Circle Round

Last weekend I had a group of 20-some friends from far and wide join me in a brewery tour around Asheville. It was bright and 75 degrees and, since 5 breweries are within walking distance, it was a casual adventure in matching green shirts.
This photo, taken by the incomparable Jane, reminds me that I am surrounded by love.
Such a joy, these people!

London, Concentrated

So I'm back in Le States and the jetlag has not been as bad as I feared, and for this I owe my utmost gratitude to sleeping pills. Here's to you, drugs.

Paris was, as I previously mentioned, absolutely hilarious. If ever you have a chance to take a trip with Erin Hatcher, do it. I learned this several years ago on a trip to the beach (LOGTRUCK) with a brief stop at South of the Border and a stolen ashtray. The Paris trip overshadowed that beach trip like whoa. Amazing. I will post photos and stories soon! Also check out Hatcher's blog
But first, I was also in London. I realized I haven't mentioned that part. My dear and wonderful Elizabeth Kate, my friend from many an adventure, got married to the sweet sweet Brit Phil. Way to go for that duel citizenship, you two! He's obviously never seen you in roller skates...

I worked half a day and then drove the three hours to Atlanta, where I met up with Alana who drove me to the closest MARTA stop so I could ride it down to the airport. My flight was a red-eye and I landed at Gatwick around 8am London time (EST time: oh who knows I sure didn't). Customs was so quick I talked my way onto an earlier shuttle bus to Heathrow, though there was an accident on the M25 so it was all these little back roads around London. Once to Heathrow I called Liz from a payphone, hopped on a city bus to Uxbridge and 30 minutes later I was finally in Uxbridge! All in all it was about 18 hours of travel. Cool. I hadn't seen Liz in over a year and I must admit, I got straight up emotional seeing her again. ANYWAY this is rambling, some photos from the brief trip to London (not including any wedding photos because I want Liz and Phil to get back from the honeymoon first):

My first pint in London...I asked for an IPA and the girl at the bar just stared at me. You guys invented the IPA, how can you not know what it is? But I did get olives. Yumm.

Trying to be as quintessentially London as possible, I got Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the London Eye in one photo. Condensed trip calls for condensed photos.

I liked to call this the Trogdor Cannon. It was near 10 Downing Street, Steph and I just sort of stumbled upon it and all I could think of was StrongBad's lesson on drawing dragons.

The night before the wedding the girls went out for some pints at the Swan and Bottle, which I kept calling the Swan and Trousers for some reason. Me, Liz, Steph and Sarah.
actual conversation:
Me: "Barkeep, what porters or stouts do you have on tap?"
Barkeep: "Umm we don't have any."
Me: "You are standing next to a Guinness tap. That is a stout."
Barkeep: "Oh. So you want a Guinness?"

The hardest part of the quick trip to London was seeing my best friend but not actually getting to see her, if that makes sense. I was so happy to be there for her big day, but it was almost a tease, like I can view her but not actually talk to her. Selfishly, I wanted my friend to myself for a little bit. I couldn't help wondering when I'll get to actually see her face again, and for that reason when she and Phil drove away from the reception I turned to Liz's new sister-in-law and cried.
Anyway, more photos/stories to come!

I Hope They Have Beer in Heaven

For 4 years, the last weekend in June meant one thing, that thing that would cause friends to travel great distances and promote the usage of vacation days, a holiday unlike any other:

The Old Dominion Beer Festival.

You may laugh, but this truly was a very, very special weekend event. It would start on Friday around 5pm and ended Sunday at 7pm and those three days were chockablock full of music, food, cigars, an inevitable sunburn, probably a rain shower or two and, of course, lots and lots of beer to sample...fifty breweries in fact. It was summer. After the festival we'd go inside the brewery to fill our growlers and get dinner (as Brandt is doing after the 2006 festival. That's five growlers he is holding; I have four myself).

That all changed in March, 2007 when Old Dominion Brewery was bought out, with Coastal City Brewing Company getting a 51% share and good old Anheuser-Busch getting 49%.
Last May I got online, looking up the musical acts for the 11th annual ODB fest only to find it wasn't happening...they blamed construction. They said, "Don't worry! We'll be back and bigger than ever next year!"

Today is supposed to be the big day of ODB fest.
I should be sitting at a picnic table, stuffing my face with a funnelcake and downing my 12th sample of Some Kind of Awesome Beer with all my friends, but no.
There is no joy in Mudville, ODB Fest is no more more.
I hate you, Anheuser-Busch. Hate you.

(Romano and Seany in happier times, standing with glorious kegs of ODB goodness)

Note: Asheville has the Brewgrass Festival in September, celebrating all things bluegrass and beer-ish, but Brandt (guy with the growlers) is a slimy bastard and is getting married in Virginia the same day as Brewgrass. Bah.