Chair Garden in Central City.

accompied plaque reads:

Chair Garden: this Chair is a replica of the hickory chairs which were placed in the opera house in 1932. These Chairs were in use until 1999 when new seating was installed.

The Plaques on the wall recognize the major donors to the chair campaign. these generous patrons made the new chairs possible.

Central City

I took a week off from work and did small adventures around Colorado. Central City was one of them. Mom was a true sport since she not only drove in horrible weather but also followed me around with an umbrella so I could get the shots. We took the Teller Hotel and Opera House tour. I loved the whole thing to Teller being the best hotel this side of the Mississippi in the 30's and that President Grant almost, but didn't stay there even though the redecorated a room for him and created a walk way of silver that he ended up not using. In the Teller Hotel, there is this bar that a painter painted a face of a girl on the floor. There is a tale about how this old man painted it to pay for beer and ended up having a heart attack and dying right after he finished. This of course wasn't true. Apparently, an artist was hired to paint the bar, but was going to be fire-- so out of out of spite he painted the face as graffiti and the building owners left it.
The following weeks photos will be my favorites from Central City. On a side note, I decided that over cast days are the best for photographing.

For more information about the Opera House click here.

Buffalo Bill's Museum & Grave, Golden

Location: Take I-70 west to Exit 256 (marked Buffalo Bill Grave), then follow the signs. or take 6th Avenue West to Golden and turn left onto the Lariat Trail (19th street). Follow the scenic winding road to the top of the mountain.

Cost: $3 per grow up (cheaper for children and seniors).

It's a good price for this little museum. You watch a 30 minute film about the life and death of Buffalo Bill. and then they have a good hallway for a timeline of his life, a whole section of the Wild West Show, a small corner for Sitting Bull information, and an area for Native American lifestyle. They also had a few interactive area's for kids to play to make it a little more interesting to them. The two surprising information that I learn was a) Buffalo Bill was a poor business man with many great ideas-- he just didn't know how to get them going and he ended up in debt for majority of his adult life. b)We had to fight for his body. A town in WY named Cody was founded by him and they believed the body should be buried there and Buffalo Bill's hometown in KS thought likewise. The city of Denver actually hired a tank to watch the grave yard until the cemented it when his wife died and was buried with him. there was a plan to build a large building over/around the grave with a library about the wild west and other things; however, not enough money was donated and they did without.

They also had a large tourist shop full of wonders that any six year old would love. So if your family likes history, I think this would be a good spot. You can also hike up to the grave and place coins on it; however, we didn't do it since the weather was turning. This is a good little detour if you're in the area.

Coors Brewery in Golden

I haven't visited Golden since my childhood doctor check-ups. So lets just say my memory of the place was very limited. I found the visitor parking lot for the Coors' tours a good 45 minutes before the meeting time with my coworkers. So I drove around this historic and cute town. Many of the buildings downtown are (or fashioned) to look like late nineteenth century architecture. The streets are narrow and the cyclist were out in force which made the drive a little stressful. But the town is beautiful and I'm looking forward to more Golden adventures the future.

Coors trip with the coworkers

The Coors' tour starts in the guest parking lot on 13th and Ford. From there a shuttle will pick patrons up and do a quick couple block tour of the town pointing out historical buildings.

One of my coworker's husband works at the brewery so we had our own little tour guide-- who really knew his stuff. We did the free tour--which is accompanied with an audio player that is easy to follow/use. At the door they scan in your ID and print of a wrist band with your name on it-- used for your three free drinks at the end. Coors offers another tour (the VIP tour) where you get orange vests and hard hat and you actually get to step on the floor with a personal tour guide.

Here are some facts about Coors:

• The Coors' Brewery was found in 1873 by Adolph Coors.

To date, Golden is the largest single-site brewery and is one of the only sites who malts their own grain and makes their aluminum cans on site.

Some Coors brands are- Blue Moon, Keystone Light, Killian's, and Zima.

Molson isn't created by Coors; however, Coors has a deal with Molson that Coors will distribute Molson in USA and Molson with distribute Coors in Canada.

Golden was picked for the brewery's site, because the most important ingredient in beer is water, and the water in the Rocky Mountains is superb.

Coors gained popularity during WWII because many of the solider did basic training near by and Coors provided them with beer. However, at that time Coors wasn't national yet so many of the soldiers went back home and couldn't get their new favorite beer.

• Coors and Miller merged together in 2008 the company is official known as MillerCoors.

Coors survived Prohibition by selling soda, makings of milkshakes, and other non-alcoholic drinks.

Coors invented the aluminum can (the cans before it changed the taste of the beer) and also start the recycling trend in the late 50's.

It takes approx. 55 days from start to finish to produce beer.

Beer has two fermenting stages.

Copper is used for the kettles because it doesn't throw off the beer's taste.

Coors creates it's own energy through a generator run off of water.

Coors recycles most of their materials. For example, used grain is reused in cattle feed.

Beer is like wine in the sense that light and heat ruins the quality.

train tracks are built around the plant so that trains can haul the beer.

Another thing that makes Coors remarkable is they actively seek out veterans to work for them. Roughly 25% of Coors working forces has served in the arm services at one time or another. Coors also is the only cooperation that has a memorial for all five arm services.

Overall, Coors Brewery is a fun and informative experience. The tour feels short (but that might be the group I was with wasn't really into listening to the whole audio player and just asked questions to our Coors worker that was with us. Aka they were ready to drink). And if you are planning on going out of your way to Golden you should plan on a couple other activities to fill the rest of the day. You definitely can't beat the price of free-- especially three free beers at the end, which can make anyone who appreciates beer very happy. The gift shop was well stocked and had items at an reasonable price. Although I don't know why you would bring children to this, it is family friendly with videos, hands on displays, and easy to follow path. Also at the end where the grow ups can get free beer they also have non-alcoholic drinks of water, soda, and lemonade. However, I think it would be hard for most children to get excited about and/or interested in this type of outting.