Sad Beer (with a Happy Ending!) aka A Trip to Denver

Wow! It has been a while since I’ve been able to make the time to blog. I stay busy with various activities the majority of the time. So anytime I get free time at home to do things like blogging, I usually just end up snuggled on the couch with E-love spending quality time just relaxing.

I will pick up from where I left off with my last post. The last post was detailing the Whirlwind of a Weekend I had a few weeks back. Well, that weekend had nothing on my next adventure!

My new job has been a great learning experience for me. It is a completely different field of engineering than what I have been used to practicing for the last four years. That being said, I have a lot of squeaky wheels that need to be adjusted…and my next weekend was just for that! I was super excited because this weekend, I would be heading to Denver, Colorado!!

I had never been to Denver before, so I did a good bit of research. The hotel in which I stayed was right in the middle of downtown, which meant plenty to do. First, I had to get through a week full of training sessions (you know, the real reason I was up there in the first place). I checked the weather and everything seemed great for a trip. Then I booked the hubby a flight so we could spend an extended weekend vacationing. All that was left to do was pack and get on the plane!

So, I headed to the airport Sunday morning. Everything got off to a bumpy start. The incoming plane was delayed and had a maintenance issue. I only had a short layover in Atlanta, so I suppose you can guess what happened…right? That’s right! I missed my connecting flight. No worries though, the airline had already booked me on another flight once I reached Atlanta. Instead of an hour layover, I now had a +5 hour layover. Needless to say, I finally made it to my hotel room in Denver at 1:30am (MTN) instead of the anticipated 5:30pm arrival. I was exhausted. Plus, I had to be up and ready for anything in class the next morning.

Seismic Design Class went by without a hitch. I met several interesting people and overall had a good time by myself; however, I was anxiously awaiting the hubby’s arrival Thursday evening. It didn’t take too long and he had arrived. He got in later than expected, and we were both so hungry…so we immediately took to the 16th Street Mall to find some grub. We ended up dining at Maggiano’s. It was excellent! If you get a chance to eat at this Italian restaurant, you should try the Rigatoni "D" or the Chicken Saltimbocca. Everything was served family style (my favorite way to eat), so we shared and enjoyed as much as we could until we were stuffed!

View of the front of the Hotel

16th Street Mall

Downtown Area

On Friday, I had a half-day of class. E and I had a nice lunch (and happy hour) at Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery. We walked up and down 16th Street taking in the sights as well as taking pictures. We also stopped by Marlowe’s later that afternoon and had some appetizers (and happy hour) and people watched for a while. There was also an art festival that lined the streets adjacent to 16th street mall area. We enjoyed viewing the diverse creations of local artists. We hoped to purchase something for our home to remember our special time there…but alas, could not find anything that felt like it should be ours. We soon headed back to the hotel room to take naps (not needed due to the multiple happy hours) and prepare for a semi-late night. In all of my researching for Denver, I noted that there were several dinner theaters and cabarets in the area. One especially well noted and planning to have a show of interest was Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret. This weekend was the opening weekend for Altar Boyz! I don’t know if any of you have heard of this award winning musical, but it is was hilarious! It’s a musical comedy based on the boy-band-meets-christian-rock. Google it. Enough said.

We are the Altar Boyz, we're coming to your town...

It was pretty late after the show, but we still walked around a bit downtown just to check out the night scene. We stopped in Coyote Ugly. Yes, like the movie, but not nearly as impressive. I was so sad leaving there upon the realization that I did not enjoy it and think I have outgrown it. I mean, for a special occasion it is warranted…but just to hang out regularly, I just can’t hang anymore (small tear). After that realization, we found ourselves at an adjacent music scene known as Jazz at Jack’s. It was much more my speed…until my speed wanted to find a pillow. Thus was the conclusion of Friday.

Saturday we rented a car and headed toward the mountains! Our first stop was the Miller-Coors Brewery.

Miller Coors Plant! Yay!

It is in Golden, Colorado - - only a short drive from Denver. One thing I noticed about the Denver area, there where several breweries and wineries. So just about everywhere we stopped we wanted to try at least one just to see what made them all so different. After touring the Miller-Coors Brewery, I will be hard pressed to casually drink another brand of beer. I was completely impressed by the plant presentation. I was equally impressed with the lengths that are taken to recycle waste. Did you know that Coors recycles 95% of all of the waste it produces? Well, now you do! Leftover ingredients turn into animal foods. Aluminum and glass are reused and manufactured for other uses. “Sad Beer” (beer that has expired or spoiled) is turned into ethanol.

What I envision when I reflect on"Sad Beer"

The plant is committed to preserving and conserving. It is pretty amazing what all I learned about the process while I was there.

The free samples at the end weren’t too shabby either!

If all this still hasn’t convinced you, then tell me what else you think could beat a silver bullet on a hot day in the middle of summer?

After the brewery adventure, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed up the mountain to see Buffalo Bill’s grave. This was a huge tourist spot, and since we were nearby we had to check it out.

A view from the top!

The most impressive part of the trip up the mountain was the runners, bikers, and hikers all over the place. Take it from this southern girl (not that I typically refer to myself quite like that), it was quite the altitude! There were times that I had to catch my breath as we were traveling not only for the beauty of it all, but also for the elevation change. It was simply amazing to see people trucking it up the trails as if it was the flat sidewalk from my neighborhood.

Yes, my friends, he is trucking it up the mountain on a unicycle!

We also went up to Mount Evans. A local had mentioned it was nearby and was the highest paved road in North America. I looked it up online and discovered that it had just opened on Friday, so we were excited to go and take a look. It was substantially cooler the higher we climbed. The temperature went from low 70’s at the base of the mountain to low 40’s toward the top. It had also been raining a little here and there on Saturday. By the time we got up the mountain, the light rain had turned to fog and ice.

Starting to see a little bit of ice...

Just too foggy and icy to go any higher! Maybe next time...

We opted not to go any farther and went to play by the stream instead. Although we did not get the great views we were told about, the hubby and I had a great time sight seeing in the area.

One playground we explored before leaving Mount Evans

That evening we went out for a very special dinner at the Samba Room in Larimer Square. The Samba Room is well known for its Latin fusion cuisine of grilled meats and fresh seafood. It is also well known for its mojitos, which were very tasty! After dinner, we stopped by a local chocolate factory to get some treats. It was then back to the room for some shut eye.

Larimer Square in the Evening...very nice!

The next morning we headed to the downtown park. We had a few hours to spare before our flight home and wanted to check out the other side of downtown that we had not explored yet. It was such a beautiful morning. The park was green and bright.

Entrance to one side of the park

It was then off to the airport. The trip home was no easier than my trip in to Denver. There was bad rain and thunderstorms as well as tornados in the area. What was supposed to be a 2-hour flight was closer to a 4-hour flight… I suppose you can guess what happened…right? That’s right! Again, I missed my connecting flight. To make matters slightly worse, there were no more flights back home that day. E is convinced that I am bad luck to travel with after this ordeal…but I made up for it. I quickly talked the airline support staff into setting us up on a flight to Biloxi, but we only had 10 minutes to get across the airport to catch the flight!! The airline guy basically said, “Run!”. So, run we did. It was pretty much like a scene from a movie (slow motion in my case since I am not at all fast runner). We were moving as fast as we could with all of our bags in tow trying to make it to the other side of the airport before the take off. We made it with a moment to spare…and before you knew it, we were home.

What an exciting week! I am so glad the hubby was able to make it up to spend time with me. It was wonderful to be in Denver, in a nice hotel, with beautiful scenery, but there is no place like home. When my head finally hit my pillow late that Sunday night, it was the best sleep I have gotten in a very long time.

Parting photo for your viewing pleasure: A monument in the park...Little Bitty Horse, Big Red Chair