Friends and Fun!

Last weekend Andy and Karri, our respective roommates from Michigan and fellow MMBers, came to town. Andy is finishing up a 10,000+ mile sightseeing drive around the country before he starts a job in the real world and Karri just took the MCAT, so it was a good time for a vacation!

We met them for lunch on Friday at Old Chicago restaurant near my work and then Whitney showed them around Fort Collins until work was over. We grilled up some burgers and played some euchre and saw Andy's pictures from his travels.

Saturday's highlight was a trip to the Anheuser-Busch brewery. It was Clydesdale Day, so we got our picture taken with one!

After a quick game of horseshoes on the lawn, it was tour time. We were taken through the facility in a guided group tour and got to see all parts of the beer-making process, from the mash cookers and brewkettles to the enormous Fermentating Cellars.















My favorite part, however, was the production room, with the can filler. The large circle in the picture below was full of cans zipping around, being filled, and topped. Each can was filled and topped automatically in under 5 seconds before being routed down the assembly line to enter the pasturizer.















At the time of the tour, the Fort Collins brewery had produced over 1 billion cans worth of beer so far this year, accounting for 1/16th of Anheuser-Busch's production. After seeing the Clydesdales again, enjoying some free samples, and playing some more lawn games, we headed back to get ready for what was a delicious dinner at Enzio's Italian Restaurant in Old Town, and more ice cream at the local favorite: Walrus.

Come back soon to read about our adventure to the great outdoors of Rocky Mountain National Park!