Fort Collins, CO

Itinerary

June 16 (Sat) Chicago - Denver

Flight: American Airlines Chicago –> Denver

About a 30 minute delay on the tarmac but we made most of it up in flight. Landed just a few minutes late but then, had to wait about 30 minutes to get to the gate due to personnel being pulled off the tarmac due to lightning. Once we got to the gate we were delayed almost an hour to get our checked bags due again to lightning..

Rental Car: Advatange (NEVER USE THEM). Horrible experience waiting 30 minutes after the counter to have them find the car in the lot... only 1/4 tank of gas when sheet said full...among many frustrations with this company.

Lunch: Went down to 16th street mall in downtown Denver. Weather was great, 70 and overcast so we ate outside at ________________.

It was fun to watch the people walking by. There was a Comic-Con convention so lots of people in costume for that and there was some Gay Pride thing going on too so... lots of interesting people and outfits for that.

Headed up to Fort Collins after that. Brittany was working a double shift that day so, we waited for her to get off work and met her after.

Dinner: Old Town- at Rio Grande (where Sienna, Brit’s roommate works). Had a good meal and it was great to see Brittany as it was the first time since January.

Hotel: Hilton Homewood Suites (off Harmony Rd). The suite was nice with a full kitchen, clean and very comfortable bed. We stayed the whole trip at this hotel. The free hot breakfast was better than most and we took advantage of that every morning of our stay.

June 17 (Sun) Fort Collins - Horsetooth

We met Brittany in the morning and she took us to the Horsetooth Mountain Open Space. Pretty overcast and about 70 deg so good hiking weather. She took us up a fairly steep but short hike to a nice vantage point for pictures. Nice Hike.

HorseTooth Reservoir

Brittany had to work in the afternoon so Kathryn and I just headed back to the hotel for an afternoon nap!

In the evening we again met up with Brittany. We decided it would be fun just to do a movie night with her in the hotel. So, we picked up a bunch of snacks, ordered a pizza and watched a movie thriller (Family Blood... not recommended, 2 stars). It was really nice just spending time with Brittany like old times.

June 18 (Mon) Fort Collins - CSU

Unfortunately, Brittany had to enroll in a Calculus class over the summer which has class M-F 1:30 – 2:30 so, that put a crimp on some of our activities with Brittany.

In the morning Kathryn and I headed over to campus and spent time walking around CSU enjoying another nice day (again overcast and around 70). The CSU campus is really nice with a view of the foothills to the west and lots of green. The campus is more compact than Iowa State and was easy to navigate.

Colorado State Campus

We had a casual lunch at Jason’s Deli and then headed over to Spring Canyon Park which was located at the base of the HorseTooth area. Very relaxing just hanging out and reading our books while we waited for Brit to get out of school.

Around 3:00 I dropped off Kathryn at Brit’s apartment (which is about 10 min drive West of campus). Kathryn met her roommate Sienna and had a chance to see Brit’s place (which is very nice for student housing, 4 bedrooms, Brit’s looks out the West to the mountains). Kathryn took Brittany grocery shopping (which she highly appreciated) and I headed back to Spring Canyon Park to just relax, read and even did some meditation!

When they were done shopping we went to Stuft Burgers (where Brittany works as a hostess) and had some great burgers. Unfortunately, Brittany had major studying to do to get ready for a test and had to hand in homework early as she was leaving on Wed. to go to Electric Forest in Michigan and will miss several days of school. So, she was pretty stressed out and we dropped her off early to study and do homework.

June 19 (Tue) Fort Collins - Horsetooth

We had planned to meet Brit for breakfast but, since she was cramming for her test we were on our own.

The weather again was about 70 and overcast so we headed to Horsetooth Mountain Open Space and did a really nice (and easy) hike to HorseTooth Falls. Was really nice.

Horsetooth Falls Trail

Horsetooth Lake

Then we waited for Brit to take her test and go to class. After Brit’s class we picked her up and had a late lunch back at Jason’s Deli again since Brit had never eaten there before and it is a good spot for fast casual. Unfortunately, Brit still had a ton of homework to do before she was leaving tomorrow so, we made it an early evening and dropped Brittany off to do her homework. Had lots of relaxing time to do some more reading.

June 20 (Wed) Golden - Coors Brewery, Fly Home

We had planned again to meet Brittany for breakfast but, she was up late doing homework and still had to pack and get ready for her early afternoon flight so, we just ate a late breakfast at the hotel.

Our flight was not until 5pm so we drove to Golden, CO (just West of Denver) and did the Coors factory tour. It was really well done and we both enjoyed the tour. It was a self-guided tour with a recording. The coolest parts of the tour was where you see a vast array of all the huge copper kettles, the brewing control room and other equipment. Then onto the can filling and packaging area. Here is a link MillerCoors about the tour: https://www.millercoors.com/breweries/coors-brewing-company/tours.

After the tour we decided to head to the airport early. We were a little worried that dealing with Advantage rental car was going to slow us way down. When we got to the Advantage lot we saw a huge line of people spilling all the way out the door of people waiting (my guess at least two hour wait) so we almost freaked out! Fortunately, when dropping off the car you did not have to wait in line so we hopped on the shuttle and into the airport.

Our flight home was delayed about an hour on the tarmac due to we

Summary

This was a very nice, relaxing trip. We spent some really good time with Brittany over the few days. We are getting a nice feel for Fort Collins. Both Kathryn and I really like the city and surrounding area. Time to hike and relax. All in all a very nice trip and visit with Brittany.

Denver: Pretty Cool. Fort Collins: Very Cool. Horsetooth Rec Area: Very Cool. Seeing Brittany: Very Cool. Brewary tour: Very Cool.

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