Better late . . .

. . . than never.
Today's post is about yesterday with little mention of today. Not that today was not a great day . . . but honestly when you can't bike to work or go for a morning run because of a huge thunderstorm with lightning and rain, you work all day, eat your lunch at your desk, work late so that you can attend a evening board meeting and come home tired, it is hard to find much of anything to post. Seriously boring day.

But yesterday, was fun and enjoyable! We joined some other members of our church and headed to Milwaukee for a RiverWalk Boat tour which included 3 stops at micro breweries all located on the Milwaukee river. The tour lasts 4 hours and visited the Rock Bottom Brewery, The Lakefront Brewery and the Milwaukee Ale House. We rented a bus and headed to Milwaukee right after service in the morning.

Our tour started with lunch at the Rock Bottom Brewery, this was not part of the tour, but it was a great way to start the afternoon tour off. After lunch we proceeded to the basement for our free beer and then a tour of the facility.

After that we hopped aboard the boat and then headed up the river to the Lakefront Brewery for another beer or two and another brewery tour.

The tour cost $30 per person and included 2 drink tickets at each brewery, for a total of 6 beers. Six beers would not be possible for me, but I did have 1 beer at both Rock Bottom and Milwaukee Ale House and 2 beers during the tour at Lakefront for a total of 4 beers and that was enough for me.

Anyway, at Lakefront Brewery the tour guide totally gets into the tour and was quite the ham.

Seriously he must be a theater major, because he was so dramatic telling the story of how the original Klisch brothers bought the current building from the city of Milwuakee for $1. Added to the $1 was paying past taxes and such, but the $1 is a great story. At one point in the tour, he asked for some volunteer and I was selected or elected, depending on your view point. He had previously mentioned that he would kiss you if you added some money to his hat. Well, my husband must have paid him because he called me up front to kiss me on the cheek!

If I hadn't been drinking I would have been embarassed. What am I saying, I love to be the center of attention! To add to the fun, I had the camera, so he had to re-kiss me after I gave the camera to my husband who rarely takes pictures. But as you see it turned out!
After Lakefront we headed down the river, past our starting brewery, Rock Bottom and on to our third tour and round of beers at Milwaukee Ale House.

OK, at this point, after 3 beers I needed a couple of pretzels to settle my stomach. I love beer, but honestly I can't remember the last time I have drank more than 2 beers. Since I ordered the pretzels, I waited for those at the bar and skipped this tour. Afterall, water, barley, yeast and hops are the 4 ingrediants and we had already heard that 2 other times - and I needed food.

At the end of the tour time, we hopped back onto the boat with a whole different group of people. Not really different, but obviously loosen up after a couple of beers. The boat driver and assistant had us singing Sweet Caroline and Its Raining Men and we were up dancing and singing . . . oh what a difference a couple of beers make.

Let me just say, that I have been a Madison snob for quite sometime. I travel to Milwaukee for Brewers games, Summerfest and for work and that is about it. I would have to say that I never really enjoyed the city and certainly didn't know that the RiverWalk area even existed.

Oh my gosh! It is beautiful area and it looks like there is so much to do between the other boat tours, art galleries and resturants along the way. What a fun place to visit.The River Walk Boat tours offer tours every day of the week including, Margarita Mondays, Tiki Tuesdays, Wine Wednesdays, Thirsty Thursdays, Funky Fridays, Saturday Pub, Bloody Mary Sunday and the 3 Brewery Tour on Sundays that there is a river tour for everyone! I would definitely like to go back.
Here is a link to the site: http://www.riverwalkboats.com/Sunday-3-Brewery-Tour.html.
Enjoy the moments!

Posted with Blogsy

Saturday bike . . .

. . . ride to New Glarus.

Alarm was set this morning to make sure that we got going relatively early. It is big time beer events around Madison this weekend. The annual Great Taste of the Midwest, a gathering of craft brews and breweries bring 1,000 different beers to a lakeside park. The event is limited to 6,000 people and sells out quickly. Anyway, because of this emphasis on craft beers in the area, the New Glarus brewery is busier than normal and they had a limited release of sour Peach ale. While we got to the brewery at 10:45, there were lines of people already there at 7. We weren't there specifically for the limited release, although it would have been fun to participate. When we pulled into the parking lot people staff said that they had 1,500 people at the brewery just before we arrived. Even though we missed the limited release, we got to enjoy the wood fired pizza of LaFortuna pizza and enjoyed a couple of beers, including Staghorn and MoonMan, two of my favorites.

I invited a couple that had participated in this years Tour de Brew, which I organize over Memorial Day weekend. I know they like to bike and thought they would enjoy this ride. They had never been to the New Glarus Brewery and I think and hope they had a great time.

Here are a couple of pictures from the road and of course in front of the tunnel entrance.

After we got home, I was basically a couch potato. Well actually a porch hammock potato. I am embarrassed to say I did nothing. Usually a 30 mile ride doesn't tire me as much as today's, but I was tired and didn't want to do anything! Oh well, I know that these days are few and far between. No problem or reason to feel bad. Sometimes you just need to hang!

Tomorrow will be a busy Sunday with church and then we are going out on the boat, but that is tomorrow and next on the agenda is a wonderful night of sleep!

Enjoy the moments and enjoy good beer!

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy