Westward Bound!

Remember those days of road trips with the family? The days where you had to draw a diving line down the middle of the two seats in the car so your brother couldn't encroach in your territory. The days where, when misbehaving, the parents would threaten, "If you don't knock that off, we are going to turn this car right around!" The days where you would play Mad Libs, made up alphabet games, and the license plate game to stay occupied. Yes, I had plenty of those road trips as a child.

There's something to be said about taking a road trip. I think that it allows a certain degree of spontaneity, flexibility, and freedom. While planes can certainly get you from Point A to Point B quickly, road trips allow you to take in all of the scenery and nuances that cannot be witnesses from 25,000 feet above the ground. Granted, in the case of taking Iowa to Nebraska to Colorado, you're not necessarily in for an overly exciting ride; however, it gives you an appreciation for the drastic landscape changes that occur in a three state stretch.

Iowa and Nebraska are less than exciting in terms of topography. The entire drive through these states have very little change in altitude and the landscape is vastly farm fields. Even these farm field ridden roads have a certain degree of charm and character. It just gets a bit redundant. That redundancy is broken once you cross over into Colorado. The vast expanse of wide open fields transitions into breathtaking views of the mountains. Traveling a little farther into Colorado, you're now surrounded by the mountains.

Traveling with our friends Phil and Abbie, Aaron and I headed out to Breckenridge, Colorado to do a spring ski trip. After 19 hours in the car, 30+ hours of no sleep, and countless rounds of snacks, we arrived to Breckenridge and promptly made our way over to the Breckenridge Brewery for some grub.

What struck me upon entering the brewery was the eclectic style of this resort village. While the buildings themselves obviously adhere to some form of design guidelines, the personality of personal style shines through. The style runs the gamut from the "I just got done with a run look" to the ski bum look to more eccentric, but fitting, look. The bar at the brewery was adorned with this eclectic collection.