Roadtrip part 1-- Denver & Ft. Collins

Even though we just got back from Paris, me and Cole decided to take a 2 week roadtrip before we head back to Iowa City and start school again.

Our first stop on the roadtrip was Denver. We caravanned (is that a word?) out there with Vanessa and Zach since Vanessa had to move back out there anyway. We drove most of the day on Tuesday and passed out as soon as we got there. On Wednesday, we woke up and got some food at Parsley, a place in Denver that has absolutely delicious chai tea blueberry smoothies (with chat tea, soy milk, blueberries, agave and even some mint thrown in there) and salads too.

Post lunch we drove out to Fort Collins to hit up some breweries. The most famous brewery out there is New Belgium, but went to Odell's brewery first. We had a quick tour and some samples. When we went to New Belgium, they told us it would be basically impossible to get on the tour, but they put us on the wait list anyway and gave us some tokens for free beer samples (!!!). My personal favorites were the Mothership Wit (an organic beer), Triple, and Ranger IPA.

As we were debating some purchases at New Belgium, we found out that we got on the tour! That was really exciting for us since we had been looking forward to it. The tour was awesome. We sampled some great beers throughout (including the Abbey beer and Fat Tire, both of which are ridiculously awesome) and learned about their brewing process. I have to say I was really impressed with their commitment to conservation and the environment! They use a lot less water and energy than other breweries but they still make delicious beer. The other impressive part of the brewery tour was that they had a SLIDE. Breweries with rides are awesome-- like at Heineken (but the Heineken ride was still better). I did end up making some purchases there, including some cool metal signs for my apartment, and a growler with Mothership Wit!

Once we got back to Denver, we went out for sushi at Hapa. I had been there before with Vanessa last time I came but we brought Cole and Zach along this time too. It was tasty but I don't think we enjoyed it quite as much as we should have, probably because we were already full from drinking beer all day.