Riding the Silver Bullet

On Saturday morning Quinley and I headed to the Coors Brewing Company. This is about 20 minutes away from downtown Denver in a small town named Golden. The town is real relaxed. There is about a total of 19,000 people in the town. In the town is the largest cobblestone building in all of the United States.

The Coors Brewing Tour starts on a bus that takes you through the town. You then end at the Brewery where we were able to partake in a self directed tour. Everything is free. They even give you three free taste sample of different beers.

I was shocked to discover the amount of detail that is taken to develop a Coors Beer. The creator of Coors was Adolf Coor (might have an “s” on the end). He started the company when he was 26 years old. Before any Coors is put on the market it has to pass the test of 200 independent taste testers. This Brewery is the largest Brewery in the United States.

We basically walked around and read about some of the history. At the end of the tour we had a few beers and relaxed.

Though I have never been a huge fan of Coors this experience definitely changed that for me. Though it doesn’t taste any different to me, I now have a much better understanding of its history which consequentially makes me like it more.

Going Out in Denver

On Friday night Quinley invited over some of his friends from the Denver area. We played some games, had some beers and then went out on the town.

The nightlife in downtown Denver is fun and easy going. The bars are large and spacious. We went to multiple bars with multiple stories.
We started the night at Quinley’s place. There were people from Denver, the bay area, Alaska, Seattle, and Mendocino County (me). The thing that stuck out the most to me is that everyone there simply wanted to have a good time. Everybody was friendly and welcome to conversation. We all just kicked back and had a good time.

After a series of bars and partaking in a variety of activities that tend to occur at bar’s we decided to make our way home. This consisted of me identifying and analyzing every single food vendor on the way back home. After much analysis and consultation I opted to get the burrito from the lady on the corner. This choice had nothing to do with “great taste” but instead my hunger finally peaked and I needed to take the next closest item in front of me. This happened to be the nice lady with the premade $3 burritos that she kept in a cooler (ironically to keep heated). I gave her $3 and she gave me a burrito. I walked away happy with my purchase… that is until I got back to Quinley’s place and smelled the pizza that had been ordered.

One burrito and 2 giant slices of pizza later I concluded that I maybe should not have ate so much.

Heading to Denver for the Weekend

This is me at the BART at 4:20 am in the morning.

I woke up at 3:50 am so I could make it to the Bart Station to get to the 4:30 am train. I had a 6 am flight that seemed like a good idea when I booked it. After a flight from Oakland to Salt Lake City, a one hour layover and then onto Denver I finally arrived at 11:00 am. My old college buddy, Kevin Quinley grabbed from me from the airport.

First thing we did when we got to town was head to 16th street and grabbed a burger and a beer at a Brewery. Denver is filled with Breweries everywhere you look.

I only stayed near the downtown area for the entirety of my trip so I can only speak about that. The vibe of this area of the city was surprisingly laid back. Of course, my natural comparison in my head is to cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York so it makes sense that I would perceive much of the world’s cities as “laid back”.

This is Rockies Stadium. It is about 150 Yards from Quinley's Apartment.

Quinley and I have the type of relationship where the common formalities no longer exist. Everytime we see each other it doesn’t matter if we spoke 4 days ago or 4 months ago, the conversation flows just as naturally.

During this trip I had the opportunity to experience Denver’s nightlife, the Coor’s Brewing company, see a haunted house, make some new friends, and catch up with an old one.