colorado part two (mountains!!!!!)

To be fair, I wrote this post immediately following the one about Denver and there are only two reasons I split it into two posts which are:

1. I’m incredible wordy and without intending it to everything I write gets twelve times longer than I ever expected it to be, so for the sake of the three and a half people who read my blog (one of whom being me just reliving old memories) I assumed it was a better idea not to have a trip recap the size of a literal novella. 
2. I’m typing this at work while I cover the front desk receptionist’s lunch and keeping these posts shorter makes it more viable for unknowing bosses to assume I’m writing an actual email, and not a completely unrelated to work blog post about places I wish I continued to be INSTEAD of work.

Also I’m about to post sixteen thousand pictures of mountains because it’s been almost two weeks and I’m still NOT OVER THE MOUNTAINS, folks.  Literally you’re driving and you can see them in the distant background and they’re pretty and snow covered and you’re like well this is really lovely, and then you make one hairpin right turn and suddenly there are gigantic million feet tall jagged chunks of earth on either side of you. Happened more than once, I promise you.  Which brings us to highlights of Fort Collins:

• Rocky Mountain National Park – The 8,000 texts I sent my Fort Collins host Nate gleefully proclaiming my excitement for mountains must have tipped him off that my #1 concern after many pints of craft beer was to tramp through the mountains live and in person because Friday morning he drove me all the way out to the most gorgeous national park to play in the snow with me while I flailed around excitedly and consumed an entire Ziploc baggie of walnuts (told you I was not to be trusted around trail mix).  Other highlights include stepping out of the car to an insane gust of FREEZING wind that blew gusts of equally freezing cold snow at our woefully winter-unprepared selves so violently (thanks, giant snow blower across the parking lot) that I nearly bit it before we even stepped foot on the trails, and also climbing trees on scary tall rock outcrops about a billion feet up in the mountains (if it isn’t dangerous it isn’t fun, right????)

Turned a corner, found these.

My mountain tour guide :)

Ohhhh.

Climbed some trees just hanging around overlooking this.

• Epic brunches – I don’t even have true words for the meals I consumed while I was in Fort Collins, except that they were 75% breakfast and 1,000% amazing.  Look at this nonsense:

Snooze OMG French Toast stuffed with marscapone & strawberries and eggs benny over herbed polenta, brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes.

Trout Pontchartrain, poached eggs with bearnaise sauce, grits, some sort of cajun potatoes, and a gigantic biscuit with homemade strawberry rhubarb. 
Thanks, Lucile's.

• Patio beers – IT WAS SEVENTY DEGREES.  I drank a fabulous milk stout at Odell’s, on the patio, wearing short sleeves and sunglasses.  I drank a beer the name of which I will still not say because it makes me feel like I ordered a wine spritzer but suffice to say it was delightfully summer saison with cranberries, at Coopersmiths, ALSO on the patio, ALSO wearing a t-shirt.  Remember: it’s February and I’m from Michigan. Mind blown.  Also for the record indoor beer was consumed at Equinox & Black Bottle before the trip was over, bringing the total Colorado brewery experience number to an even 10.

• New Belgium Brewery Tour – Okay I know we here in the Midwest who like to think we’re oh so exclusive with our beer and oh Fat Tire, that’s nothing special and blah blah blah, but you guys. I could write you a ten page letter on why this tour was the coolest thing ever and you should immediately change your opinions.  Let’s just discuss a few points.

1. Pre-tour we had a few samples of some frigging wonderful sour beers and I can say, 100% accurate, I promise, there is probably nothing in the world like a fresh glass of La Folie on tap at actual New Belgium.  If you could see me right now I would be holding my arms literally as far out as possible to suggest the difference between what we get in Michigan, and what you get there live and in person. Holy hot damn.
2. During the tour, which was given to us by the literally most fabulous and possibly somewhat drunk tour guide ever, we had about a million more samples, which included some help yourselves glasses of Abbey Ale, a handful of other mini-glasses full, a full can of Fat Tire, and a bottle of Slow Ride snatched right off the bottling line itself. After this tour was over I took several selfies of myself & Nate with the sign out in front of the brewery that I don’t necessarily remember, so there’s that.
3.  Peter Bouckaert, yes ACTUAL Peter Bouckaert of Rodenbach, taught me how to use the water chemistry and calcium additions to replicate the lagering process without needing an actual lager chilling equipment set up. Swooning forever.
4. There’s a curly slide at the end of the tour. Game over, your arguments lose.  (Some girl who’d been on the tour before told me to lift my feet up to go faster – yes it works, yes it’s a harrowing death spiral, and no I did NOT spill my beer.)

Ted's Beer, Transatlantic Kriek, La Folie; what a pretty beer rainbow.

All the barrels!!!

Photo op on the Slow Ride couch ;)

• This view – Because we drove maybe 15 minutes and were smack dab in the middle of this.  What a perfect lovely morning.  That’s something awfully close to perfection, nature.  Gold star.

In retrospect, my excitement over mountains has faded exactly 0%, my desire to drink more Colorado beer and eat more brunch (with a possible side of burgers and cheese plates) has been only mildly satisfied, and I enjoyed the company and the shenanigans more than a little bit, so I guess I’m going to have to go back.

colorado part one

I went on a pretty awesome trip a couple weeks ago and it’s only about now that I’ve gotten caught up enough on life again to put it into words –

A few months ago I realized few important things: #1. I somehow had acquired a steadily growing list of friends who call the Denver, Colorado area home, #2. I have not been to an NHL game at the Pepsi Center, #3. There are some really good beers coming out of that area, and #4. I’ve never actually been in the mountains.  In 2005 I went on a trip to China that involved some very harrowing bus-driving on some very narrow, very steep, very precarious Chinese roads, but I was actually marginally concerned for my life through most of that jaunt, so I don’t think I really got to take in the actual enormity and beauty of being surrounded by gigantic rock formations sticking up out of the earth.  Anyway, all these realizations turned into a whirlwind planned trip centered around what else but an Avalanche/Red Wings game.

I spent the first few days of the trip in Denver, staying with an old college friend who had to work for much of the time I was there, which gave me a lot of time to explore (and to walk multiple miles & indulge in a lot of day drinking and donuts) downtown Denver.  The first day I was there it snowed literally all day – wet, sloppy snow that soaked immediately through my inappropriately cable knit boots.  Fortunately for me, it literally ALL melted by the middle of the next day, and there were a number of Denver highlights that rendered soggy feet a small price to pay:

• Voodoo Donuts – There’s something to be said for a fritter the size of my face covered in banana, peanut butter, peanuts, and chocolate chips consumed slowly over the course of 48 hours (shoutout to college friend Nancy’s roommate for helping me consume a big chunk of this thing and therefore lessening the hatred I felt for myself when I reached the end of the world’s largest donut).

Worth the walk!

That's ONE donut in a half dozen box...

•  The Denver Beer Scene – During my day of wandering I made (accidentally) to The Cheeky Monk, which, while not being a brewery, had a ridiculously enormous selection of Belgian beers to pick from.  Since I had a bit of time to kick back and wait for Nancy to get off of work, I made friends with the bartender, who forcefed (really, I swear) me samples of all kinds of fabulous Belgian quads.  Life was truly good.  That evening we also made it to Epic, River North, Great Divide, and Wynkoop where I ate a burger I could actually not pick up even with two hands and took a picture with a giant gorilla before returning home to finish consuming above mentioned face-sized donut.

Oh, there it is!

First beer of the trip was a Kasteel Rouge. Please, more always.

St. Bernadus ABT 12

Epic!

Do you think they'd let me hug those barrels?

My lady date <3

There's a burger under this somewhere.

After I ate that burger I was sober enough to call a Lyft ride, and to do this.

• Denver City Park – Feeling slightly gross but also really awake the next morning, I crawled out of bed (couch) to watch the sun rise, at which point Nancy and I each realized each other was awake and decided to set out on a brisk morning run to get over the last twinges of hangover (and to work off the damn donut).  What I did not know was that it was going to be GORGEOUS.  I love exercise but I hate running – but if it looked like this every time I did it, I could be more often convinced.

Denver City Park after dawn.

• Blue Sushi – Shout out to literally the best vegetarian sushi roll I have EVER had.  After a quick bus ride downtown (during which I FINALLY saw mountains!!!!), I met up with Nanc and another friend for a quick lunch.  I love sushi but I feel like I always get the same things (lots and lots and l o o o o t s of raw salmon), so I decided to mix it up and get their lunch sashimi/sushi combo, which meant I DID get raw salmon, but I also got to pick a roll & I ended up going with the “Eden Roll,” which was sweet potato tempura topped with edamame hummus, a sun dried tomato, and a drizzle of olive oil.  I’m not usually an all-veggie sushi style girl, but hot damn. Hot. Damn.  (The weirdest part was it was really that little bit of olive oil that just pulled it all together into actual bliss in my mouth – never would have expected that!)

Eden indeed...

• Jagged Mountain Tequila Barrel Aged Porter – That happened.  Never would have put those flavors together.  Someone is clearly smarter at beer than me.

That Whiskey Voodoo Goat was nothing to scoff at, either.

• The Pepsi Center – First off, let me tell you something: Colorado is apparently the home of lost, misplaced, relocated Michiganders.  You know how at the Joe when there’s a Canadian team in town (especially when it’s the poor, woe begotten Maple Leafs), the crowd is literally 50/50 Wings fans & opposing team fans?  That’s how the Pepsi Center was. That’s how the arena-adjacent bar before the game was.  That’s how the streets of Denver the entire afternoon prior to the game were. Detroit jerseys EVERYWHERE, Detroit fans cheering, Detroit fans drowning out the Colorado fans, Detroit fans laughing forever when for some reason Roy thought it was the most intelligent decision to pull his goalie with 3 minutes remaining in a 1-0 game and give the Wings the opportunity to score not one but TWO empty net goals.  Thanks for the memories, Pepsi Center; you’re a beauty.

Soooo much red and white!

Detroit vs. Everybody <3

 

And then it was time to say goodbye to Denver and hop on the road (literally out of the parking structure and on the freeway in like ten minutes – you got a lot to learn, Detroit) to Fort Collins while deconstructing poor pop radio and contemplating how much beer was going to be consumed in the next 48 hours…

month-end check in!

This will be my first post since my resolution post, so I think we can see what resolution in particular I've been slacking on.  However, I've actually made some good progress in some other areas and it's been about a month, so to check in...

• Practice yoga more regularly: I've been practicing about 3 times a week! Yesterday I went a funk/soul hot vinyasa class followed by an hour and fifteen minute long yin class with massage, and all I wanted to do afterward was melt into my mat forever.  I've been making good progress with my tripod headstand & bird of paradise, and starting to work on bound headstand, so I'm feeling pretty good about this one!

•  Incorporate more strength training as well: Also doing well with this one! Making it to barbell strength class 1-2 times a week (missed a class for work last week & for a Red Wings game the night before...one more worth it than the other), and at least one barre class as well. Cutting back on cardio has actually had a good result - I've lost 7 lbs since New Years & hopefully gained some muscle, too.

Pre-barbell this morning, rocking my new hopped & bothered tank ;)

• Read 50 books: I'm on my 3rd book of the year, so I'm about on schedule - but lately I've been on a big movie watching kick (which started off with "well I think I'll watched just the first bit of this and then go to bed" and then I watched the entirety of The Imitation Game because it was positively incredible).  Gotta get back to evening reading!

• Get more done: Loving my new planner - iPhones are great, but there's something that holds me more accountable once I've put the effort in to penciling in a workout or a date, or just "get groceries tonight".  

• Write more: Weeeeell, they can't all be positive, right?  Still working on this one...

•  Run at least 6 races: The NHL All Star game is in Columbus this year (this weekend, to be exact), and despite how close that is to me, I wasn't very concerned until I saw this morning that there had been a 5k complete with NHL All Star medals!  I did, however, basically commit to the Moonlight Bootlegger 5K, so that'll be one down!

• Brew one batch a month: I started off January with a nice Belgian Quad - my biggest grain bill ever (20 lbs!), and some added currant/raisin puree just for a little bit of extra flavor.  I think I'm getting better at getting my ABV up, because I had a blow out during fermentation....high hopes for this one!  (Plus my buddy gave it the badass name, "Jean-Quad Van DAMN," so...)

Off Sides Brew Co. Glamour Shot featuring some bomb ass hop pants.

And of course, the post-brew dinner of citrus macadamia cod, lemon romano asparagus, & rosemary garlic butte roasted beets/carrots.

• Go camping for the first time ever: Plans are in the works - hoping to finalize the details during my Colorado trip that's only TWO WEEKS AWAY!!!

Overall I'd say it's not a bad start...but it's only been three weeks & there's a whole lot of 2015 left.  My mother's a CPA, so she's extra busy this time of year, and has hired me to cook a couple meals a week for her and my dad, so expect lots (more) food photos soon...

hello 2015!!

Good morning & welcome to 2015!!

The 1st of the year is always the perfect time to revisit what you've accomplished the year before.  I've never been a big resolution person, but I always try to set some new goals to keep me going through the new year - which, in the long run, are pretty similar things, but "goals" sounds so much more positive than "resolutions"! 

• Practice yoga more regularly - at least twice a week classes at Lifetime & hopefully some practice on my own as well.  I want to be able to do a legit handstand by 2016!  And besides that, I really like the mindfulness the practice brings to my life, and how it really forces me to focus on every sensation my body is experiencing at any exact moment. 

• Incorporate more strength training as well - again, barbell & barre at least once a week each.  I really want to focus on increasing my strength this year - numbers on the bars going up instead of numbers on the scale going down!  I'd also really like to keep trying NEW methods of strength training & hopefully find something new that really resonates with me.

• Read 50 books - I set this as my challenge for 2014 and I barely made it halfway - which is sad, considering I used to probably read upwards of 100 in a year!  I spent December doing a whole lot of reading while all the TV shows I watch were on holiday hiatus, and it felt awesome. Spending the last bit of the evening winding down with a book in bed has done wonders for my mental health.

• Procrastinate less - or maybe better worded, just get more done. I've actually already started this the past couple months, but I want to make better use of my time & spend more of it doing things that make my life better, even when all I really want to do is come home and collapse on my couch.  I have a lot of home and life improvements I want to get rolling on this year & I can't afford to put them off!  So many times I put off doing something that will only take me 5-10 minutes, and I want to stop doing that and just push through it, regardless of how bombed out I feel after a day of work and a workout.  I ordered myself a gorgeous (and hella pricey) Erin Condren planner, and I'm looking forward to using it to get not only more organized, but more priority & goal-oriented.

• Write more - whether it's blog posts or fiction, I've gotten SO far away from writing since graduating college, and I miss it! I want to set a goal to blog at least twice a week & hopefully go from there.

• Run at least 6 races - I got away from 5ks last year after running about a million the year before, & it's another thing I'd like to get back into. Along with this I want to try and run more period, hopefully starting with this morning.

• Brew one batch a month & keep branching out trying new things, but also try to brew some old recipes over again and gain some consistency.  I also want to seriously look into some sort of apprenticeship or volunteering at a brewery to start to learn the business on a larger scale.

• Go camping for the first time ever!!  Luckily my Colorado beer buddy has already promised to take me - just have to figure out the whens and where.

I already have so much to look forward to in the coming year - a trip to Colorado in late February, the Toast of Hockeytown with my best friend, a planned trip out to Montreal/Ottawa/Toronto in October with my OTHER best friend...about to get this party started!

Now I'm about to ring in this January 1st with a quick run to try out my new headphones, a barre class with my favorite instructor, and then a home cooked meal of cauliflower chorizo curry soup & pork loin stuffed with spinach, goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes & mushrooms. Yes, please!

goodbye, 2014

I'm not sure I've ever had a year that I was truly glad to leave behind - year by year my life has basically improved upon itself, although I am, as I've mentioned, a grossly nostalgic person, so that probably doesn't help matters either.  2014 in particular was pretty solid, though -

January was rung in at the Big House, in a blizzare, watching the Winter Classic with my (Maple Leafs fan) dad - a really incredible experience, even though I thought I'd never get warm again.

It also saw the beginning of my adventures in homebrewing.  I'll never forget spending 5-6 frigid hours in my garage that first batch, trying to chill 5 gallons of wort in a snowbank.  We've come a long way since then, from extract brewing with no worth chiller to building our very own full-on sparging system & brewing all grain from scratch recipes that have come out pretty damn good.

≈

Finally January was also the month of my first trip to Ottawa!  Being reunited with my good friend Deiss, whom I hadn't seen in basically half a decade, and meeting her incredibly generous & amazing husband Pav, skating the length of the Rideau Canal (dream fulfilled!), eating food truck pancakes, making it to the Canadian Tire Centre to see a Sens game, drinking some incredible local brews at Beyond the Pale & Brothers, and of course a morning run across the bridge to Quebec.  I've never felt so welcomed by anyone I've ever visited & my love affair with Canada was renewed again.

February was a little quieter, but I did make my annual half-naked dash through Detroit at Cupid's Undie Run with a buddy from my former life working at Tim's.

March was road trip month - drove 10 hours overnight from Detroit to Philadelphia with my best friend in the world, saw a whole bunch of really phenomenal historical sites and a Flyers game, ate a for real cheesesteak, and visited a couple quality breweries in the process.

In April I ran my first real 5k of the year - the Cocoa Classic in Detroit with another former Tims friend & a group of ladies who were down to make some awesomely inappropriate men & chocolate themed t-shirts.  It was also the month in which I saw my first Taking Back Sunday show of the year - a seriously whirlwind evening with all of my Tims boys, a whole lot of rum and cokes, some dancing, and screaming Tell All Your Friends at the top of our lungs.  The night ended kind of crazy and not on the highest note, but I can't say I regret anything.

Also in April I took a weekend trip out to Kzoo to reunite with some college friends I hadn't seen in ages & to see The National!  Later in the month there was playoff hockey with my two favorite boys in the world & a whole lot of SpaceTeam in very public bars.

In May I mostly just brewed beer & cooked a lot of food.

June started out with a visit from one of my super old friends from the internet, Skye, as well as my second 5k of the year, Mickey's Run in Windsor.  It also marked my first trip to Belle Isle since I was too tiny to remember, and finally (FINALLY!) getting to see the re-opened aquarium.

Later in June I hopped back on a plane & flew back out to Ottawa again!!  Being in Canada for Canada Day for the first time in a number of years was incredible, as was all the good food, good barbecue, and good people Pav & Deiss introduced me to.  One of the greatest vacations I've had in a long time because it involved so much just relaxing - lots of beer, lots of cribbage, and lots of lounging around enjoying good company.

In July my boys from Kzoo came back out again and we celebrated 4th of July with a bunch of sparklers, and then my birthday with a Tigers game and a fabulous dinner at Texas de Brazil where we basically ate our body weight in meat (what could be better?).  I also had the chance to meet up with another long lost college friend Jen and go out for drinks and a whole lot of reminiscing about college, writing, and our respective trips to Prague.

August started out with a Color Run with my gym buddy Emily & some of my Tims friends, and marked the first 5k I've ran in a long time that I legitimately felt really awesome the whole way through.  Of course stupid me didn't time myself, so I have no idea if I PR'd or not...  It was also the month that I finally at long last got my Canadian citizenship certificate in the mail - can't even explain the sounds that came from me when I opened that letter. It sounds silly, but my Canadian heritage means so much to me :)

My best friend's birthday is in September, so I (and a handful of other friends) had the honor to take her to Grand Rapids to see Taking Back Sunday / The Used as well as Frank Iero's band.  Could not have been a more perfect night & I was so happy to give her an amazing birthday.  Also in September I got my hardwood floors installed!!  The month closed out with another trip to Kzoo and a mini brewery tour that took us out to 3 Floyd's, Greenbush, Tapistry & Pleasant House.

In October I made a trip up to Upper Lower Michigan to see my family in Cheboygan and one of my hockey blog friends from back in the day, Cat.  We got to experience super authentic Polish Food at Legs Inn and all you can eat literally everything at the Dam Site Inn, as well as troll around Mackinac and Petoskey & hit up Leo's for all the whiskey sours and bar popcorn in the world.  Then I took my Kzoo boys out to Frankenmuth (they'd never been!) & a Lions game!  Also hockey was back!

The biggest highlight of October though was Cask Days in Toronto - a weekend trip up with my dad, during which we met up with all my Ottawa friends, tasted some seriously incredible beers, ate a whole lot of cheap shawarma, went shopping at ZARA(!!!!), hit up Bellwoods, and then went out to Collingwood to see my Canadian grandma.

In November I finished putting together my studio - added mirrors & a mounted TV!  Also hosted my annual Friendsgiving party - this year we even themed it so that we all had an excuse to dress up fancy & celebrate.  The sheer amount of food and beer consumed still hurts me to think of.  I got to spend some time with a college friend I hadn't seen in a few years, too, which really made the holiday special.  Also my gym buddy Emily & her husband took me to the Wing season ticket holder open house, which was a pretty cool (free!) opportunity...

Finally, in December I went tree-shopping with my wifey, made it to practically every Red Wings home game for about 3 weeks straight, took my papa to see the Leafs game (which they won, AGAIN), cooked a thousand cheesecakes, sampled some more beers, made an entire Christmas dinner, had Christmas with my family and my wifey's family (and got seriously the best presents from my best friend <3), made out like crazy on Christmas day, and in one of the most fun nights of the whole year, got to meet up a couple times with my beer pen pal Nate (an aquaintance from college who I reunited with via Facebook thanks to my 2013 hop harvest.....no joke), drink a whole lot of awesome craft beer, eat sushi, and plan about five thousand trips we're about to go on in the future.

All in all.........I'm ready to make 2015 a seriously incredible year on all counts, but 2014, you were pretty damn all right.