Colorado is a popular enough place that it's not difficult to find friends who are eager to come out for a visit. I’ve been sort of online pen pals with a guy from New Jersey named Brian for about four years now. Although he lives in northern New Jersey and I was based for several years (when not traveling) in Central New Jersey, we never met in person. Brian’s not too happy with his job situation and some other aspects of his life and is thinking about making a change in locale. One of the cities he’s considering as a possibility is Denver, so invited him to come for several days to check it out. That gives me the opportunity to play tour guide, one of my favorite roles.

So what do you show someone of your city to prove to them that it’s the best place to live in the country and he should really move here? Well, I had a commitment on Friday after picking Brian up at the airport, so I sent him downtown on his own on the light rail to explore the city on his own but gave him some recommendations . We met up in the evening for dinner and a bit of barhopping.

Brian wanted to go to a Rockies game at Coors Field, so I arranged tickets for Saturday afternoon’s game, joined by two of my friends both named Justin. Ah, and then more of the partying and nightlife in Lower Downtown Denver. Brian’s heard my stories over the last eight months or so about Beer Bust at the Denver Wrangler bar, and never really believed that a place could really do four hours of unlimited draft beer for $8 on Sundays from 4:00 to 8:00 P.M. Yes, it is true, and I had to prove it to him. Well, we planned it out well to take the light rail into the city so as not to be limited in how much we (I) could enjoy myself (consume).

When someone wants to see some of Colorado but has a limited amount of time to see things outside the city, in Brian’s case one day, I struggle to come up with a good itinerary to give them a taste of the state or at least of the Front Range region. I picked a loop drive to Boulder to NCAR and the base of the Flatirons, then up Boulder Canyon to Nederland, and south to the old Blackhawk and Central City goldmining towns that since 1993 have become mini Vegas gambling meccas, and finally to Golden and Red Rocks with its famous amphitheater built into sandstone rock formations in the Foothills. I’m not sure if I convinced Brian to move to Denver, but he definitely appeared to have a blast over the Memorial Day weekend.