Wyoming Adventure: Denver

The last night of our Wyoming journey brought us into Denver, Colorado.  I've heard a lot about their breweries, which were abundant near our hotel.  The first thing the concierge gave us was a set of drinking coupons for a handful of the breweries when we asked about good places to eat and drink.  Not a bad start to checking out the town.

Since we were pretty much in and out of the city in less than 24 hours, we really weren't too eager to hit every brewery and all, but we did manage to eat a bit and imbibe in some local suds.

The first place we hit up was a local pizza joint called Marco's Coal-Fired Pizzeria.  The place was packed and Zagat-rated, which is surprising for a pizza place.  Although, after dining we could see why it earned such accolades.  With a bountiful selection of local craft beers and gourmet pizzas, we were in the right place.  We got down with a few Great Divide beers, some apps and tasty pies.

Coal-Fired Limoncello Chicken Wings

The Hell's Kitchen

The Toscana

A Beer

After our dinner we wandered down the street to see what kind of bar we could saddle up to.  We saw a few dives, a whiskey bar that looked like trouble and then found our spot: Scruffy Murphy's.  Ol's Scruffy's had the normal approach to an Irish-themed bar planted in the middle of a downtown area.  Although the decor was a little more authentic than normal as well as the whiskey and beer selection.  We found ourselves at the bottom of a few pints here and then headed off to find our beds.

The next day, Alison and I had plenty of time to kill since our flight didn't head back to LAX until about 7 PM.  It was time to use our drink coupons.  I have been guilty of sitting on writing this article for a while now, but from what I can remember, the breweries that really stood out to me were Great Divide and Breckenridge.  Breckenridge actually stood out the most due to the fact we had a pretty cool bartender that I got into talking shop about film and video with.  He also kept our glasses full with delicious beer selections.

So, from Utah to Idaho to Wyoming to Colorado, the trip was now complete and time to head back to sunny Los Angeles, which was nice since we were leaving Colorado in the middle of a heavy downpour.  Almost as if the heaven's were mourning the end of our vacation.

Austin Adventure

Austin, Texas is one of our favorite cities to lose ourselves in when we want to escape from all the stress and routine of our daily regimen.  There's just something about Austin that really gets us going.

Just don't ask if we go for the festivals.  We don't believe in music festivals.  We believe in enjoying music in it's natural state, not at a single location where everyone is crammed for space and everything is packaged together for you.  Do you go to the zoo and have the same feeling about the experience as you would a safari?

That being said, we love Austin because it has plenty to offer in terms of what makes us happy in life; food, music, drink and good company.  Our most recent adventure had plenty of the four, especially drink, which presented some challenges when documenting the trip.  Sometimes it's hard to take photos when you're too busy having fun.

Here's what was on our camera when we returned home:

The first restaurant we went to when we got in was Moonshine.  Here's the Beer Battered Asparagus.

Alison's Cornflake Fried Chicken Salad.  Too hungry to wait for the photo op.

Bob's Backyard Chicken Sandwich.

Look Mexico on stage at Emo's.  They were great live.  Unfortunately that was our last chance to catch a gig at Emo's since they are closing this location.

Mexican Coke time.  Why do they use cane sugar in Mexican Cokes and Corn Syrup in American ones?  Cane Sugar tastes so much better.

Al's Brisket plate at Iron Works BBQ.

Bob's Jr. Rib plate.  The regular rib plate was a lot of meat.

Nothing bets good BBQ and a cold beer.

Scott H. Biram tearing up the Continental Club.

We're directing the message to Austin.

Here's one of our favorite bartenders from this trip and one of our previous trips, Justin.  He keeps some pretty good tunes going and the Dizzy Rooster d-bag free during the day.

Bob's Chicken Fried Steak at Red's Porch.

Al couldn't wait for photos again before digging in.

Our last watering hole on the trip - The Horseshoe Lounge.

Note: One of our favorite discoveries on this trip was a house turned awesome bar called Icenhauers. There is no photographic evidence of us there because we sipped on pickle and jalepeno infused vodka cocktails all day with Rick the bartender and Matt the barback, who later took us out on the town.