Denver

Thursday morning we packed up our stuff from Marc's and got on the road for Denver.  Liz was meeting with the Colorado Coalition to offer some help after her success in Illinois.  We got there a little early and cruised around the neighborhood for a bit.  While Liz was working I took a nap and a bike ride.


Once she was done we mounted up the bikes and rode out to the REI flagship store.  We needed to return a couple things and I wanted a new seat for my bike.  We also went there because it was huge and amazing.  Several floors of merchandise and a climbing wall.

From there we rode into LoDo (the Lower Downtown) for dinner.  When we were driving into town we heard a chef being interviewed on NPR.  His description of the food made our mouths water.  So we tracked the place down.  It's called Vesta Dipping Grill.  They have 30 different kinds of sauces that range from a sweet chili ginger to a hot sauce that was aged in a whiskey barrel for a month.

We only tried a third of the sauces.  They were all good but some were out of this world.  We were both stuffed for the ride back to the van.


The next day we headed to the south side of town to meet up with Liz's friend Leslie for breakfast.  We met at a small place called Gaia Bistro and had another tasty meal. 

Back downtown we parked the van and were once again on two wheels a piece.  First we rode up to the capitol building.  We were waiting for a tour to start but decided to just walk around ourselves.  


After that we were just riding around scoping out the city.  We happened upon the Great Divide Brewery.  It took Liz some work but she was able to convince me to step inside.  

I got a 13 beer flight 

A couple beers later they announced that there was a tour beginning so we jumped on board.  Pretty standard tour but always enjoyable.  Finished up our beers and started riding back to the van.  We tried to stop at a bakery for dessert but it was closed.


Then we drove to the west side of town.  Ate some pizza at an Italian place and then walked over to check out some art studios.  There was a lot of great pictures but about the third or fourth studio we went into we were both amazed.  Striking images that were also puns.

Flaming Banana Foster

We started chatting with the artist, Ryan Rice, and he is a pretty cool guy.  Shameless Plug.  


Our last stop of the night was Tenn Street Coffee.  A little coffeeshop/bookstore where Liz's friend John Statz was playing a show.  Another Shameless Plug.

Finally we decided to head back to Fort Collins for the night.