A Weekend Getaway

Last weekend the other half and I decided to take a little trip to Denver.  Neither of us had gone before and thought it would be a great city to explore. It was absolutely beautiful, and after the extremely hot Texas summer it was great to be in the cold all bundled up. For those of you that don't know, we dabble in home brew. We definitely enjoy our beer and love creating our own. Denver and other areas in Colorado are chalk full of micro-breweries, it's like the Napa valley for beer, "beer country." =) So we flew in Friday night and checked into our hotel downtown and walked a couple of blocks to a unique little gastopub for dinner, where they served things like lamb burgers, truffle fries, and duck posole. 

Saturday was the day the other half termed "beer day," we walked around downtown all day, visiting 16th street full of shopping and restaurants, LODO (lower downtown,) and lots of pubs and breweries. My favorite was The Great Divide, where they had a nice little tour and lots of different beers to try in the tasting room. This was such a fun relaxing day. 

This is where the magic happens

Fermenting tanks in the back and some oak aging going on in those barrels :)

Sunday was our site-seeing day, so we drove on to Golden, Red Rock Amphitheater, and Boulder. Golden was a small little town where there wasn't much to see, we ended up not stopping. They're known for their big brewery, which is Coors Brewing Company. Then we moved on to Red Rock, talk about beautiful! It's an old amphitheater that is built in between these gorgeous red rocks that are situated just right for great acoustics. 

The amphitheater

We then moved on to Boulder, where stumbled upon another micro-brewery, there our server gave us directions to a little waterfall up in the mountains. After finishing our pint we excitedly got our things together to go explore the mountains. We found more snow and amazing views. The waterfall was just a little hike off the road, definitely worth it. 

What a beautiful site

We kept going further into the mountains where we stumbled upon a lake and a little ski town. We ended up driving back to Denver the scenic route down the mountain. Our flight wasn't due out until 8:50 so we still had time to check some things out in the city. We had a great trip, and it was actually our first one by ourselves without any friends or family traveling with us.  It was wonderful and I can't wait to do it again.  It was like meeting up with an old friend.  We all get caught up in the daily grind and sometimes forget to connect and really spend quality time with our loved ones.  It's great to slow down and really enjoy life and those around you.