The Summer of Cerveza Sundays: Saturday Edition, Dodgers vs. Giants

The Sunday Night Baseball game - Rangers vs Orioles - didn't sound all that interesting and, as I've mentioned before, the actual telecast fucking sucks compared to how great it was for 30 years. 

But Friday at 5:15 was a beauty of a game: Dodgers vs. Giants. So I decided to watch that instead. (Hell, last weekend I drank Coors Light and watched USA soccer instead of baseball.) 

The scoring:

1: BAD. I didn't finish.

2: MEH. Probably not something I would ever get again.

3. GOOD. Would order if my only other choices are IPAs. 

4. VERY GOOD. Would happily drink any time. 

5. GREAT. Great. 

CERVEZERIA COLORADO QUE BUENA LIME LAGER: 2

Somewhat refreshing on a muggy day but too heavy on the lime flavor - it tastes like lime concentrate - and too salty. If I was only going to drink one beer, I could see this being very enjoyable, but when do I ever drink just one beer?

CROOKED STAVE MEXICAN LAGER: 4

Much more restrained use of lime and salt. I don’t think I would ever give a Mexican lager with lime and salt a 5 on my scale, but this is as close as one can ever get. Also, how great is this label? The graphics, the colors, and the logo of the sun over the Rockies.

DEEP ELLUM BREWING CADILLAC BANDITO: 2

Another one too heavy with the salt and lime, and way too sweet. I did not intend to grab three lagers in a row with salt and lime, but, whatever. I hope the next one does not contain either. 

BIG COUNTRY MEXICAN STYLE LAGER: 3

Well, this one doesn't contain lime and salt, but it's also too sweet. It tastes too much like a wheat beer. It reminds me of those sweet, fruit-flavored lagers that taste good on first sip but by the end of the pint you don't ever want another - all you want is a nap. 

BELCHING BEAVER BUENOS TIEMPOS MEXICAN-STYLE LAGER: 4

This was the best of the evening. It has a really nice balance. Not crisp enough to earn a 5, but I would have no problem drinking a dozen of these on a hot day. 

ALESMITH BREWING CLASSICO MEXICAN LAGER: 4

I definitely finished off this tasting better than I started it. This is very refreshing, but not what I associate with a classic Mexican lager. It is malt-forward, which I love, but just a little too heavy to earn the 5 rating. When I'm drinking a Mexican lager, I want to feel like 

While I was watching baseball and drinking beer, I also smoked turkey chorizo meatballs. After the game, I made a lavash pizza with them, as well as some roasted peppers and green onion.

96º and Snow on the Mountains

Wanna Go Where The Sweetwater Is Wanna Go Where The Air Is Pure

You Know Where

Somewhere Out In America It's Starting To Rain

I'm gonna take a couple of days off from blogging. 

I know this photo will make one of you happy and the title, another. 

The Summer of Cerveza Sundays, Special Edition: The Dark Horse

Unique does not mean different. 

It does not mean unusual. 

It does not mean rare. 

It means one of a kind. It means unlike anything else. 

The Dark Horse is unique. 

And, as disappointing as it is unsurprising in 2024, The Dark Horse is endangered. 

I will tell you what developers want to put up in its place, but I suspect you already know before I write it: a mixed-use development. 

This is what The Pony looks like: 

This is what developers want to put up in its place: 

I am reminded once again of the closing lines of Bill Bryson's memoir of growing up in the middle of America in the middle of the American Century: 

"Imagine having a city full of things that no other city had. What a wonderful world that would be. What a wonderful world it was. We won't see its like again, I'm afraid."

Boulder has had something for 49 years that no other city has. 

Soon, it will have a mixed-use development that literally hundreds of other cities have. 

I could go on but will not. I will merely point out that one of these trips will likely be the last time I ever visit my favorite bar to which I have ever been in this world. 

And I have been to a lot. 

But that will be then and this is now. And now is the first Sunday of summer so we shall turn this into a celebration of the now, rather than a dirge for what will likely come. 

WIBBY BREWING "LOCO LAWGER": 5

A wonderful, refreshing Mexican lager. Not trying to be anything more than that, and succeeding perfectly. 

COORS LIGHT: 6

It's not a Mexican lager. I don't care. My blog, my rules. 

I hope this isn't my last trip to the Pony, but who knows? The future is promised to no one. Not me, not you, and not the greatest bar to which I have ever been. 

When Was The Last Time You Did Something For The First Time?

Did you ever have a moment of self-realization that made you stop and say “Wait… that can’t possibly be right… can it?” 

I was thinking about getting away for a night, maybe two, and something occurred to me: 

I have never been in Colorado in June. 

At first, this seemed inconceivable. So I started a mental rundown of my experiences:

My first Colorado visit was in August 1988 (1). I stayed at the legendary Brown Palace in Denver with my mother, grandmother, and brother. We got all dressed up to eat in the hotel’s formal restaurant, but nothing looked good to me or my brother, so we went out for Japanese food because, even then, I freaking loved Asian food. 

I would not visit the state again until October of 1996 (2) - spending a long weekend with my friend Erik and my cousin Buckley. 

I visited in February 1998 (3) on the first of the road trips that defined my misspent youth between the ages of 19 and 24. 

That trip took me as far as Boston; I returned to Colorado (4) on my way back in March. 

One year later, another road trip in March of 1999 (5) which caused Buckley to say “Why don’t you just move here? I know you will one day; why not now?”

So four months later, in July of ’99 (6), I did just that. 

And I moved back to California in May of 2000. (I left the state quite a few time while living there, but am not counting any of my returns as “visiting” Colorado, as that was my home at that point.)

More road trips: 

April 2001, during college spring break (7). 

Two weeks later I returned with my friend Ben (8), who was considering moving there. (Yes… two road trips from Pasadena to Colorado in a three-week span. My God, youth is wasted on the young.) 

July 2002 (9), when my friend Tom and I drove around the country (and visited Ben the night he met the woman who, 22 years later, is his wife). 

August 2005 (10) when I drove my then-friend Min to Minneapolis and we spent the night in Denver.

August 2006 (11), when my then-girlfriend Ashley and I were on vacation in New York City and decided to rent a car and drive back rather than fly; we spent one night in the Eastern Plains of Colorado and one night in Denver. 

I would not visit Colorado again for more than 12 years. 

In December of 2018 (12), Christmas Day, I drove my dying brother from our parents’ house in Santa Fe to his fiancé’s sister’s house in Fort Collins and then spent three nights in downtown Denver. 

July, 2019 (13), I rented a cabin for three days on a river in the southern end of the state and unplugged from the world. 

August, 2019 (14), I went to a Minor League Baseball game in Colorado Springs. 

November, 2019 (15), I felt a need to pilgrimage to Boulder after having a dream about Buckley, Erik, and Travis, all dead now.  

February 2020 (16), I visited my friend Miriam in Longmont. 

September, 2020 (17), Miriam and I spent the weekend doing pub crawls in Boulder. 

April 2021 (18), I took my first paycheck in more than a year (pandemic, you know?) and went to Boulder to buy beer. 

January, 2022 (19), I went to Boulder by myself for Wild Card Weekend. 

May 2022 (20), my then-girlfriend Tricia and I went to Durango for two days to get away from the Santa Fe-adjacent wildfires, and so I could visit Erik’s grave.

September, 2022 (21), I visited Boulder and drove down the San Luis Valley on the first weekend of autumn.

November, 2023 (22), my friend Monica and I went to Boulder; her first time. 

May 2024 (23), I visited Durango with my friend Olivia. 

So there you have it: A history of my time in Colorado. 23 trips - TWENTY-THREE! - none of which were in June, and an 11-month period in which the only month I did not live there was June. 

That’s kind of crazy. 

I love the start of the summer and the long days, and I have never once been in Colorado - the "roof of America," as Kerouac called it - in June. 

It’s time to remedy that. 

Then, of course, comes the question of what to do. 

On one hand, I have done Boulder so many times in the last few years, including just 7 months ago. I do not feel the need to do it again. Especially when there are a few places in the state to which I have never been that I would like to go. 

On the other hand… how could I not visit the Dark Horse a couple of days after the summer solstice? Sunday Night Baseball at The Pony for the first time in a quarter-century? 

So I plan to spend just one night in Boulder and then head somewhere I have never been in 23 - er, make that 24 - trips to Colorado. 

Stay tuned. 

Cholula Chili Garlic Taco Seasoning Mix

 

Great on its own but in one of those Mexican Street Corn taco shells... fantastic. 

Sour Patch Kid Oreos

 

To be honest, these were better than I expected them to be. 

But still kind of weird.