Ahem, so, this tale begins with waking up, as most stories should, on Saturday morning. Lisa, Josh, and I were all destined for Denver- which was a bit of a drive. Four hours isn't too bad, but those long, straight roads in the grasslands can get to you after awhile. Thankfully, we had a completely safe journey, only halfway in part due to this sign:
Middle middle middle... And then we arrived at Denver! Yay!
Our plan was to meet up with Josh's brother, Nate, as his shift was ending. Until then, we decided to visit a few breweries and sample some Colorado beers. I designated myself as the DD, since I knew Josh and Lisa would be able to appreciate the complex flavors with more aptitude (not to mention my stomach had never completely settled from most of the past week). We went to Dry Docks brewery, situated in Aurora (one of those smaller cities inside a large city), then moved to downtown Denver for Great Divide. What's that you say? Pics or it didn't happen?
The proof is in the pudding, I always say. I mean, I said it once... just now. Finally we met up with who would be our host for the night, one of Josh's friends named Jordan. It was alot of fun for someone such as myself, who grew up almost strictly in small towns, or outside of small towns, to get an insider's peek into another city besides Grand Rapids. Each city has a unique flavor, much like the beers that they produce. (Though I discovered that my vocabulary for the latter is not quite on the up-and-up.) I'm almost certain I could spend much more time in Denver in the future; two days left me woefully inadequate to paint you a complete picture of the city. So, moving on!
That night we ended up at Nate's restaurant, met up (randomly, I believe) with more of Josh's friends, and found our way back to Jordan's apartment. The next day, we started fresh with Nate, Jordan, and his wife Heather, striking out for The Cheeky Monk, a restaurant/pub. We arrived at about brunch-time, and had some brunch, because we decided that would be just about perfect timing.
At last, it was time to depart from that cheeky monk, and we set out for the Left Hand brewery. I'm sure some of you may recongize... THIS SYMBOL??
No, it is not one of Manos's hands of fate. (10 points to those who get this reference.) Anyway, their brewery was pretty cool. It had a birthday party going on at the time, so it was quite busy, and there was a live folks/blues band playing in the corner! We had some samplers, and surprisingly enough, before long someone came up to us and asked Josh if they knew each other. Did everyone he go to college with move to Denver? Oh yeah- pics!
That's Jordan, Josh, and Lisa in the first picture, in that order (if you read/view from left to right.) I don't know the people in the other picture. It was mostly of the sign. I could make up some names though.
The friend we met, whose name turned out to be Matt, told us that he lived barely four blocks from Jordan, and we made plans to hang out later that night. Finally, we departed and headed for a brewery I had never heard of before called Oskar Blues. This was probably my favorite brewery pub in terms of ambiance. It had that sort of eclectic, carefree, jazz flow about the bar. Er, I mean blues.
I loved the fact that you could see the factory-like portion of the brewery behind it all. No attempt to hide or put on a gussied-up face here, and I can appreciate that. They even make their own hot sauces with their beers- and Josh, a hot sauce guru, could not resist. We were informed by the bartender that just around the corner was their actual pub/restaurant, where we could indeed purchase chicken wings infused with such sauces. It became our next priority. But before we left, I decided to use the bathroom...
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