Beer and Beer and Beer and Chocolate

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday I had a very bad day, but in the evening Travalon and I went to Hi-Way Harry’s in Johnson Creek to meet his nephew (the best man at our wedding), and wow is that place ever swanky! It is totally worth the drive, with a waterfall inside and really good food at a reasonable price.

Saturday Travalon and I dove into Craft Beer Week, which is more like ten days long. We went to lunch at Athens Gyros with Rich Bonomo, and they are participating so I got a stamp in my beer passport. Travalon and I went to Bierock and tried several very tasty beers, as well as getting stamps in our passports. Tiffy was going to come up, but she had a cold, and it snowed, though not as hard as we had feared, so she stayed home. Travalon and Rich had colds too – I don’t know how I have managed to avoid one so far! Travalon dropped me off at a baroque concert featuring music of Telemann, Boismortier, Purcell’s kid brother Daniel, and a bunch of composers I had never heard of. (On Wednesday there was another free Just Bach concert, and when I saw the Orchestral Suite in B Minor on the program, I could immediately hear the ecstatic flute line of the second movement in my head.) Both the Just Bach concert and the one on Saturday night featured flutes. After the concert, I walked over to the Blue Moon to join Travalon for Sour Beer Night and another stamp. We got into a conversation with a couple of guys at the bar, so that was fun.

Yesterday Travalon went to the church close by for Mass, but I had to go to our usual parish to see the Married B-Boy’s and Mo-Girl’s daughter receive her first communion, and then some of us went to brunch at Rockhound because – you guessed it – I could get another stamp. In the early afternoon there was a party for the little girl, then Travalon and I went to Funk Factory for a five-course chocolate and beer pairing, and that was so delicious! We had a beer that tasted like jasmine, one that tasted like a Riesling, one that tasted like a fudgesicle, one that tasted like a gin and tonic, and one that tasted like a peach cobbler. It was a ticketed event, and I had thought it would be sold out, but during intermission of the concert the night before, I got a notice that tickets were still available. In fact, they only sold half as many as they had available, so I hope they don’t consider the event a failure. I thought it was a great success!

Famous Hat