Trolley

Hey all -- it's been awhile, but I just thought I'd throw up some pictures from last weekend. Saturday we went to Broomfield, CO for a trip to the bank (closest location for me) and later ended up at their shopping mall, Flatiron Crossing. As I told my sister, I thought it was funny that one of the anchor stores was a sporting goods store (Welcome to Colorado!) but overall it was a nice mall. We ate dinner at CPK, which I was nostalgic for because I used to go a lot with my mom.

Sunday was an important local tradition, the Colorado Brewers' Festival. Held in Downtown Fort Collins, this was its 18th year running. My parents will probably scold me for writing about beer again ("not another beer story!") but it's weird because beer really IS just a bigger part of life here. There are a TON of local breweries (many represented at the festival in their line-up of 32 companies), and I swear, there's beer at every event. Taste of Fort Collins? Beer tent. Tasting of restaurants at a local mall? Beer garden. 4th of July? TWO downtown beer gardens. It's kind of crazy, actually!

The festival is known for its long lines, but we went later on Sunday so it wasn't too bad. It was about a 100 degrees out, and I can't say I completely enjoyed myself, but I guess it was interesting to see. I wouldn't need to go back if I were here next year.

What I actually really liked about the day was getting there -- we took the Fort Collins trolley! This old restored trolley car runs from City Park (right next to our house) to downtown on weekends and holidays. Usually we bike to downtown, but we've wanted to check out the trolley and since it was so hot it gave us the perfect chance. It was actually really fun to ride. I couldn't believe what a nice breeze there was! Much better than you would expect for driving so slowly -- I don't know how they do it. Here are pictures of us on the trolley before it left:

The car cost $6000 when it was purchased in 1919. It was one of 4 bought by the city. At one time Fort Collins was the smallest city in the country to have a trolley, and they charged the lowest fare too (5 cents). A funny story is that the 4 cars, which weigh 8 tons each, were LOST during shipping. They showed up a few months later, and no one ever knew where they had been during that time!

I think it's great that the city put in the effort to have this historical ride. To wrap up, here are pictures of us at the park with the trolley:

This weekend so far, I've been to my first rodeo! We'll put up stories and pictures from that eventually!