A Day in Fort Collins

 Fort Collins, CO

I love a good plaque especially if it has a map on it

Road Trip to Fort Collins with friends

This morning we got up and made coffee and then hit the road at 8am.  We were heading to Fort Collins with our friends Gene, Brandon, and Matt.  Today our Stow and Go seats in the Dodge Grand Caravan came in handy.  The seats in our van fold into the floor.  So far this trip the seats have been stowed for the most part.  This morning I cleaned out the van and put the seats up because we were having company!  We picked up Gene, Brandon, and Matt and headed north to Fort Collins.  Our first stop was for breakfast pastries at Moxie Bread Co in downtown Louisville, CO.  The pastries were great and downtown Louisville seemed very cool.  There is a great pinball arcade there that we didn't have time to visit.  After having a nice morning snack we hit the road again ending up in downtown Fort Collins, CO.  We found parking (only $1 an hour) and settled in for a day of adventure.  Brandon was our guide because he went to college in Fort Collins.  

A cool corner in downtown Louisville

Moxie Bread Co

I got the Pecan Cinnamon Roll

It was delicious 

Murals just outside the Parking Garage

Pinball!  We will be back!

Downtown Fort Collins has a really cute pedestrian square with flowers and fountains and no cars!

A photo of a formerly mentioned fountains

We went in Trible Court to look for some locally produced arts and crafts.  We got some greeting cards.

Pinball Jones opened at Noon so we went in to see what they had to offer. It turns out they had 30+ Pinball Machines and about 15 arcade machines all set to Free Play if you paid a $5 entry fee so that is what we did. The proprietor / bartender was very nice and said multiple times that we were allowed to come and go all day until 10pm with our $5 purchase.  We stayed for about an hour and were able to play some great machines including The Big Lebowski, which is pretty rare.  We have only played it one time before.  

You can see Donna was excited by the Adams Family Pinball machine as we entered (this photo was not staged)

We also love Theater of Magic and The Sopranos.  They remind us of playing in our league at Five 10 Pizza in Oakland

Sometimes there's a pinball machine...

This was my first time playing The Shadow.  It was great!

Stranger Things was really fun too

They had and Electromechanical Pong Machine that was awesome

This machine was fun but had a weird theme.  

Elvira!  She appears in my blog here too!

We pretty much had the place to ourselves

Here is the Pong in action!

We had lunch at The Welsh Rabbit Cheese Bistro.  They had a great selection of meats and cheeses that they used in sandwiches and salads.  It was a really nice place to have a bite and sit and talk.  Even though it was a national holiday, Juneteenth, downtown wasn't overly crowded.  

After lunch we walked to Old Elk Distillery.  Brandon collects Whiskey and wanted to see what they had to offer.  They had reasonably priced 1/2oz pours so we were able to sample some of what they had to offer.  Brandon ended up buying a great Rye Whiskey that will fit nicely in his Whiskey Collection.

On the way back to the arcade we stopped by Crooked Stave Brewing.  It was near a container park that had some interesting things going on. Crooked Stave specialized in sour beers and they had some really great beers to try.  We hung out there for a bit and then headed back to the arcade for more pinball action.

I had a very refreshing Gin and Tonic at Old Elk

One of many ice cream shops in Fort Collins

The container park

My tiny beer at Crooked Stave

Mando!

The 2nd pinball featuring Jeff Bridges today!

After pinball we walked to Walrus Ice Cream. They are known for having a Joke Flavor of the Day.  Today's joke flavor was Dad B.O.D.  Brandon asked what was in Dad B.O.D. and the ice cream guy said, "I can't tell you but you can have a taste".  We asked for 3 tastes and tried to figure out what was in it.  Brandon guessed the B which was Broccoli, I guessed the O which was onion, and no one guessed the D which was Dill Pickle.  It wasn't as terrible as it sounds but it also wasn't as good as Mint and Chip which was my flavor of the day. 

It was 7pm before we knew it and we needed to get back to Francis so we took a great selfie and headed back.  It was a fantastic day.  Fort Collins was another surprise that was way better than we expected.  I guess I didn't have any expectations other than the fact that it was a new county for us. We are so glad we were able to spend the day there with great friends and with Brandon as a great guide.

We are a good looking group!

Before

After!  Larimer County really ties the state together!  Colorado is 57.8% complete!  We will get 3 more counties on the way out next week.

Want to see what we did yesterday?  Click here if the answer is yes.