Life is more than the Cubicle: Travel

Great American Beer Festival 2011

Last weekend, Matt and I went to Denver for our annual journey to the Great American Beer Festival. So here is what we did in picture form!

We got to San Jose at "way too early" o'clock in the morning. Sat next to a priest on the way out there. Didn't notice his collar and both wondered why someone would be wearing that much black. (This is a funny story, just wait till the end)

After we landed, we got the rental car and went to a place called Tocabe that has American Indian food. We both got the indian tacos. I got vegetarian with beans and lettuce and too much spicy salsa.

While Matt got the bison. Pretty good. It's a piece of fry bread with your choice of toppings, chipotle style. They also ran out of beer. And the soda machine broke. So did the iced tea machine. The only choice was wine or bathroom sink water. I think you know which one we chose ;)

Then we went to Wynkoop to have some beer. We geeked out over the beer shirts there and wondered who was representing the breweries or who was just a brewfan. Sat next to a guy wearing a Russian River shirt too

I had the Silverback Pale Ale and Matt got the Mile Hi.P.A. They were both pretty good but the IPA was nice and hoppy which I prefer over pale ales

After that, we went to our hotel room. We stayed at the Sheraton and for a ridiculously low rate (I think about $100 a night, maybe a little more), we got a room on the club level or penthouse level, all the way up on the 22nd floor with our own dining/buffet room and business center. The room was small, big enough for 2 people, but it was super nice being up on the top floor!

View from our windows

View of the park from our other window. These were gigantic floor to ceiling windows

That night, we went to the beer festival! It's held at the convention center in Denver and every year we have to wait in a pretty long line that wraps around the building. Man, it was HOT HOT HOT in the sun this year and it kinda felt like standing in one of those makeshift tin foil reflective ovens because the center is covered in glass and shiny surfaces.

We got inside, wandered around for a bit while I tried to meet up with my good buddy Lauren from college but I think with the masses of people on their iPhones, we had the worst time getting calls or text messages through. I FINALLY found her and we had a great time catching up :)

We also saw Zane Lamprey on the floor and geeked out a bit and took a picture

(this guy drinks for a living! What a life!)

We also saw Sam Caligione (Dogfish Head) and I chatted with him and another guy about Matt's shirt which is from City Beer in SF. Sam was commenting on how it's now hip to say that we're from the Bay Area instead of saying that we're from San Francisco. Didn't get a picture with him though, felt kinda creepy-stalkerish to ask for one. Guess I wasn't drunk enough to be creepy-stalkerish

I did try his Urkontinent beer which I later found out was actually a collaboration beer with Google. Woohoo! Go Bay Area!

We also sought out our brewer friend from Uncommon Brewers in Santa Cruz. Just Alec, the founder, was there at the time and we had a fun time catching up with him. They now have recyclable kegs which are shaped like really big christmas tree balls. Pretty awesome stuff. He just expanded his brewery but has some issues with the equipment so hopefully I'll see his brews in the south bay stores soon!

These are some pictures from the floor. The convention center floor is pretty massive and there were a ton of people walking around. We're thinking that we might attend the private VIP session next year on Saturday night because honestly, a lot of booths were withholding the good stuff for the judging round and it was sad

I bought a t-shirt because Matt needed a bag for all of his magazine goodies. They have definitely figured out how to capitalize on drunk people with merchandise.

I think we left at around 9 or 9:30 and went to have dinner at the Yard House. Not so good. Matt had the gorgonzola burger and I had the lettuce wraps and garlic noodles appetizers. Greasy. Too salty. Overhyped. Beers aren't that interesting either, it's all stuff you can find at Bevmo or other stores like City Beer if you just try hard enough. I'm not even half of the beer nerd that Matt is and I could still recognize and probably have tasted about 90% of the menu. At least it's a convenient place to drink but we're definitely not too interested in going back to wait in line for that type of food... at least it's checked off the list.

Oh, another thing. If you go to this festival. It will smell like fart. Seriously. All. The. Time.

Beer farts have a life of their own and an odor that is very distinctive.

It's gross

Saturday was spent in Boulder. Back in my good old Boulder :). CU was playing Washington State so we were anxious about crowds/traffic/drunkies. There was a bit of traffic getting in on 36 because we went at lunch time, but it wasn't too bad.

We had lunch/brunch at the Southern Sun which is right across the street from my senior year apartment on Table Mesa and Broadway. Why did we never know this place existed?

Beer, it's a breakfast food! (No really, it was, way back when it was invented. Liquid bread)

I had the french toast with orange butter and maple syrup and Matt got a breakfast burrito type of thing. It was SOOO good

We had a few beers, forgot the names but when I find my menu I'll post the names up later

Then we went to Boulder Beer. Went on a tour. I bought a shirt. We drank too much. We learned that you can actually take home a sample of the house yeast from Boulder Beer for homebrewing. Too bad the yeasties might not survive the trip to Cali.

Then we went to Avery. It was packed, took us forever to find a parking spot and then the line to the bar was about 4-5 people deep, so we left.

And went to Asher. Got the sample and some really good blueberry beer and grape beer.

Learned how to play a game named Cornhole. That's seriously the name. I'm not making this up. There's also an American Cornhole Association.

It's pretty fun but in my weak duckling state, I had a hard time pitching the bean bags. Matt said we should try to find the game and play it when we're drinking. Tossing 1 pound bean bags at boards to try to make it into a cornhole....a lot more fun than you think. The new beer pong anyone?

Then we went to Oskar Blues up in Longmont and by this time I was a raging bitch because I really needed a nap and a shower and I had been driving all day.

Matt drove us back to Denver through traffic. I promptly passed out after a shower. I'm amazed he didn't break up with me. Or maybe that's coming later.

We went to dinner at Katie Mullins which is an Irish restaurant at about 10pm. I had a salad while Matt got this thing called a boxty. The way we read it on the menu was that it sounded like a shepherds pie but came out looking like a crepe filled with chicken. Pretty good!

Thought we'd check out the pool. It was an outdoor pool. It was cold and windy. There was a weird old hippyish couple there and the guy told us, "it's not cold, it's refreshing," and we made a hasty retreat back to the warmth of the building.

Flew back on Sunday after having breakfast at the Delectable Egg and sat next to the same priest as on the way there. He said we looked familiar but was unsure because we'd changed our outfits. He was definitely wearing the same thing though. He asked if we were going to Boise in 10 days, we said that unfortunately we're done traveling for the year.

So that's this year trip! I should really learn to keep track of how many beers I drink next year. Century club anyone?

Prost!

Janine