Golden, CO - Our Last Rainy Day

Our initial plan was to go for a hike in one of the beautiful regional parks, but the fog was so thick this morning we had to use windshield wipers. Since it appeared it was going to remain foggy and rainy, we decided to hit some museums.
The first was the Colorado Railroad Museum. They had over 60 engines and cars outside. They had both the narrow gauge and standard, since they needed the narrow gauge cars to head west into the canyons and over the mountains, and the standard gauge cars headed east over the plains. As the one volunteer mentioned, "99 9/10 of the workers there are volunteers". Which is really impressive since they are working to restore these engines and cars into working condition.
Some you could board and walk around inside
Some were restored, even down to the fabrics
The roundhouse is functional. Did you know that it only takes one person to move the roundhouse? Even with an engine on it!
This engine was the last of the mega-steam engines. As you can see, the wheels alone are taller than me.
This was a very interesting museum and took us quite a bit of time to get through. Worth a visit for anyone interested in trains, model trains, or the history of the railway in Colorado.


Our second "tour" of the day wasn't a museum, actually, it was the Coors Brewery. After all of these days of smelling the wort throughout town, we finally got to go in for the tour. It was an interesting tour. I liked seeing the indoor fields of germinating barley which were five feet deep. I also liked the fact that the Coors train comes into the building itself. The rags-to-riches story of Adolf Coors was dampened by the fact that Adolf passed away during the prohibition years and he never saw his dream fulfilled. Coors is still run by the Coors family, though. We also liked the three free samples of beer. We tried (& liked) the new Zima XXX flavored malt beverages. Great for the heat of South Florida. I tried the Green Apple, while Andy tried the Hard Orange Slushie.