As I was in fencing tournaments on both Saturday and Sunday, I had to behave myself and could not explore as vigorously as I would have liked but did get a chance to visit a few places.
The tournaments were held at the Broadmoor, a 5 star hotel laying at the base of the mountains. It is a huge, beautiful complex and, with a thousand fencers registered, we took up three large halls. Attached to the end of the Event Centre Complex was an authentic English pub called the Golden Bee.
It was a great place to drop into after a an exhausting day on the fencing piste (strip). Although many of the dishes seemed pricey, I did have a great bowl of chili for $6 on Friday and an excellent steak and mushroom pie after my elimination from the Sunday event. Among the many imported draughts, they also had taps for two New Belgium products, a honey wheat beer and their signature beer called Fat Tire. The honey wheat was OK but I loved the Fat Tire, which is a Belgium Amber Ale, crisp tasting and refreshing.

I had great fish and chips along with a sampling of their wares. My first taste was a cask Phantom IPA. It was wonderfully smooth with a very pleasant bitterness. It was a beer that I could easily had more of but I did want to sample.
My final destination of the weekend was a downtown honkytonk called Cowboys. It was huge! There were 2 bars on the main floor and another 2 bars upstairs on the ring that opened around the large dance floor below.
I ordered a New Belgium (of course) wheat beer. It was quite nice. Problem is I couldn't have just one. It was 2-for-1 until 8pm so I had to have two. The server did wait until I finished my first before pouring the second. It was a nice crisp tasting beer, which I quite enjoyed, especially considering I only had to pay $5.25 for both of them.
I found the people very friendly, helpful and warm. It would be a great place to go hiking, exploring the 300 foot sandstone spires in the Garden of the Gods. I think spending a day taking the cog railway up to the top of Pikes Peak would be a breathtaking trip.
It would be a place that I think would be great to visit and explore in the summer. My mini-vacation there had more to do with hitting people with my trusty sabre and preventing them from doing the same to me, than in being a tourist.
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