still worth the drive (summer trip part 2)

last week christe and i drove to my brothers wedding in denver. if i had to sum it up in a few words i would use: family, beautiful, college, beer and still worth the drive.

family

i have, hands down, the best family in the world. its taken some of us a while to mature (myself included) but its coming together nicely.

the running joke for years has been that girls don't care which lepeau they get as long as they get one. phil has been married for over three years and christe and i celebrated our two year anniversary on the trip. at my wedding steve said, "it would have been smart to invest in me, because stock in steve just went up!" well, kristen just cashed in.

it was also good to see the extended family...they are a blast! i also got to meet some of christe's extended family in utah on the way back home which was fun.

beautiful

the wedding was amazing, held outside in estes park at the aspen lodge ranch resort, with snow-capped mountains as the back-drop.

following the wedding, the drive from denver to salt lake city was maybe the most breath taking stretch to drive in the US...or maybe my drives through new mexico, kansas, nebraska, north texas, oaklahoma and new jersey dont to the US justice. anyway, i have driven through a number of states not listed and this was definitely the best stretch i have been on.

we also got to see temple square in salt lake, an impressive area and building.

college

the fun thing about road trips is you can be random...do the unplanned. we hit up three college campuses on the drive i have never seen before, it was completely unplanned. the first was CSU in ft. collins, the campus was ok and the ft. collins was has a neat old town...kinda like a nice old chicago suburb, the best part was the beer...but ill get into that later.

the second was BYU in provo utah, we had lunch with christes family at brickoven, but needless to say...no beer. however, the campus was nice next to the mountains. as christe's cousins were giving us a tour we found out they had a testing center, now i dont know if this is common but it seemed a little strange to this U of A grad. naturally our next question was...are there camera's? wouldnt a testing room make it very easy to cheat if you can go in at your leisure? james responded, "well there are pictures of Jesus all over!"

finally, we stopped by flagstaff, az for dinner and got a look at NAU. the campus wasn't much to look at but i have to say, flag was the best college town of the three, the downtown was sweet.

beer

disclamer: if you dont like or care about beer, dont feel you have to read the following

it was my brother steves wedding we were going for, so it was no surprise to me that it was a non-stop party that started with the end of our 13 hour drive to denver when we had dinner at pf changs on thursday night, we met the family there to start the festivities. friday we had lunch at oskar blues in lyons, co, a brew-pub known for it's dales pale ale in a can, it is amazing but not quite as delectable as their old chub scottish style ale...also in a can. they seem to think the beer is less tainted when stored in a can, no sunlight.

anyway, steve was making the plans so we hit estes park brewery for dinner with the bachelor party to follow. the cards were fun, ep brewery had a tournament, but the beer was disappointing.

saturday night was the rehearsal dinner...sierra nevada, followed by the reception on sunday...also sierra nevada. did i mention that steve had a dales pale ale in his hand during the entire rehearsal?

anyway, the beer tour had already been started for me, it only seemed right that i finish it. so, on the way back to denver, we took our small detour to ft. collins to have lunch at new belgium, only to find out it was closed on monday which was mildly depressing until we found fort collins brewery. see, i love new belgium, especially fat tire, but i believe i have tried all their beer before. fort collins beer was a very nice surprise, the town and college may not be much but they sure do know their beer.

my wife is amazing, she was actually the one who suggested we stop by wasatch brew pub in park city, ut! park city was amazing, i wish i could say the same for the beer. however, that didn't stop me from picking up a party pack to try out some of the squatters brew that was paired with wasatch...also disappointing.

then our final stop was in flag, so naturally i had to ask. we found a brewery walking distance from where we had dinner. i only tried the red ale at beaver street brewery but it was worth it, i was only disappointed that they didn't have it in bottles for me to take home.

with all things considered, i only regret not hitting the coors tour which was part of the plan, but i got to do and try so many other great things.

i have to say, the highlight of my brew tour 2008 was the old chub, while the surprise of the trip was definitely fort collins brewery. much love to my wife for putting up with me and my taste buds!

still worth the drive

we put 2,500 miles on the lancer, which averaged almost 34 mpgs. the lowest cost of gas was $3.68 which we paid in tucson before we left with our frys vip discount and the most we paid was a disgusting $4.49 in san antonio, nm. despite that, gas and food for the week was less then the two plane tickets to denver...and we ate good!