The Time I Turned a Quarter of a Century: Part II

So day one and two in Denver were done.  They were highly successful and incredibly fun.  On the morning of Day 3, we woke up and donned our "hiking" gear for a trek up a mountain.  But literally, it was a mountain.

Prepare yourself for photo overload and keep in mind that I was not about to bring my new Canon Rebel out into the rain on a steep hike, so my iPhone photos hardly do the thing justice.  The scenery was truly breathtaking.

Fact: Serious elevation means serious struggle breathing.

Why can't my backyard look like that?

No joke, that's the kind of terrain we maneuvered to get to the top!

Finally at the top.  Look how tiny that town looks below us.  That's where we started!

An hour and a half later and 2 miles later, we're at the peak!

Made it.

Made it.

Made it.

Oh, so this is what fall looks like outside of Texas?!

We just climbed that. NBD.

What a morning...just a little hike up that mountain.  You know, typical Saturday.

More to come on our featured item of the trip: Great American Beer Fest.

The Time I Turned a Quarter of a Century: Part I

Here are a few things to know about me: I like birthdays, I like beer, I like books, and apparently I like the letter 'B'...

For my 25th birthday I wanted to do something memorable.  Something I could look back on and be like "Boom, that's when I turned a quarter of a century."  Enter: Great American Beer Fest in Denver, Colorado.

Luckily my closest friends have the same interests as me so we packed our bags, prepared our livers, and joined the party in the Mile High City.

We started the trip with a night out in downtown Denver:

Although apparently turning 25 means you've hit grandma status because Taylor and I were in bed by midnight.  I'm only slightly embarrassed.

The next morning I discovered a new level of loving food.  Ever been to Snooze in downtown Denver?  No? Ha!  You haven't lived.

Oh. You weren't curious to see what my friends and their alcoholic beverages look like?  Here's the goodness:

Eggs Benedict, hash browns.

Biscuits, gravy, egg, other delicious goodness.

Prepare yourself: sweet potato pancake with caramel sauce and roasted almonds.

Yeah. I KNOW!  Beats any extremely overpriced steak dinner I've ever had.  Totally worth the hour wait.

As we all slowly digressed into a food coma, we packed into our rental car (because I can do that now that I'm, you know, twenty five years of age...), and headed to Golden, Colorado, home of the Coors Brewery:

After following a local recommendation to take this small, twisted road up to the top of a nearby mountain, we soon found ourselves winding through the trees, cliffs, and peaks to catch a glimpse or two of downtown Golden from above:

We topped off the day by heading to Boulder and hitting up one of their local (and one of my favorite) breweries, Avery.  We were lucky enough to snag a table in the corner and proceeded to spend the afternoon trying samplings of all their different beers:

More on Day 3 and Day 4 later.  Stay tuned...

Happy (post) Election Day!

And may the odds be EVER in your favor.

You better believe I used that phrase as often as possible yesterday.  (Is it obvious I Red Boxed "The Hunger Games" this weekend?  Yeah, Evan let that happen.  That's why he's the bomb.)

A few days back I suggested we host an Election Day Party.  However, due to the fact that I don't have TV at my apartment, the actual hosting landed on Jamie and Austin.  Oopsies.

The idea was that everyone must dress in election colors, eat American food, and pass the time by turning every part of the election into a drinking game:

Made by: Your's Truly.  But not the actual rules; I stole those.  

The idea of the evening was a success.  Everyone dressed in election colors red and gray, ate hot dogs, chili, potato chips, and sugar cookies, drank root beer floats, and sufficiently cheered as each state turned red.

The outcome of the evening, however, was not a success.

I will admit, the booze softened the blow.  Four more years of blue.  At least I like elephants.

A Very Vintage Birthday

It's no surprise that I love hosting parties.  A lot.  If I had lots of money and more than 744sqft to my name, I would definitely do some cool things.  But until then, I'll settle for the occasional 1960s-retro-themed-birthday party.  With the help of my friends, we put together this little shindig for Taylor's 25th birthday:

The boys chose not to participate in our retro theme...

Happy 25th Birthday, Taylor!