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If you walk thru these doors...you'll never be the same !![/CENTER]

Enjoy!
I'll live vicariously through your visit until I'm able to go. Hopefully not too long. I just have to convince the family how important it would be.
Bruce

Thank you all for the very kind well-wishes! My family and I just got back from our Colorado trip last night. Talk about a fantastic vacation--and a lot of wonderful memories too! On Friday (July 26), our flight landed in Denver, CO, where we picked up our rental van. From there, we drove up northwest to Estes Park, CO where we stayed for two days and enjoyed the spectacular rugged beauty of the Rocky Mountain National Park. If you’ve never been there before, you certainly need to add this park to your “bucket list” of places to visit. On Sunday, July 28th, we then made our way back down to Golden, CO, where we stayed for another few days. On Monday July 29th, we stopped at a familiar place:

SPYDERCO HEADQUARTERS!



As we made our way up to the entrance at Spyderco, I felt my knees begin to wobble. This was finally going to happen! A very kind receptionist (I apologize for not being able to recall her name at this time) greeted us at the door and welcomed us to Spyderco. Trying to hide my enthusiasm, I inquired if Mr. Sal Glesser was going to be in today. The woman responded that she didn’t think Sal would be in until later in the day, but she would try to find out where he was. “I think Eric is here today,” she told me. “I’ll see if he has time to come down and talk with you.” That would be great! I replied. I then went to browse the many wonderful display cases in the Spyderco store. The woman returned a few minutes later and apologetically informed me that “Eric was tied up in meetings and probably wouldn’t be able to meet with me today.” Although I was a little disappointed, I thanked her for her efforts. I told my wife with a smile, “This gives me an excuse to come back another time to meet Sal and Eric.” As I was talking with my father-in-law by the Randall knife display case, I happened to glance up towards the back of the store. It was at that particular moment that I noticed a familiar looking figure walking into the room. The man was dressed comfortably in jeans and a button-down plaid shirt. He looked around the store and saw me. “Mike?” he asked. My legs wobbled terribly as if I were standing in a tub of Jell-O. It was Sal! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Sal introduced himself and warmly welcomed my family and me to Spyderco. After chatting with Sal for a few minutes, my wife suggested that we take a picture of us together. As we were finishing the picture, Eric walked by, smiled and said “Hello.” Sal mentioned that he and Eric were on their way to a meeting and would unfortunately have to leave. I wish to thank Sal, Eric, Christy, Rachel, and the kind receptionist for making our day at Spyderco a wonderful experience and unforgettable memory. Thank you again, Mr. Glesser and Spyderco Crew! God bless!



Here are a few more pictures of the Spyderco store for you to enjoy:

Pictures of the store:






9/11 Memorial:




Q Display:


Native Display:


...and more to follow!

Continued from above -

Of course, my visit to Spyderco also included a few goodies. I had wanted to get an orange Dragonfly since it was released, so making that decision was easy. :D

My new Dragonfly II in orange FRN (sorry for the picture quality):


I also picked up a bandana and two knife display stands (one large and one small):


Two really cool pins (Thanks Christy!! :) ):


And a large 2013 Spyderco Catalog (Thanks Rachel!! ):


I have several other pictures of our trip and Spyderco that I may share, but I should probably head over to the Picture Gallery for that. :o Stay tuned!

Holy mother of Gawd, I am super jealous! Love the pic with Sal and also the display cases. More pics!!

thanks for sharing the photos! super jealous of ur trip :spyder:

Awesome photographs of an awesome place (and people!) -- well, this proves you really went there, and then some! Thanks for letting us share it :) and especially the nice shot of Sal. (Is that some kind of a Clipit pen in his pocket? (probably just a pen) -- and I should probably know what that is around his neck, but don't.)

Q display :) I didn't know they had one. Time to plan my trip. Thanks for all the pics SpyderNut.
Chris

Congrats on the great trip! What a thrill that must have been.
Thanks for sharing your pics!

Bruce

Nice, Mike! Thanks for sharing your great story and photos.

Sal, Gail, Eric and the Spydercrew are really great folks. A lot of companies don't get the fact that *how you conduct your business* is something that can make or break a firm. Spyderco gets it. And we are the beneficiaries!

TedP

sbwings wrote:Enjoy!
I'll live vicariously through your visit until I'm able to go. Hopefully not too long. I just have to convince the family how important it would be.
Bruce

Couldn't agree with you more, Bruce! You really need to go to the SFO--just let me talk to your family for you. Maybe we can strike up a deal or something. :D

RadioactiveSpyder wrote:Holy mother of Gawd, I am super jealous! Love the pic with Sal and also the display cases. More pics!!

Thanks, RadioactiveSpyder. I appreciate that. I'll see if I can get a few more pics up soon.

Holland wrote:thanks for sharing the photos! super jealous of ur trip :spyder:

Not a problem, Holland. I really tried hard not to make you jealous. :D

DougC-3 wrote:Awesome photographs of an awesome place (and people!) -- well, this proves you really went there, and then some! Thanks for letting us share it :) and especially the nice shot of Sal. (Is that some kind of a Clipit pen in his pocket? (probably just a pen) -- and I should probably know what that is around his neck, but don't.)

Thanks, Doug. I had a heck of a good time at the SFO, to be sure. I'm not sure what the clip-like object was in Sal's pocket (I was still likely experiencing a little shell-shock at the time), but the necklace appears to be something he wears quite often. (At least, I've seen him with it in numerous photos).

boxer93 wrote:Q display :) I didn't know they had one. Time to plan my trip. Thanks for all the pics SpyderNut.
Chris

Chris! I actually thought of you when I saw the Q display! I thought, "Dang, Boxer would hit the floor if he saw this case. :D " They had some pretty neat (and super rare) Q's in that case.

phillipsted wrote:Nice, Mike! Thanks for sharing your great story and photos.

Sal, Gail, Eric and the Spydercrew are really great folks. A lot of companies don't get the fact that *how you conduct your business* is something that can make or break a firm. Spyderco gets it. And we are the beneficiaries!

TedP

Amen, Ted. It was certainly very humbling to have an opportunity to talk with "The Man" himself. :) You can certainly tell that the integrity concept is a facility-wide effort. The Spyderco Crew are as about genuine as they come, I might add. Super folks. :)

What a great story! Thank you for sharing you trip.

Thanks, Pinetreebbs. :) I could hardly wait to get home to share the good news with my Spydie-Brethren.

Here are a few more pictures from my visit:

The World Trade Center poster:


The Randall knife display. (Sorry for the fuzzy image. My hands were still shaking :o ):


A cool H1 poster:


A few really unique custom Spydies:


Al Mar tribute display:


Spyderco Salt in block of "ice:"


A one-of-a-kind Native:



Although the quality of some of my pictures is lacking (a lot), I hope you enjoyed them anyway. :)

SpyderNut wrote:Couldn't agree with you more, Bruce! You really need to go to the SFO--just let me talk to your family for you. Maybe we can strike up a deal or something. :D

Thanks Michael! We've discussed a Colorado Springs/Denver vacation in the past (my pre-Spyderco days), so getting up that way won't be too hard. The only convincing I'll need to do is scheduling a FULL day for the SFO. :D I'll let you know if I need some help then. Thanks again for sharing your experience!

Bruce

This thread has helped me decide to take a trip to the SFO this weekend. Been a month or so since my last visit hope to spot a SB endura and maybe a domino!

sbwings wrote:Thanks Michael! We've discussed a Colorado Springs/Denver vacation in the past (my pre-Spyderco days), so getting up that way won't be too hard. The only convincing I'll need to do is scheduling a FULL day for the SFO. :D I'll let you know if I need some help then. Thanks again for sharing your experience!

Bruce

Not a problem, Bruce. :) A full day at the SFO would be sweet! We were only able to stay about an hour before we had to hit the road again. Believe me, there were so many different models that I wanted to hold that it wasn't even funny. I was fortunate to hold a Ti-fluted Millie, though. :D Talk about a beauty of a knife.

Ferris Wheels wrote:This thread has helped me decide to take a trip to the SFO this weekend. Been a month or so since my last visit hope to spot a SB endura and maybe a domino!

Glad to hear it, Ferris. I'd love to have an opportunity to hold both of those knives. Be sure to take some pics of the Endura if it's in!

You got it and it looks like I might luck out with the domino as I see it just dropped today!

Ferris Wheels wrote:You got it and it looks like I might luck out with the domino as I see it just dropped today!

Nice! :D Looks like I was about one week too late with my visit, though. If you happen to purchase one, please post some pictures soon! :D