chase.
In the park. You can see some of the washed out nature showing that the rain didn't start just because we showed up. It had been going on for a while. A few places, like 7 Falls, were closed down due to flooding damage.
My horse, red. Not the horse butt. The horse ears. He was afraid of flapping rain jackets/ponchos. Nice, eh? Given all the rain. I wore my pullover and decided I'd just get wet if it came to that. Our guide told us that he had always heard Red was afraid of flapping ponchos but hadn't realized how bad it was until a guy tried to change his poncho on him a week or so earlier despite the warning and Red had totally freaked out.
Beautiful place to go for a horse ride. I wished we had done the longer ride despite the impending rain.
Eryn had the back of the team (if you don't include the guide). Nice place to be if you wanted to hear the history tour portion of the ride.
Here you can appreciate the clouds. Supposedly you're able to see Pikes Peak on clear days. We never saw Pikes Peak unless we were on it and turning around because I have ethical issues with paying private costs to see the top of a mountain when I can go to Rocky Mountain National Park and pay the people to see the mountains. I noticed on the tourist web sites that I'm not the only one to have made that decision.
Eryn with some of the Garden of the Gods rocks in the background.
As an interesting aside, I met this guy who may or may not be Louis CK. He's got enough young girls of the appropriate ages to be convincing. My sister is convinced it's him. She thinks I'm holding out on her when I say he's a dad from Oklahoma who moved to Colorado, as though I'm protecting his known desire not to have people invading his space and going all paparazzi on him. She'll just have to believe what she believes.
Some live action footage of riding in the Garden on Red.
And an over-the-shoulder video of Eryn. Literally. I found trying to use a handheld camera to record behind me while riding a horse to be particularly difficult. I should have been wearing the bike camera Ming got me. I bet it works equally well on horses as long as I don't try to mount it to them.
Vacation: Golden
We spent one evening, though not the night, in Golden, Colorado. Reminded me a lot of parts of the Twin Cities. A very hippy vibe for sitting next to the Miller/Coors brewery. We checked out the local fair that was going on so Eryn could slide down the giant bouncy slide, walked along the river where lots of people were tubing despite the rain, and had dinner at Woody's Wood Fired Pizza, which was excellent and had particularly friendly service.
I know this photo doesn't look like it's raining, but you can see some of the clouds in the next one. Then again, maybe I just remember rain the whole time despite it not raining the whole time. Everywhere we went was somewhat flooded or raining. In Colorado Springs. In Denver. Near Vail and Breckenridge on the mountain. I noticed in the news it rained more after we left - as in more frequently and with more intensity - the whole state must have been a giant pool for a while.
Here's the brewery. Doesn't look like a major source of conservative politics from here.
There's a little pioneer town along the river. Eryn fed the chickens. Our vacations seem to involve feeding animals. There's a little train that runs up and down the river (no tracks) and you have to be careful not to get run over.
Golden seems to be something of an artist community slash resort town. So there's a lot of art along the river as well. I took the opportunity to avail myself of posing with a few of the statue installations. I sang.
And I read. But I did not touch any of these statues inappropriately as I did the buffalo earlier. Some statues you just have to leave alone.
I know this photo doesn't look like it's raining, but you can see some of the clouds in the next one. Then again, maybe I just remember rain the whole time despite it not raining the whole time. Everywhere we went was somewhat flooded or raining. In Colorado Springs. In Denver. Near Vail and Breckenridge on the mountain. I noticed in the news it rained more after we left - as in more frequently and with more intensity - the whole state must have been a giant pool for a while.
Here's the brewery. Doesn't look like a major source of conservative politics from here.
There's a little pioneer town along the river. Eryn fed the chickens. Our vacations seem to involve feeding animals. There's a little train that runs up and down the river (no tracks) and you have to be careful not to get run over.
Golden seems to be something of an artist community slash resort town. So there's a lot of art along the river as well. I took the opportunity to avail myself of posing with a few of the statue installations. I sang.
And I read. But I did not touch any of these statues inappropriately as I did the buffalo earlier. Some statues you just have to leave alone.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Vacation: Garden of the Gods
Taking a while to get the vacation photos out here. I plead busy. Despite a long weekend. I intend to speed up, if only to get back to a bit of book blogging. Jen remembered Garden of the Gods fondly, although the last time we went it was almost empty because it was off season. There were a lot more tourists this time, although given the several days of nearly flood-level rain, you would have expected a few less people in the rocks and a few more people locked in their hotel rooms enjoying recreational drug use. Then again, Colorado Springs is medical only, not recreational, so perhaps they all headed back to Denver when the rain really kicked in. I hope they got a cup of coffee on the way like we did at the very friendly bikini coffee shop. Which is entirely deceptive because only one day a week is someone serving coffee in a bikini. The other days they're in (potentially ass-baring) lingerie. She was very nice for a partially clothed barista. My coffee was good and she chatted with Jen for a while about the good hours, the good pay, the pleasant customers, and being able to spend more time with her kid.
I digress. Here is a gratuitous picture of rocks at the Garden of the Gods. When I posted one of these to Facebook, Facebook did the social thing and told me Jen's cousin had also recently been to Garden of the Gods with his family. At the time I thought "well, that's nice", but that was before I heard that perhaps he'd hauled his family out there under pretense to force a divorce decision outside Minnesota. The socially share-able moment is now less endearing. And yet the rocks and the kissing camels remain.
Kicking it up a notch. Rocks AND Eryn. She was very worried as the rain rolled in and we could hear thunder. I don't do lightning after the accident. I'm worried with all that metal I stand out like a lightning rod. I'm also worried sharks can detect me easier and might be tempted to explore my electrical charge. I also have a paranoia that I'll lift something heavy and bend my hip and walk in a circle the rest of my days. But the lightning one is topmost. It's rubbed off on Eryn and she worries for me now so I don't have to worry.
Back to just the rocks. Since last time we were there they've instituted a lot of signs to try and keep people off the rocks and on the trails, to preserve some of the natural growth and discourage erosion. It wasn't working so well. In the clearly marked areas, there were large groups of people. This was not one of those areas (just to be above board). Wherever I could, I collected bits of trash to post on Instagram for Litterati.org.
Rocks...with a bird. Good job J.B., now your initials live on not only carved into the rock, but in a picture. I hope that was the immortality you were hoping to achieve.
Here's a bird with more focus than the rocks. An iPhone camera and my personal little handheld are not optimal for all picture-taking possibilities. This would have been a much nicer picture with Jen's DSLR.
This was the least amount of rain during our visit. The parking lot was a pool much of the trip and, even when it wasn't raining, it was humid and sticky. Made for nice pictures though. Looks like something out of a Chinese valley series.
Or Avatar. I'm going with Avatar because Ming hates Avatar. If he thinks Colorado looks like the set of Avatar, maybe he'll see big blue creatures everywhere if he goes there for the recreationals.
I digress. Here is a gratuitous picture of rocks at the Garden of the Gods. When I posted one of these to Facebook, Facebook did the social thing and told me Jen's cousin had also recently been to Garden of the Gods with his family. At the time I thought "well, that's nice", but that was before I heard that perhaps he'd hauled his family out there under pretense to force a divorce decision outside Minnesota. The socially share-able moment is now less endearing. And yet the rocks and the kissing camels remain.
Kicking it up a notch. Rocks AND Eryn. She was very worried as the rain rolled in and we could hear thunder. I don't do lightning after the accident. I'm worried with all that metal I stand out like a lightning rod. I'm also worried sharks can detect me easier and might be tempted to explore my electrical charge. I also have a paranoia that I'll lift something heavy and bend my hip and walk in a circle the rest of my days. But the lightning one is topmost. It's rubbed off on Eryn and she worries for me now so I don't have to worry.
Back to just the rocks. Since last time we were there they've instituted a lot of signs to try and keep people off the rocks and on the trails, to preserve some of the natural growth and discourage erosion. It wasn't working so well. In the clearly marked areas, there were large groups of people. This was not one of those areas (just to be above board). Wherever I could, I collected bits of trash to post on Instagram for Litterati.org.
Rocks...with a bird. Good job J.B., now your initials live on not only carved into the rock, but in a picture. I hope that was the immortality you were hoping to achieve.
Here's a bird with more focus than the rocks. An iPhone camera and my personal little handheld are not optimal for all picture-taking possibilities. This would have been a much nicer picture with Jen's DSLR.
This was the least amount of rain during our visit. The parking lot was a pool much of the trip and, even when it wasn't raining, it was humid and sticky. Made for nice pictures though. Looks like something out of a Chinese valley series.
Or Avatar. I'm going with Avatar because Ming hates Avatar. If he thinks Colorado looks like the set of Avatar, maybe he'll see big blue creatures everywhere if he goes there for the recreationals.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Vacation: Kearney, Nebraska
We drove to Colorado on vacation. I had originally planned to bring my bicycle, but my wife swapped cars with my father in law, and I wasn't willing to put the first scratches on his new SUV with my bones rack. Some day I'll have to get back out there with my bike, or fly in and rent one, and bike the trail between Vail and Breckenridge. It's probably more just coasting, but it looked like a lot of fun (it was pouring as we came down the mountain, so that part wouldn't have been any fun).
On the way out we stopped at the halfway mark around Kearney, Nebraska. My wife wanted to check out the Great Platte Archway, a pioneering museum that crosses the interstate and looks like it might have once been one of those commercial places that span highways. Unfortunately, we rolled in with only an hour or so to spare on Saturday night and decided to wait until the next morning when it was supposed to open at 9 a.m. or so according to AAA. But the Great Platte Archway doesn't read AAA, and didn't open until noon. Well past our timeline for moseying on to Denver. Instead, we just wandered around outside. A number of other folks were using the AAA guidebook as well and were there with us, staring at the closed building.
I wandered around the grounds picking up trash and checking out what we could see. We were assured by one couple who was there three hours too early that they'd been there a decade before and it was wonderful. Good to know. So here are pictures of us doing pretty much nothing.
The museum itself is pretty cool looking. There seem to be two floors up there, although it could just be a very open space. Who's to say.
This is the horse atop the right hand tower. It looks a little like a flying Blucifer from the Denver airport, which Eryn had us go out of our way to say on the nighttime trip home. No light up eyes though - at least not during the daytime, or the daytime prior to noon opening hours.
Jen and Eryn did spend a lot of time feeding the fish. Perhaps just to mock all the folks fishing who were required to stay at least 50 yards away from the bridge. I bet it's harder to fish when all the fish go to the bridge to eat. There's a trail from here through town. Missed bicycling opportunity #1.
A maze that was also closed. Eryn said she would have liked to try it. I picked up some geotagged trash just to show we were there and didn't bother to get lost.
Fortunately, there was a statue I could touch inappropriately and almost no one around to frown at me for it.
Eryn and Jen checking out some of the native and pioneer buildings near the museum along the bike path. Jen thought that was a bunny hutch, but if it was, then you put the bunnies in and force them through the bottom until the chaff is out of the bunnies. Maybe pioneers did that sort of things. I can't really say. I was more a Tudor/Stuart history guy.
Eryn looking like she just finished up a pioneer rap song. Here I be, in my lean too teepee, You might think it's the funnies, but I'm all about chaffing bunnies. Word.
There's a big area inside this mound where you can get a lecture during open hours. My best picture is actually the litterati picture I took from inside the Pawnee Hidatsa Lodge. No set up - I try never to move the trash unless it's merely to flip it over to see who produced it.
And the wire bison. These kept my wife busy for 20 minutes or so. I bet she has a few hundred pictures on her camera. I'm glad I don't have to sort them. I took two - one of them I permanently deleted because it was a lot like the other one. Go figure. That was Kearney. We stopped on the way back as well, but only long enough to grab breakfast at Perkins while we waited for the sun to come up because I was getting tired after driving all night. I'm glad we hit the halfway point on the way out - straight through in a car was too much.
On the way out we stopped at the halfway mark around Kearney, Nebraska. My wife wanted to check out the Great Platte Archway, a pioneering museum that crosses the interstate and looks like it might have once been one of those commercial places that span highways. Unfortunately, we rolled in with only an hour or so to spare on Saturday night and decided to wait until the next morning when it was supposed to open at 9 a.m. or so according to AAA. But the Great Platte Archway doesn't read AAA, and didn't open until noon. Well past our timeline for moseying on to Denver. Instead, we just wandered around outside. A number of other folks were using the AAA guidebook as well and were there with us, staring at the closed building.
I wandered around the grounds picking up trash and checking out what we could see. We were assured by one couple who was there three hours too early that they'd been there a decade before and it was wonderful. Good to know. So here are pictures of us doing pretty much nothing.
The museum itself is pretty cool looking. There seem to be two floors up there, although it could just be a very open space. Who's to say.
This is the horse atop the right hand tower. It looks a little like a flying Blucifer from the Denver airport, which Eryn had us go out of our way to say on the nighttime trip home. No light up eyes though - at least not during the daytime, or the daytime prior to noon opening hours.
Jen and Eryn did spend a lot of time feeding the fish. Perhaps just to mock all the folks fishing who were required to stay at least 50 yards away from the bridge. I bet it's harder to fish when all the fish go to the bridge to eat. There's a trail from here through town. Missed bicycling opportunity #1.
A maze that was also closed. Eryn said she would have liked to try it. I picked up some geotagged trash just to show we were there and didn't bother to get lost.
Fortunately, there was a statue I could touch inappropriately and almost no one around to frown at me for it.
Eryn and Jen checking out some of the native and pioneer buildings near the museum along the bike path. Jen thought that was a bunny hutch, but if it was, then you put the bunnies in and force them through the bottom until the chaff is out of the bunnies. Maybe pioneers did that sort of things. I can't really say. I was more a Tudor/Stuart history guy.
Eryn looking like she just finished up a pioneer rap song. Here I be, in my lean too teepee, You might think it's the funnies, but I'm all about chaffing bunnies. Word.
There's a big area inside this mound where you can get a lecture during open hours. My best picture is actually the litterati picture I took from inside the Pawnee Hidatsa Lodge. No set up - I try never to move the trash unless it's merely to flip it over to see who produced it.
And the wire bison. These kept my wife busy for 20 minutes or so. I bet she has a few hundred pictures on her camera. I'm glad I don't have to sort them. I took two - one of them I permanently deleted because it was a lot like the other one. Go figure. That was Kearney. We stopped on the way back as well, but only long enough to grab breakfast at Perkins while we waited for the sun to come up because I was getting tired after driving all night. I'm glad we hit the halfway point on the way out - straight through in a car was too much.
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Favorite Moments of 2011
I have three favorite moments from 2011, and they're in order, despite that my family isn't first. I suspect they'll understand, given that the first one is a.) bicycling and b.) with Ming.
1.) Bike the Border with Ming.
2.) Ride from Colorado to Montana with Grandma and Eryn
3.) Orlando with Jen and Eryn
This is not to say I like vacations with my wife the least, it simply points out that bicycling trumps all.
1.) Bike the Border with Ming.
2.) Ride from Colorado to Montana with Grandma and Eryn
3.) Orlando with Jen and Eryn
This is not to say I like vacations with my wife the least, it simply points out that bicycling trumps all.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Great Divide - Denver
I cajoled my family into going to two breweries while we were in Denver. The second day we went downtown to Great Divide. If a cop asks, I'll say it's just a story, but I was angling to eliminate three generations of my family downtown that day. Five people in the car, four of them talking while I was driving in a circle trying to zero in on the brewery. I sort of forgot there were things like stoplights. A few other drivers were keen to remind me they existed.
You'd think it would have been easier to find with a big beer bottle hanging off the corner of the building.
And an amusing beer truck out front.
My grandma and mother were enjoying the sun. Keep in mind we were in the mile high city, and it was relatively toasty out, even with the snowy mountains nearby. Compare that to a few days later when it snowed 7" in Sidney, or when it was 30 degrees for the Ironman here in Minnesota. Grandma looks great for 95.
The bottling room. Can you tell I spent some time in the taproom prior to the tour? I was enjoying some of their casked beer which was running closer to the 10% alcohol range. A few of those on top of the tasting glasses, and it was definitely having an effect. Eryn LOVED the bottling machine. They were loading a palate of bottles into it while we were there. It just picks them off one row at a time and feeds them into the line. Hasenpfeffer Incorporated! John from work told me there's a name for it - something like "the paletizer." For obvious reasons. There were also kegs - whiskey kegs - in the brewery for making the casked beer (delicious). I asked the tour guide about them, and she said they were a local brewery, Stranahans. Kyle said he though Stranahans and Great Divide traded in kind - casks for mash to distill. They have a tour as well, so when I go back, that's a definite destination. Apparently they do limited bottlings (140) of whiskeys with names like "SCW Triplewood Snowflake". If it tastes as good as the name, I bet it's wonderful.
Reexamining this picture, I really do look soused. It doesn't help that my pants don't actually fit and I look like I need a rope belt with them sort of sticking out the top of my leather belt.
Eryn wasn't so sure she wanted me to take this picture, although she thought it was pretty funny.
She drank so much she was dancing on street poles afterwards. I like this picture because she's smiling and cute, and there's a hidden brewery in the background as well as a bike. Beer, bike, Eryn...definitely things that make vacation enjoyable.
You'd think it would have been easier to find with a big beer bottle hanging off the corner of the building.
And an amusing beer truck out front.
My grandma and mother were enjoying the sun. Keep in mind we were in the mile high city, and it was relatively toasty out, even with the snowy mountains nearby. Compare that to a few days later when it snowed 7" in Sidney, or when it was 30 degrees for the Ironman here in Minnesota. Grandma looks great for 95.
The bottling room. Can you tell I spent some time in the taproom prior to the tour? I was enjoying some of their casked beer which was running closer to the 10% alcohol range. A few of those on top of the tasting glasses, and it was definitely having an effect. Eryn LOVED the bottling machine. They were loading a palate of bottles into it while we were there. It just picks them off one row at a time and feeds them into the line. Hasenpfeffer Incorporated! John from work told me there's a name for it - something like "the paletizer." For obvious reasons. There were also kegs - whiskey kegs - in the brewery for making the casked beer (delicious). I asked the tour guide about them, and she said they were a local brewery, Stranahans. Kyle said he though Stranahans and Great Divide traded in kind - casks for mash to distill. They have a tour as well, so when I go back, that's a definite destination. Apparently they do limited bottlings (140) of whiskeys with names like "SCW Triplewood Snowflake". If it tastes as good as the name, I bet it's wonderful.
Reexamining this picture, I really do look soused. It doesn't help that my pants don't actually fit and I look like I need a rope belt with them sort of sticking out the top of my leather belt.
Eryn wasn't so sure she wanted me to take this picture, although she thought it was pretty funny.
She drank so much she was dancing on street poles afterwards. I like this picture because she's smiling and cute, and there's a hidden brewery in the background as well as a bike. Beer, bike, Eryn...definitely things that make vacation enjoyable.
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