We drove into Colorado in deep fog and spent a few hours rolling across the prairies admiring the scenery. We visited Denver briefly on our way into the state. Here the kids are at REI. Then we drove up to Ft. Collins, where #2 son will be going to school.
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Having been in Ft. Collins, Colorado, for a few days now, I can share some initial impressions.

First, it’s very beautiful. There are mountains and lovely clouds and rolling greenswards and flowers and such. There are greenways and bike trails and things, and it’s a sporty place, much as our home is an outdoor sports kind of place with beautiful scenery.

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Second, it’s a pretty town.

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You will note that Old Town Ft. Collins bears a strong resemblance to parts of Fayetteville — if you happen to know Fayetteville. Seeing this picture, you would at first think it might be the square downtown. In fact, this is the old part of Ft. Collins, now a rather touristy area. We liked it a lot.

Third, they like their beer here. Beer and bicycles are to Ft. Collins what sourdough and trolley cars are to SanFrancisco. We took the brewery tour at O’Dell and consumeda number of different craft beers, all of which were presented and discussed as though they were wines.

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Seriously, they really like their beer.

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But they are also environmentally conscious and dedicated to supporting local businesses. They have plenty of big box stores, so this might be a minority position just as it is in Fayetteville, but it looked that way everywhere we went.

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This is the restaurant where we had lunch today. I like the building a lot. It used to be a bank. This is in the Old Ft. Collins area. Other things we enjoyed there:

We also went to the Museum of Discovery, which was quite cool.

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One more place we went: the Haunted Game Cafe, where we were stared at but where they had many cool games.

So, yeah, that’s Colorado.