Boulder, CO

The thirty minute drive from Denver, to Boulder seemed like a skip when compared to the other legs of my journey which had all lasted a minimum of 4 hours. While the change in scenery was minimal, the difference of Boulder's overall atmosphere was striking. The students from CU Boulder, who seem to predominate the majority of the city, bring a refreshingly active, artistic and engaging youthful air I had been missing since my college days at Wesleyan.

The F.O.B. with Fabio

Just because I love beer so very much, I ventured to the Avery Brewery, for another tour and beer sampling.  I arrived just in time to blend in with the crowd of 30 people in line for the tour without signing up in advance. Much smaller than any of the other breweries I had visited previously, Avery's entire operation was jam packed into a minuscule warehouse on the outskirts of Boulder. In fact, the main tour did not even show the bottling process because they would not have been able to fit all of the tour-goers into the room. Don't worry though, I managed to sweet talk the tour guide, a fellow beer enthusiast into giving me a private showing later. My favorite part of the bottling process was a piece of the bottling machinery called the F.O.B. for foam on beer. It uses highly pressurized water to agitate the beer, causing foam to rise up an over the top of the bottle pushing out any oxygen that might get trapped in otherwise. On the F.O.B. the brewers had jokingly put a picture of the actor Fabio, which I found quite humorous.

Part of our beer flight

Avery distinguishes itself from most other breweries because it brews more intense and exotic beers that often do no appeal to the average palate such as sour and high alcohol content beers. They even have a few brews that they age in wooden casks often used previously in the distillation of spirits. I was eager to try out their unique line of products, so I plopped down in the tap room after the tour to do some lingual investigation. While I sat contemplating the menu, unsure of what to try I overheard a group of three ladies sitting beside me at the bar deciding whether or not they were thirsty enough for the full beer flight which includes a taster glass of all of Avery's beers. I offered to join their flight so they wouldn't have to worry about not finishing. So together we went through all fifteen or so of Avery's delicious brews (including one that was a whopping 15% ABV) which was quite the treat.

For dinner that night I went to half past subs, a college hot-spot, that boasts a menu of over 50 different kinds of sandwiches. I ordered the green turkey which was a sub with turkey, sprouts, avocado, melted gouda, mayo, mustard, brie and apple slices. I also couldn't resist the temptation of their Big Lebowski themed dessert drink called the Duderino which was a vanilla shake with khalua and bailey's.

Later that evening I met up with two of my Wesleyan friends, Tim and Tess, who have been together since their sophomore year. Tim works as a geologist/ecologist and Tess works at an start-up that manages online surveys. I had originally been hesitant to contact them because we were only peripherally friends at Wesleyan, but they were more than happy to hear I was in town. We got together for beers and  any semblance of initial awkwardness immediately melted and it felt like we were back in Middletown, CT.

The next morning, before I hit the road for Rapid City, SD, I explored the Boulder farmer's market that Tess and Tim had recommended. I ate a delicious almond croissant, and bought a fresh baguette and cheese for the road. I could have spent hours and hours in the market, but the tug of the ten hour drive ahead to rapid city brought me back to Roy faster than I would have liked.