Denver / Boulder (day 1)
We wake up and eat breakfast at the hotel, then head out. Unfortunately, despite yesterday's mild weather, it's apparently back to freezing today. The sun's out, but so is the wind and it's in full force. Today we're headed to Boulder, which is a city about an hour's bus ride way, via the grand looking Union Station.
Similar to what we noticed on the way in, Denver is sparse. Lot's of empty land the whole way out towards Boulder. I guess that helps with the views of the mountains which are right near where we are heading. They are so pretty.
We set out along the Pearl Street Mall, which seems to be a pretty major strip in the city. We check out a couple of shops and pick up a few bits and pieces. Boulder is a pretty Colorado looking type of city, with a backdrop of snow capped mountains. We walk for awhile and it seems to get colder and windier as we go, so we decide it's time to try some of the local brews; there are a few local breweries in Boulder.
We get an Uber to the Twisted Pines brewery and order two flights, which consists of 5 tastings per flight. US breweries have so many options to choose from! Some of the beers are good, some not so. The bar tender appears extremely hungover and forgets a few things, including who we are when she invites us to take a seat anywhere as we're leaving, despite having served us for the last hour or so. The dangers of working in a brewery, I guess. We seek a sign that points us toward 'Yard Games' and can't resit. We play a few rounds of the bean bag toss game before heading off.
We get back on the bus to Denver and head back to the hotel for a nap before the evenings activities. This involves a bit of a walk through the wind that feels like it's throwing knives at you. The wind, cold and beer really takes it out of you.
We wake up a little while later refreshed and raring to go. Which is a good thing, because we're headed to a quiz night. We turn up 30 minutes after its started, but are keen to play anyway. We grab the quiz books, order some food and drink and settle in.
Some of the questions are pretty hard and US based. We do pretty well considering we missed the first four rounds and come in at a respectable second to last. No bad considering most other teams have 4+ players, too. The bar is called Recess and it's pretty cool and not just because the bar tender doles out a round of shots to the entire bar! We stick around and play a few more games, which is another thing we've noticed across the US - most bars offer a selection of board games to play.
We finish off our drink and head off to snooze, we've got a big day planned for our last full day in Denver.
