Saturday, January 27, 2018

Ghost Tour & New Belgium Brewery Toury

Day one of the Estes trip was a relaxing one. We spent time at the campground, and Kathy and I did a ghost tour at The Stanley Hotel!



We opted to do the latest tour, around 8pm, in hopes that it would get dark and be a little spookier. The tour began in a room in the basement level of the Stanley Hotel where they give you a little history, the movie, "The Shining" plays on a TV, and rules and expectations of the tour are discussed. We toured the ballroom, which was incredibly gorgeous, the basement of the ballroom where the old caretaker, who died years ago, reportedly still shows up to work, and also is home to a woman named "Lucy," (I think) who was a bit of a mystery. We also toured the billiard room which was decked out in lots of wood and large fixtures, making what I'd call a handsome room.

We were encouraged to take pictures and ask questions, speak to ghosts, and try to connect with the tour. I took a LOT of pictures, and had some interesting results like green lights.

I would LOVE to show you the pictures, but I can only share one. Want to know why? All but one disappeared. I'm not kidding, it was the weirdest thing. My phone automatically sends photos to my Google photo account, and saves them there. This worked for every single photo on our trip except the ghost tour! I even checked Google before clearing them from the phone to make sure they were there... they were... and then... they weren't. Draw your own conclusions, but I found this really suspicious!

So, here's the one pic I have. I took it because it reminded me of furniture my grandma used to have. LOL!


Exciting, huh?

As far as the tour goes, you get out of it what you put into it. If you're not into ghosts, I think you'd find the tour exceedingly boring, and I'd suggest you do the architectural tour instead.

4th of July also included matching t-shirts, and Andy's sister, brother-in-law, and niece came up from the Denver area to visit. (Sorry guys...apparently we didn't take any pics???)



On the 5th of July, we took a road trip to Fort Collins to do a tour at New Belgium Brewery!


I still don't know why they don't call it a "brewery toury," but I always will!

This tour was totally worth it! It took a few hours, included lots of walking, and many, many samples of products. The really interesting part, to me, was the fact that 1) the brewery is employee owned, and 2) employees get some really cool perks for working there. I also loved the decor- touches of bicycles everywhere and cool sculptures and light fixtures made from beer cans and bottles.

Luckily for me (and now you) these photos were saved. Take a look!


Shout out to the expert photobomber behind us! 😆






There was also cool educational stuff.



They even trusted us to tend bar at one point!



There were goofy touches for pure entertainment.


Many different rooms with different purposes.


These giant barrels are where they make their sours.


Jeff likes sours, so this was a favorite for him on the tour. (Kathy, being gluten free, was given Glutiny beer samples all through the tour. Nice touch, New Belgium!)


This was the first time I had ever tried a sour beer. Guess what I thought of it? (Andy got to finish my sample.)


Kathy is hilarious. She noticed this barrel had a particularly funny sign, but felt it was missing the "F."



The bottling line. Brings back Laverne & Shirley memories, and if you don't know who that is, don't tell me!



When you finish the tour, you have the option of going down a tornado slide back to the tasting room/bar where the tour began. Heck yes, we did! There goes Andy!

It was a fun day, and I would definitely recommend the tour to beer enthusiasts. They do a great job and make it entertaining.

We headed back to our campsite to enjoy the evening, and the next day we went to Rocky Mountain National Park, but more on that in my next post.

Happy camping!


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