Friday, June 28, 2013

Founders: Bands, Bikes, and . . . Beer?

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After visiting New Holland and checking into our hotel, the second stop on our Anti-DLD Brew Tour was Founders Brewery in Grand Rapids, Michigan! Since we had gotten a fairly late start and had already made a stop for dinner, we didn’t get to Founders until fairly late. That evening they had a couple of bands playing, and it was pretty crowded inside.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

New Holland: So Many Beers, So Little Time!

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First stop on our Anti-DLD Brew Tour was New Holland Brewery in Holland, Michigan! We went that Saturday, figuring is was "sort of kind of on the way" to Grand Rapids, where we had planned to spend the night. The plan was to grab dinner and a few brews at New Holland, drive to GR to check into our hotel, then spend the evening at Founders.

We ended up getting there later than expected, which meant we missed our friends who started eating/drinking without us! Whatever. We saw them on the street as they were leaving and we were going in. We didn't want to be rushed, so we ended up finding some seats at the bar and ordering some noms, as well as a taster of every beer on the ment. Yes, this menu:

Monday, June 24, 2013

Adventures of Anti-Dark Lord Day!

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My first adventure after dropping off the face of this blog was to commiserate not being able to get tickets to Dark Lord Day at Three Floyds, only one of the greatest days of the year for a dark beer fanatic like myself.

Last year, it was sadly impossibly hard to get tickets. I had about 10 friends waiting by their computers when tickets went on sale, and only 1 friend was able to get one. They only allow you to buy two in the first place, and my friend actually didn’t get one himself; his cousin was the lucky one who scored two! So the rest of us were left with nothing but sadness, jealousy, and a free weekend!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Hey There Stranger!

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Hello again after another long hiatus! In my last entry, I was embarking on a Julie/Julia-esque project in which I had planned on try out various recipes from one of my many vegetarian cookbooks. Alas, that project got completely put aside in favor of tri and marathon training! And beer adventures!

I ended up doing a number of long-distances races last season and early this year, starting with a Half Ironman in August, a marathon in October, pacing a friend for a 100-mile run in November, and a cross country ski half marathon in February. Whew! If all that wasn’t enough, then I immediately started tri training again and completed another Half Ironman just last week! Needless to say, all that training left little time for cooking and experimenting.

The good news for all my blog readers is that I’ve decided to retire from long-distance racing for a bit to return to my *OTHER* interests.... Including martial arts, music, and of course FOOD!