Day 40-42 – Good times in Fort Collins, CO – April 2nd – April 4th, 2011

Rose has a good friend Kelley that was born and raised in Fort Collins Colorado, so we headed there to check out the town and visit with her.  Fort Collins is known to have one of the highest microbrews / capita in the country, so it’s no coincidence that Kelley works for O’Dells brewery the 2^nd largest in town (after New Belgium).  We headed straight to Odell’s to meet up with Kelley before she was done work.  We both had a sampler tray of their beers, we were then treated to a personal tour of the brewery.  One of the most impressive features is how they are very environmentally conscious and involved in the community.  Each month the proceeds raised from the tasting room go to a different local charity.  We even met the brew master, Joe, who was busy at work late on a Friday night.  He was excited about our trip and was enthusiastic when we told him we were interested in moving to Colorado one day.  We spent the evening hitting up some of Ft. Collin’s finest dive bars including the Tap Room, and Trail Head, with $5 pitchers of PBR.  Saturday the weather was beautiful, high of 78F, so I headed out for a run and ended going 16 miles along the Poudre River trail, I ran until I ran out of trail and then found a gas station for a drink and ran back.  It was great, scenery was beautiful, tons of people were out.  That afternoon we visited the famous New Belgium Brewery best known for Fat Tire, Arrowhead, and Mighty Arrow Beers.  Saturday night after filling ourselves at the Big City Burrito we headed down to Denver for a birthday celebration at a bar followed up by Salsa dancing,  Sunday was much more relaxed, but we did manage to visit the Swetsville Zoo, an odd collection of dinosaurs and other creatures fabricated from old car parts and other junk. 

Fort Collins is  great town, with everyone riding bikes around, and a very walkable city, definitely one of my favourites in Colorado.  The only downside is that it’s relatively far from most of the mountains and ski resorts, but it’s close to Rocky Mountain National park.

Photo album:  FTF Day 40-42 - Fort Collins, CO