Drive to Aspen

We awake to a beautiful view of the mountains outside of Boulder.

We can't say enough about the staff at National Car Rental at Denver International Airport.  They made a feared car exchange as simple and pleasant as possible; especially the part where we didn't have to carry six suitcases and a case of wine across the parking lot and were able to from door to door. With luggage stowed in an AWD Subaru, the mountains beckon.

For the first time in many runs up into the mountains we stopped to photograph the bison herd.

 

We also stopped in the historic Victorian mining town of Georgetown for information.  It has a picturesque main street and small lake complete at this time of year with ice fishing.

 

 

 

The condo has a great location, the room spacious with a wood burning fireplace, full kitchen and view of the mountain off the balcony.  The staff is gracious and the furnishing of both the room and facilities are great. It's across the street from the Gondola.

 

 

With our late arrival and expected fatigue from the multiple luggage transfers, we dine in this evening.

Bumps for Boomers - Day 1

When most skiers near the age of 50 their bodies and common sense tell them to stop skiing moguls. Therefore doesn't Bumps for Boomers sound like an oxymoron. So today we find ourselves in Aspen where our intrepid retirement-age adventurer will attempt to turn back the clock for the next four days; or the instructors will destroy his body.

It was a beautiful day on the mountain where CJ's class consisted of instructor Al (Stanford accelerator physicist by trade) and a woman from NJ; virtually a private class.

Meanwhile back in Aspen, Carol dealt with maintenance men at the condo and managed some initial exploration of the town near the condo.

He came off the mountain exhausted. Thankfully the condo served up a marvelous welcome party which gave CJ some recovery time.  With the food at the party, a simple dinner of leftovers in the room serves as dinner again.  We met a wonderful couple from Sydney at the party. The plan is to jointly dine out tomorrow.

Boulder Craft Brew II

Eleven weeks ago we ran out of time to complete our sampling of the Boulder craft beer scene.  We're bah-ack!

We've tacked an extra day on to the front of CJ's ski trip to Aspen. Since it's a ski trip and skier mentality demands a 4x4, the only choices at National's Emerald isle are Dodge RAM and Ford F150 "monster" trucks. The F150 is quite a different drive and ride from our Prius. The picture doesn't due its length justice.

Arriving at our hotel the F150 doesn't fit in the underground parking garage.  It also doesn't seem to fit in most shopping center parking lots. Another issue is that both of us have difficulty getting in and out of the bloody thing.

We have come to question why on a 70 degree day, the ski paradigm drove us to a 4x4. A check of the week's weather indicates only minimal snow predictions in the mountains.  This monster must go back!

We've arranged to visit the breweries with our friend Dennis as we did in December. First stop is Boulder Brewing. We have such a good time with the beers and lunch we forget to take pictures. Their loaded potato skin appetizer was excellent. A sampling of their brews turned up tasty brews but nothing over the top.

Second stop was Fate.  This was a sampling only stop and of the five brews selected none caught our fancy.

The final afternoon stop was at a renown local brewery, Upslope. The results of the semi-final round are Upslope in first place, Boulder Beer in second with Fate a distant last. Fate would have even been last if we opened up this competition to the breweries of the last trip.

The dinner trip started off rocky when the requested taxi never showed. 45 minutes late an Uber-like ride delivered us to Avery. The result of the finals, Avery vs Upslope is a foregone conclusion. Then again we may be a bit biased.

Carol and Dennis enjoyed a mainstay, the Vanilla Bean stout while CJ continued sampling Avery's ever mind boggling new creations. Two of the five he sampled failed but the other three were very good.  After a good dinner (the food a Avery is very good), we departed with a growler of Vanilla Bean and a growler of Mondo something, a blood orange infused glass of wonderfulness.

Since it appears Boulder taxi service is wholly unreliable following the buy-out of the local Yellow Cab company, Dennis graciously returned us to the hotel.