Well since we were so close to Denver we decided to go down and visit Sharon’s brother, half brother and step mother as they live just west of the city. We had planned to pick up her brother Kip to go for a hike in the foothills. Weather predictions were not real good and sure enough as we ventured got into north Denver it started hailing, marble sized hail. We sought shelter by parking behind a building in case it got worse but fortunately it didn’t.
When we arrived at Kip’s house it was full out raining so instead of hiking we simply turned our hiking plans into a visit instead. Afterward we started our way back home but stopped at Woods Boss brewing to meet up with a former classmate of our daughter’s (Dan) whose fiancé (Maggie) was our bartender. I have to admit their beers are quite good here and we enjoyed catching up with the lives of Katie’s friends. What a wonderful couple!
While waiting for our Freightliner appointment we also played a little disc golf as well. There is a nice little course in Longmont which is only 9 holes but we played it twice to make it 18 holes. On one hole there was a miniature piano on a white painted stump which we found intriguing. Sharon played a little tune and we were sad to see the piano gone the next time we played that course.
Another day we headed north for a brewery tour in Fort Collins Colorado at the New Belgium Brewery. We always heard that they offer one of the best tours around. When I looked online we discovered that all tours were completely booked until mid-July. So what did we do? We went anyway and hoped to grab a spot if someone cancelled or no showed.
On the way up to Fort Collins we also stopped to visit the Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland Colorado. This free sculpture garden was about half way to Fort Collins and was a great stop. It was amazing how many sculptures were available to see in this park. The trail through the gardens took us around several ponds and there was quite a diversity of sculptures.
After enjoying the sculptures we drove on into Fort Collins and found the New Belgium Brewery. We checked with a hostess who said there was probably no chance for us to get into the 3:30 pm tour and our best chance was the 4:30 tour which meant we would have to wait for 1.5 hours and the tour is 1.5 hours as well. We signed on to the wait list for both tours but also decided to drive over to O’Dell’s Brewery and to maybe take their tour.
Well when we got there they informed us their last tour left at 3:00 pm. It was now 3:15 so we drove back over to New Belgium hoping to make the 3:30 tour. The hostess started calling names off the wait list and we watched and waited.. We crossed our fingers and lucky for us we were the very last ones called for the 3:30 tour. Yay!
The tour itself was one of the most thorough brewery tours we have been to thus far. Our guide was informative, funny and interesting to listen to. At each station we stopped at we were offered a sample and allowed to get more if we wished while he was talking. I tried about five different beers and at the last station (bottling) he went to the bottling line and pulled off freshly bottled beers to distribute . Even better was they were Ranger IPA’s, one of my favorites. We were even allowed to a few extra to take home with us…. what a great tour.
We drove back to Longmont and still have some time to kill before our RV service appointment….
NOTE: We are now in the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont Colorado until we move over to the Freightliner Shop in Frederick Colorado…
Looks like you're making the best of your time there. New Belgium Brewery was one Dave hoped to get to this summer, guess it'll have to wait for another year.
ReplyDeleteWe’ll be in Denver later this month. I don’t know if we will go up to do the brewery tour, but will try to get up to Loveland to see the sculptures.
ReplyDeleteWe may have to add that tour while in Colorado. Hopefully the hail will stay away.
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