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Published: August 26th 2011
After a great time in the Rocky Mountains we headed to the University town of Boulder where we had a Couch-surf organized with Marty and Andrea. On the way Mary had looked up a few free things to do and the first stop was the Celestial Seasonings Tea Company. Discovered in Boulder in the late 60’s by a few hippies picking herbs from the mountains, it has grown into an international company that makes some pretty good teas. The aromatic factory tour lasted about 40 mins – the mint room was the best as the fragrance filled your senses and made our eyes water. To conclude we had a tasting session which was the best bit!
Next stop was the Boulder Beer brewery, another free tour. We arrived at 2pm to catch the 30 minute tour of the small brewery, where after they laid out about 9 or 10 jugs of beer for us to sample – oh yeah! After the small group of about 12 people dug in, the numbers slowly dwindled down until there were a couple, two American guys and the two of us still left ‘sampling’. We got talking to the two blokes who were sound;
Looking even better...
We had to wear these in the tea factorywe still had about 6 jugs left so we kept on sampling for the next few hours. I took it steady as I had to drive but Mary was making the most of the samples and ended up very pissed! I was a bit worried of the impression we would make as we were going to stay in someone’s home that we had not met yet but it turned out fine as Marty and Andrea were really laid back about it and it turned out that they were beer coinsures themselves! That evening they ordered in Pizza and we sat around chatting and went for 1 more drink at another local small brewery before bed.
The next day we borrowed a couple of bikes and the 4 of us rode to the farmers market and bought a few bits for tea – Mary and I were making curry…mmm. After M&A went to do their own thing so we wandered around town before heading back to start tea. Boulder is a great town to cycle through.
Tea went great, and M&A had invited a few of their friends over to watch a film on the Hormel Labor Strike, so
we got to chill in front of the box for once. The film was pretty good, and after all the guests left we went to bed.
Woke up bright and early again and had breakfast of Mary’s poached eggs and Marty’s specialty coffee before making our way to Colorado Springs to meet Berck and Joanna, our next hosts. These guys were chilled and nice people and Berck gave us a couple of his home-brew beers to try; they were really good, we were impressed. Berck is a trained pilot so it was good for Mary to ask him questions about flying to help with her fear. They cooked us dinner of home-made burgers, potatoes and Joanna's scrummy home-made peach cobbler for pudding. We ate far too much but it was nice to indulge for a change.
In the morning we said our goodbyes and left Colorado Springs and headed to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Before we did we explored a bit of Colorado Springs; stopping at Garden of the Gods – a small park on the outskirts of the city. A beautiful setting so we had our dinner here. While we were there, the 1st Colorado
cycle race was being held so the park was full of bikers, a couple of Tour de France winners were there so it must have been big business. We also visited the Old City for a browse and watched some of the race pass though.
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Pat Kilmore
non-member comment
looking good
you've both lost weight!!! must be all that hiking, looking good though what a fab time you must be having, take care and enjoy!!! love pat and killa xx