Craft Beer Weekend and Kentucky Derby

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Travalon and I had a very beery one, as we wrapped up Craft Beer Week. Friday we went to a historic stadium in town for beer pong, but you were supposed to have signed up ahead of time, so we just ended up talking to a young couple we had met the night before at the bar in the grocery store. Then we were going to the grand opening of the Parched Eagle’s second location, but it was delayed, so we went to the art space next door, which was participating in the annual Art Walk. They have a small bar there called Maria’s, so we had some free food and Travalon had a drink as we sat in the rosy glow of neon lights. Most of the art they had for sale there did not appeal to me, but I did really like a painting full of brightly-colored buildings and tropical foliage. I did not buy it but am starting to regret that decision.

Saturday Travalon and I had a very relaxing morning, sitting out on our screened-in porch and having brunch at Crema Café. We took a walk all the way around the lagoon in Warner Park, then we went to the Malt House for their sour beer event, and then we went to the Big 10 pub to watch the Kentucky Derby. However, we were an hour and a half early, so we had a bite to eat and a beer, and then we drove to the Nitty Gritty in Sun Prairie so we could sit outside with Rodney the Poodle. To our surprise, nobody else was outside. Travalon was stoked to find out one horse in the Derby was named The Battle of Midway, and he should have bet on it, because it had long odds on it but came in third, so if he had bet $100, he would have won $2080. The horse I liked (because of its name) was Irish War Cry, which was right at the front of the pack for most of the race but somehow came in tenth. The horse that did win was the one favored to win, and its owner is named Bonomo! A long lost cousin of Rich’s…? We ended the evening by going to the Monona Terrace roof, and on the way we saw some teenage boy climb over a wall he wasn’t supposed to and then run into the path of a biker, who had to swerve to avoid him. I laughed about it to Travalon, and the kid heard me so as he was walking away he was hollering a bad word at me, but at first I didn’t realize it. When I finally did realize that he was calling me a female dog, I just laughed harder, which just made him madder, so he kept hollering it at me as he ran off. I laughed about that forever! Once on the roof, I told Travalon that his anniversary present is going to be a tile with our names on it on the roof, but it won’t be installed until the fall, so we looked at some of the ones already up there. We gazed out over the lake, but I had to leave briefly to powder my nose, and when I came back, the lights had come up on the Airgas smokestack. What poor timing I have!

Yesterday Travalon and I went to the Rockhound Brewery for brunch that included “beermosas,” then we went to the Next Door Brewery for their beer pie made with their Darth Porter, and then we went to Alt Brewing, where all the beers are gluten free. Neither Travalon nor I have any issues with gluten, but we were just curious to see the place, and the bartender, who looked like a Viking, was very friendly. We took Rodney for a long hike at Lake Kegonsa State Park, then we wrapped up Craft Beer Week by having dinner and beer at Karben 4, another brewey up on the north side. It is in the old Ale Asylum space, now that Ale Asylum is so popular that they needed to move to a much bigger place. We sat outside there with Rodney, and some other people came with three dogs, so Travalon joked that it was a dog park. We had a really great Craft Beer Week, and Travalon put it on his calendar so it won’t sneak up on us next year. I did him one better and downloaded the app, so now I am getting notifications about beer all over town.

Famous Hat