It was off to Boulder with Jess driving us this morning for brunch with Brandi at 'Snooze' a popular American diner restaurant. It was perhaps a 45min drive, and then we discovered also a 45-60 min wait for a table. Having met Brandi we decided to go to the tea house nearby which was made up of pieces from Boulder's sister city in Tajikistan. All the tea's were fragrant & delicious plus the surroundings were beautifully decorated with a Silk Road/ oriental feel. In contrast, after our tea we went back to claim our table at 'Snooze' which had a modern twist on a retro 1960's feel. I ordered the pancake 'flight' which had a choice of 3 different pancakes with interesting flavours like pineapple as well as sweet potato. To help digest the food a bit we explored some of the cute local arts & craft stores along the pearl street mall after farewelling Brandi after a short but good catch up. We also saw a very funny street performer/juggler. Before long we had to head off towards Fort Collins as we were taking a 3.30 brewery tour at New Belgium Brewery. Jess's phone died so we had to guess our way out of Boulder & luckily arrived at the brewery just in time for the start of the tour. The brewery has many interesting innovations such as solar power & employee share schemes plus importantly good beers which we got to taste a few of on the tour. At the end we got to go down a tornado slide, just because! Back in the car it was just around the corner to the next Brewery O'dells where we sampled the Locals tray & just as we left to return to Denver a little bit of snow began to fall. There was no snow falling once we got back but plenty on the ground as we next walked to the Denver Botanical gardens where they had the trees covered in Xmas lights which you could look at through 3D glasses which turned the lights into Santa's, snowmen & Reindeer. It was a very festive way to end a busy day exploring snowy Denver & surrounds. Just as Canada had been, despite the snow, the cold is just very crisp & doesn't seep into you like a Melbourne winter which makes it much easier to get out & about to enjoy the beautiful outdoors.