Hows my little Northerner?

Last week Laura and I took some needed time off from regular life and went on vacation. Boy was it great! Here I am back at home not feeling rested nor recharged but feeling excellent because I got to catch up with great friends, a loving family, saw some old things I missed, and new things I love.

We kicked it off in the Twin Cities. Our day was full of fun things beverage related. Mom took us to a couple of wineries nearby, St. Croix Vineyards and Northern Vineyards. We thought St Croix was making some pretty solid wines and had a great atmosphere (although AC would have been nice) to boot. Northern Vineyards didn't impress us much.

Next up was the pedal pub! Only a handfull of the crew had done it before and it was unanimously found a good time, albiet surprisingly hard work. We stopped at 612Brew and tasted some beers and Hit Stanleys for 7 minutes on the way back. I brewed a pretty decent Mosaic Pale Ale.

Afterwards we lounged at Dangerous Man Brewing where I got a stellar hemp Top Hat that Laura is appalled with. It was did make for some fun photos and dancing with strangers later in the night though. After Dangerous Man we caught up with the always lovely Anne at Solera and chatted a bit, danced a bit and drank a bit more. Anne if you're reading this you are the best mixer ever. I miss her, and I miss Minneapolis.

The next day was a little slower paced. We headed over to Canterbury Park for some horse racing with my mom. I love the occasional day at the tracks because for not very much money you can hang out with people you like, watch some horses run around, lose some money, and if you're lucky, win some. Laura had some beginners Luck and won big with a $9 profit! Mom was the biggest loser going big at the end and lost about $24. Had I not won big ($10!) on the second to last race I would have been with her but made only lost $17.

The next day we headed up to Duluth to catch up with our Friends Aaron, Arianna, & Bale Austin. We got a nice walk in at park point on a beautiful afternoon/evening.
I even achieved an impressive feat, skipping a rock over the breakwater. There were witnesses who will attest to this great once in a lifetime challenge.

Bayle Hunting for tadpoles and lending a poor scale reference to the size of my breakwater feat.

Our next day in Duluth was rainy and pretty crummy so we decided to be tourists and walked around downtown and canal park to visit our old haunts and see some new places. The highlight of that was the Minnesota Wine Exchange and This Meat store that was surprisingly awesome. It was full of fish and cured meats, our first taste of it at home was remarkable, will be stopping there again in the future for sure. After drinking a fair amount of kayak Kolsh in college we decided to drop in on Lake Superior Brewing Company and got a tasting and tour of their small brewery. It was pretty cool to be able to relate with another person, in a different but similar industry with different challenges.

Required Bridge Pic from Duluth

After dinner with our old friends Kate and Alex we headed over to Washburn to visit Laura's Family.

One of my favorite things about visiting Laura's family is the variety of fun outdoor things to do in and around her hometown. Laura grew up basically in water and our time with there seemed to reflect those days. We went canoeing in a little inland lake, ate a cool german themed resort, spent a great day on Lake Superior swimming and water skiing, ate some good homemade whitefish, and spend an afternoon at Crystal Lake people watching, swimming, strolling, skimboard failing, and sand castle constructing.

While Laura and I were playing in the sand constructing our castle and dragon a little boy came over and asked if he could "help". I said sure and told him to start on the moat, instead he started to use his imagination and played inside the castel, which was ok I guess. When he asked me what Laura was building I told him it was a turret. He promptly said, where is the turd...wait, whats a turdet? Laura started laughing immediately and I couldn't answer that straight so I finished the dragon, told him to have fun and to try not to destroy it. We walked away laughing and thought it was interesting that his parents were ok with their boy playing with two strange adults and no other kids.

Wienermobile sighting in Madison!

After we parted ways with the Davis family we zipped into Madison for a relaxing evening and morning followed by some winery and brewery hopping. We stopped at a brewpub called the Grumpy Troll, a winery called Fisher King Winery, and another winery that was an all around poor experience. Which sucked, I can generally find something to like about a winery and we didn't find anything worth noting, including service, wine, and atmosphere.

To finish the Vacation we stopped by the newly renovated New Glarus Brewery. It was amazing! Laura and I stopped there back in July of '08 when they were just about to start (or finish?) a new brewery building. They had a nice, small, setup before and now it's like they created a german themed Beerland for Adults. They went all out creating a great experience for people who like beer. A self guided tour throughout the brewery, a real beer garden, cheap tasting, and a place to buy all the beer of theirs that you could want. We were so excited and impressed just because we had seen their relatively modest beginnings five years previous.

Altogether we had a great time up north, it was nice to get away for a week and see our friends and family.