Spring Break 2008

Yeah, I know… I’m not in school any more and Spring Break technically doesn’t apply to me, but as long as I have family and friends that still get to have that week long break at the end of Winter… It won’t take much to convince me to take off a little time from work to go play also.Although, it’s hard to feel much like a vacation when you don’t leave the state, having guests out to play in the mountains and take part in all of the other great activities Colorado has to offer is still a great time!

The first event we started with was the Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival in Nederland. According to legend, there is a frozen dead dude in someone’s garage or something in Nederland, so every year they have this weekend-long festival to honor Mr. Popsicle. We checked out the main coffin races for a little bit, but took off to go get some beer down our necks and some fried Mac-N-Cheese in our bellies.

Dustin chose to cut his teeth with snowboarding in one of the greatest places… Colorado. We only went 2 of the 7 days he was here, but I think it was probably enough for him to get hooked on it, like me. Our first day out we hit up Breckenridge. From my experience, it’s one of the places to start. It’s a very family oriented mountain with tons of beginners to help boost your broken ego from spending half the day on your ass. But it didn’t take him long to graduate from the bunny slope and hit the main lift toward the top of the bigger runs. In no time we were heading down the green and blue runs. Not necessarily at break-neck speeds… but slow and steady wins the race… especially when you are just learning the snowboard. There’s nothing worse than that knot in your stomach that shows up suddenly when you realize you are going entirely to fast and have no way of stopping without running in to someone or something… or just dropping to the snow and hope for the best. Still, that feeling is kind of what you’re after (at some point). It’s similar to the feeling you get on the first big drop of a roller coaster. It’s the thrill seeker’s drug of choice. And I love it!As Dustin can now attest to, snowboarding is one of the most demanding and physically challenging hobbies to pick up. After just a few hours, he was pretty wiped out. It had been a long day for both he and the dogs.

Outside of snowboarding a few days, we spent the rest of the week checking out a lot of the local breweries. The first visit was the biggest and most well known… Coors.On the Coors brewery, they take you through a small portion of the plant and explain (more or less) how beer is made. You get a little history on Adolph Coors and the company. They give you a small sample of either Coors Original or Coors Light right after it has become a finished product (as fresh as you’ll ever taste it). Then at the end of the tour, you get to sample 3 of the beers that they brew. All in all, it’s not the best brewery tour, but the magnitude in which they brew and the shear scale and volume that they pump out is pretty amazing. The 3 free beers at the end of the tour is nice too…. and all of it is absolutely free. So, when you’ve got an hour to kill, I can’t think of too many better options. Plus, Golden is where we lived at the time so it’s just down the road.

Afterwards, we drove in to downtown Denver and checked out one of my local favs (not available outside of their building)… The Wynkoop. Their cask-conditioned Monkey’s Fist IPA is delicious.From there, we drove back to Boulder and had dinner (and some more delicious brewskis) at another one of my favs … The Souther Sun. Their XXX IPA is definitely in my top 5 local beers. Very tasty, very hoppy, very strong… and just all around, very good.

Later in the week, we finally got some hiking in. The weather was great the entire time Dustin was here. On average I’d say it was in the low to mid 60’s just about every day. The day we went for a short hike was no different. Leslie’s brother (Stephen) and his girlfriend (Tiffanie) were also in town for their Spring Break, so we had a nice little crew with us when we started off to hike the 1st Flat Iron. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it all the way to the top because of some lingering snow and ice in areas towards the top… but it was nice to get out and get some air and exercise. The altitude got to the visiting Indiana people though and so it took a little longer to get where we were going, but that’s alright. Nanook was enjoying the breaks we made to catch our breaths. That dog loves to eat snow.After the hike, we went to check out a couple more breweries… Boulder Brewing Company (home of the great Hazed & Infused) and Avery. Avery, unfortunately was closed for some reason, but there was a sweet Delorian in the parking lot. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of those in person.

Boulder Brewing Company was open for business so we stopped in there and had a couple of their finest brews and a heaping plate of nachos. Aside from Hazed & Infused… the other popular one they make is the Mojo. It’s their IPA, where as the Hazed is just a dry-hopped ale (but sorta tastes like an IPA). However, they have another version of the Mojo Called Mojo Risen, which is only available at the brewery. It is a double IPA and comes in at 9% ABV. It’s a very smooth IPA unlike most and the extra alcohol content can put you where you need to be real quick like. Their Never Summer Ale is another good one they serve up too, but it’s only available during the Winter months.From there, we headed north to Fort Collins and to the Holy Grail of beer lovers… New Belgium Brewery. You really can’t come to Colorado as a beer lover and not insist on visiting this brewery. Their Fat Tire (Amber Ale) is where a lot of people get their first taste in to fine crafted beers. But you’ll quickly find out… as good as Fat Tire is… it’s just a jumping point and the tip of the iceberg to all of the other delicious concoctions they have available.

The last day of Dustin’s trip we decided to forgoe watching both IU and Purdue possibly embarrass themselves in the Big Ten tournament and went to check out our local NBA D-League team, the Colorado 14er’s. They play at the nearby Broomfield event center, and as you can see… for a measly $20 you can’t get much closer to the court. The D-League pretty much consists entirely of players that their NBA counter-part teams drafted, but didn’t feel like they were quite ready for the big leagues. So instead, they play on a much smaller scale, but still work just as hard or harder. The game ended up being pretty close. It was against the Los Angeles D-Fenders (the Lakers dev team), but in the end, the 14er’s lost.After the game, we drove in to Boulder and had some dinner at Old Chicago’s and then headed home. That pretty much wrapped up the week. It was a good time and I was happy to be able to spend some time with my cousin Dustin. We haven’t been able to hang out much now that he’s 21. I think he might have taken a liking to Colorado… so watch out family. There may be more ship jumpers soon!