New England 2019


Sunday July 7. Left my house a little before 9 AM and arrived at Kane Brewing right at noon when it opened. There was no sign indicating that it - or any business - was there. It was just a plain building. Kane opened in 2011. According to Beer Advocate this place makes some good stouts, but unfortunately there were none today because it was summertime (stout is considered by many to be a cold weather beer). Most of the beers were solid -- not great, but well made.


Hit the road and dealt with the same sort of a-hole drivers and multiple tolls that I'd encountered on my New Jersey / New York trip a few months earlier. In under an hour I arrived at Carton Brewing which, like Kane, had no signage indicating that it was there, had mostly good beers, and opened in 2011. Someone greeted me and gave me a brief tour of the taproom and the brewing facility (they focus on education). They have a barrel program. Ska music was playing in the taproom. The way tastings work is you get 4 tasters and one full pour for $10, and you get them one at a time. I had:

Panoramic shot of the taproom.


From there it was a little over 5 hours to my old friend Ethan's place. We wrestled together in high school and he still lives in Newton. We see each other every few years. It's good to have old friends. We spent some time catching up and then hit the hay.


Monday July 8. A beautiful sunny day. Went out to my car to get something from it and ... it was gone. I'd been towed. I'd parked in a visitor spot, but there was a sign nearby that I'd missed that said a visitor pass is required. The visitor spots that don't require a pass are in another area. So I called the number on the sign, got the towing place's address, and Ubered there to retrieve my car. Good thing I always carry cash because the fee was $161 and all they accept is cash. A lovely way to start the day.

My friend Sally, who lives in Weymouth, came over and we spent the day together. First I showed her the neighborhood I grew up in, Oak Hill Park. Then we went by my old junior high school (formerly Meadowbrook, now Charles E. Brown Middle School) and high school (Newton South).

We arrived at Trillium Brewing's Canton location shortly before they opened at 11:00. Being a Monday morning, the place wasn't crowded. We tried:


Next we went to the Chestnut Hill subway stop (the Boston subway is called The T), rode to North Station, and walked to Night Shift Brewing. This is their Lovejoy Wharf location (they have another location in Everett). The beer is brewed at both of these locations and also at Isle Brewers Guild in Pawtucket RI (I had just been to the Guild less than two weeks earlier during a trip to the National Homebrewers Conference). They have a kitchen at Lovejoy Wharf. We ordered some food and:

Panoramic shot of Lovejoy Wharf.


Next we took The T to Trillium Brewing's Boston location, which is in an area called Fort Point. They don't sell small pours (you have to buy 10-16 ounces depending on the beer) but they did let us try sips of several beers before deciding what to order. We tried:

I wish panoramic shots didn't make straight things look curved.


We made it back to Ethan's. Sally went on her way, and Ethan took me out for dinner at a place called West on Centre. Then we said good-bye and I went to visit my cousin Sylvia at the Cabot Estates in nearby Jamaica Plain, where I would be staying for the next three nights.


Tuesday July 9. The birds wake up early around here. In Maryland they start chirping around 4:45 this time of year, but in Boston they're up by 4:15. After a few hours of writing I worked out at the Cabot Estates fitness center and then jogged around Jamaica Pond. It was a beautiful morning. I noticed that the linden trees, whose flowers are fragrant in mid-June in Maryland, were still a bit fragrant here in early July because the higher latitude causes them to bloom later.


Drove to a place called Lotus Flower, a chinese buffet restaurant where I had been many times in the 90s when my mom still lived in Newton. I prefer buffets over normal restaurants because I get to try many dishes instead of being stuck with just one, plus I can get the food myself (I hate being waited on because it makes me feel helpless). Also, a buffet is the more economical choice for me because I can eat a lot. So, I arrived and ... it was closed. Now, I always do my homework. I research places in the Internet before going there to make sure they'll be open when I arrive. This restaurant's website said that they're open every day. However, there was a sign outside that said they're closed on Tuesdays. I called the number to double-check, and the message said, "We are now closed on Tuesdays." So this was a recent change, and they hadn't updated their website. Bummer.

But this is America. We have so much food in our country that we throw away more than most nations eat. So I did a Google search on my phone for nearby buffets, and found a Japanese buffet called Minado located just 5 minutes away. It had many dishes, including 40 types of sushi, and the food was good. It was a little pricier ($18 plus tax and tip) than the buffets I go to in Maryland, but prices in general are higher in the Boston area.


I drove to Tree House Brewing, one of the most hyped breweries in the world. When I arrived at 1:50 PM - ten minutes before they opened - there were well over 100 people waiting in the hot sun. As we entered the building I saw that there was one line for to-go can sales and another line for drinking. Almost no one was in the latter because everyone wanted to make sure they could buy the cans they wanted before supplies ran out. If I'd been with someone I'd have had one of us go in each line so one person could bring the other one beer samples. I was surprised that few people did this. After waiting an hour I bought a total of 24 cans of three different hazy pale ales (pictured below) due to their high Beer Advocate ratings. Then I bought beer samples, which many other people did as well after buying their cans, so I had to wait in line to drink. Tree House doesn't serve small samples but you can get half-pours of many of their beers, so I got two, both of which were pretty good but not great.


I then went to Jack's Abby, which started in 2011 and makes mainly lagers. I'm not a lager fan, but this place was on the way back to Sylvia's so I figured why not? (There is a brewery near Jack's Abby called Exhibit 'A' that I wanted to go to, but they're closed on Tuesdays.) Jack's Abby serves food, and has a wood-fired pizza oven. The beers were what I expected: pretty good, not great.


Did you notice that two of the beers I had were ales? In 2017, Jack's Abby expanded to create an additional brewery, called Springdale, in an adjacent building. Springdale makes ales, including sour ales, and contains 1200 barrels. Springdale has its own taproom but it's closed on Tuesdays.


Wednesday July 10. Went to nearby Larz Anderson Park, where I had gone several times in my youth. It might be just a run-of-the-mill park to some, but it's dear to me because of my childhood memories.


Then I drove to Lamplighter Brewing in Cambridge. The parking there is absolutely horrendous. The driving is bad enough; good luck finding a place to put your car. Almost every space is permit only. There are a few 2-hour parking spaces, and you've got to be lucky to find one. I drove around for 20 minutes in frustrating traffic, where many of the streets are one-way and lights turn red just as you approach them, before I found a 2-hour parking space. If you want to visit Lamplighter, or any place in Cambridge, go on a Sunday, because most of the signs that restrict parking to permit holders say, "Except Sunday." Lamplighter sells coffee as well as beer. The beers were good but definitely not worth the driving/parking hassle. I tried:


It was a pleasant walk back to the car because I wasn't driving or trying to park. On the way to the next brewery I found a good radio station: 92.9. It played great classic rock (Zeppelin, Queen, Boston, etc). A short while later I was at Night Shift Brewing in Everett. (I had gone to their Lovejoy Wharf location two days earlier.) It was such a joy to find an easy parking space. I tried:


On the way to my next brewery I encountered some confusing traffic patterns that caused me to take wrong turns and stray from my printed directions, but I was able to navigate using my phone. Printed directions are good but if you miss a turn and get lost, your phone can be a lifesaver. Oh, and by the way, traffic sucks around Boston, even when it isn't rush hour. Where the f--- are all these people going? Anyway, I made it to Mystic Brewery, which opened as a production facility in 2011. The taproom opened in 2013. It had good beers, a nice vibe, and friendly people. I sampled:


My phone saved me again on the way back to Sylvia's as I was thrown off course by more confusing traffic patterns. And in case I didn't make it clear earlier, driving in Boston sucks. The traffic is heavy, there are a jillion stoplights, and people cut you off. It's an absolute shit show. I hope I never drive in Boston again.

I thought I'd take a little nap when I got back, but the guard at the security gate called Sylvia to inform her that I had to move my car. Due to road construction in her complex, no one could park in front of her building, and people were instructed to park on the tennis court, where parking lines had been drawn. The security guard had told me to park there when she gave me my parking pass. Unbeknownst to me, the tennis court was for residents only, but the security guard hadn't told me that because there were plenty of spots so my parking there wasn't an issue. Well, apparently it was an issue for a particular resident, who had nothing better to do than look for visitors' cars on the tennis court and report them to security. Remember when I got towed a few days earlier because I didn't have a parking pass? Well, in the Boston area, even when you have a pass you can still be asked to move your vehicle. So I got my car from the tennis court, where most of the spaces were empty, and moved it to the road, where I would have gladly parked all along if someone had told me to when I first arrived.

My old college roommate Dean had been following my Facebook posts as I checked in at various breweries and Jamaica Pond. He commented that he lived in Jamaica Plain and asked me to meet him at a local Irish bar called Brendan Behan Pub. It's located a mile from Sylvia's, so I walked there. It has a decent tap list. I got a pint of Idle Hands Four Seam, which was just okay. Dean and I spent two hours talking about what we'd been doing with our lives over the previous 35 years and recalling college memories.

Dean is on the left. I'm the ugly one.


I walked back to Sylvia's and then we met her son / my cousin Eric for a nice dinner at Mandarin Gourmet. Afterward we all went back to Sylvia's for ice cream.


Thursday July 11. Woke up before 3:00 AM. Wrote, packed my stuff, and hung out with Sylvia. She has a nice view from her balcony.


Drove in shitty Massachusetts traffic up to New Hampshire, where the traffic was much more pleasant and gas was 30 cents per gallon cheaper. Visited my old friend Scott, who I've been friends with since the late 1960s. We grew up across the street from each other, went to school together, and played together. Old friends never seem old to me. They might have wrinkles and gray hair but they are still the same souls they were 50 years ago.


Went to Kelsen Brewing, whose beers I enjoyed.

I bought a 4-pack of Double Battle Axe and asked my server what made it taste like weed. He claimed that it was the Columbus hops. I've used Columbus in some of my beers and they never came out that danky. Maybe I should try again. :)


As I drove to the next place I noticed that about half the streets didn't have signs, which was annoying as I followed my printed directions. The last place I saw so many streets without signs was Belgium.

Eventually I made it to Smuttynose Brewing, which has been in operation since 1994. In 2018 it was struggling to remain viable, and was bought and revitalized by Runnymede Investments. It is still making good beer after all these years. It also has an experimental brewing program called Smuttlabs, and I was informed that Smuttynose planned to open a separate Smuttlabs brewery in Dover NH in a month or two. All the beers I had were good.

I was wearing my WUNH T-shirt (I'd been a DJ on University of New Hampshire's radio station, WUNH, my senior year there), which prompted one of the employees to tell me that Smuttynose's head brewer went to UNH. I did a little research and found a brief video of him that you can watch here.


Drove by lots of nice greenery to Stoneface Brewing, which opened in 2014. The beers' names weren't very creative but they all tasted good and that's what matters.


My server at Kelsen had suggested I go to Tributary Brewing. Since it was on my brewery route, I went. It's located in Kittery, which is at the southern tip of Maine. It opened in 2014. The vibe was quiet and relaxed. The beer samples were only $1.50 each, but unfortunately they were just so-so.


My server gave me a couple of local brewery maps. A quick perusal revealed that one place, SoMe Brewing (SoMe = Southern Maine), was on the way to my final brewery of the day, so I stopped there. It opened in December 2013.

Sign in bathroom.


On the way back to my car I found a linden tree whose flowers were in full bloom and very fragrant. This is a full month behind Maryland lindens.


Checked into the Brookside Motel in Saco. My lodging was a tiny one-room cabin.


Then I walked a little over a mile to Barreled Souls, which opened in 2014. It has a great cellar ambience and is decorated with empty bottles from many craft breweries such as Plan Bee, Boulevard, Petrus, Grimm, The Bruery, and Evil Twin.


That was my favorite brewery of the trip so far and a great way to end the day. I walked back to the motel in the rain and didn't mind a bit because I had a nice buzz on. Went to bed about 8ish.


Friday July 12. Woke up around 2:00 AM, which gave me lots of time to write about the previous day's excursions. Was able to get about another hour of sleep around 7:30-9:00. Headed out at 10:15. It had rained most of the night so it was a bit cool out. As in New Hampshire, some of the streets didn't have signs, so once again I had to navigate with my phone. Is there a sign shortage up here?

Picked up a couple of loaves of bread at Trader Joe's in downtown Portland, then drove to the Airbnb in South Portland that I would be staying at for the next two nights. It was a bit after 11:00, which was too early to check in, so I Ubered downtown to visit breweries. None of them opened til noon, so I had more than half an hour to walk around and eat.

First stop: Goodfire Brewing. It's located in the back of an old industrial building that also houses another brewery and two wineries. It opened in 2017. It serves 6- and 12-ounce pours. I tried:


Around the other side of the building is Lone Pine Brewing, which opened in March 2016. I sampled:


A few hundred yards away is Urban Farm Fermentory, which opened in 2010. It has a very cool-looking interior and it makes beer, mead, cider, kombucha, and jun (they mainly do cider and kombucha). I got a sampler with one of each type of drink.

Panoramic shot of a room they call the Apothecary.


My server told me about a brand new brewery just a few blocks away that wasn't officially open yet and was having a soft opening. It's called Brewery Extrava, and it makes mostly Belgian beers. I tried 4 of the 5 that they had on tap.


Walked over to Rising Tide Brewing, which was busy. They opened in 2010. The bar had both electrical and USB outlets. I tried:


Walked over to Oxbow Blending & Bottling, navigating streets that sometimes didn't have signs. Next to Oxbow is a meadery, so I went there. But wait. Next to the meadery is a distillery, so I went there. It's called Hardshore Distilling. They opened in 2016 and were voted best craft gin distillery in the U.S. that year. All they had when I visited was one kind of gin, and the bartender was making various drinks with it. He gave me a small sample and it was possibly the best gin I've ever had.


I stepped over to Maine Mead Works, which opened in 2008 and moved to this location in 2010. I tried 4 meads, all of which were pretty good.


Then I went to Oxbow Blending & Bottling, which makes mostly farmhouse ales. They get good reviews but I wasn't very impressed with their beers.


Ubered to Bissell Brothers, which is located in an area of Portland called Thompson's Point. There were a lot of people in the area because Sublime With Rome was appearing in concert that night. Next to Bissell Brothers is a winery called Cellar Door, so I went there first. It started in 2006 and opened this location in 2016. I sampled 4 wines, all of which were pretty good.


Bissell Brothers serves full- and half-pours, and you can only get one at a time, so I got a half-pour of:


Ubered to Fore River Brewing and sampled 4 beers, all of which were pretty good. They might have been better than I perceived because I was pretty inebriated.


There was a duo playing live music.


I managed to stumble back to the Airbnb, which was a mile away, and bring my stuff in from the car. It had been a banner day: 8 breweries, a distillery, a meadery, and a winery. I crashed around 9:30ish.


Saturday July 13. Woke up about 3:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. Headed out around 10:00 on a warm, sunny day and walked along the South Portland Greenbelt Walkway, which goes by neighborhoods with old houses reminiscent of the 1960s.

Dog on porch.


After about a half hour I summoned an Uber to take me to Allagash Brewing. When I arrived at 11:15 there were already dozens of people there. I found out later in the day that after Allagash employees have worked there for five years, they get a free beer tour in Belgium. (Employees at New Belgium Brewing get the same deal.) I sampled:


Right across the street is Definitive Brewing, which opened in 2018. It had a mostly young crowd, whereas the ages of the people at Allagash were mixed. This could be because Allagash has been around a long time and older people are used to it, while younger people are more apt to seek out new places. Anyway, I liked Definitive's beers more than Allagash's. In fact, Allagash ended up being my least favorite brewery of the day. It's similar to some other older breweries, such as Harpoon and Samuel Adams, that used to be the best breweries when their only competition was Bud/Miller/Coors, but they have been surpassed by smaller, more innovative places.


Right next door, in another industrial building, are three breweries and a distillery, so naturally I hit all of them. I mean, it was afternoon by now, so it was time to start drinking. First I went to Foundation Brewing, which opened in 2014, and had:


Next was Austin Street Brewery, which also opened in 2014.


Then I went to Battery Steele Brewing and had:


Although I'm not into hard liquor, I visited New England Distilling, which opened in 2011. It uses yeast from Maine Beer Company to ferment the liquid that gets distilled. I sampled:


Ubered to Mast Landing Brewing and had:


I'd had enough for one day, and was ever so thankful for Uber. I got back to the Airbnb and slept from late afternoon until 9:30 PM, then stayed up until the wee hours writing.


Sunday July 14. Actually I stayed up all night. I lay in bed for hours and couldn't sleep. So I got up before 5:30 and headed out at 7:30. I stopped to get gas along the way, and the pump didn't work. An employee had just shown up and told me that the pumps weren't on because the store wasn't open yet. This was the first gas pump I'd seen in many years that wasn't 24-hour. She turned the pumps on for me and I topped off my tank. It turns out that there was another place further up the highway that had gas 10 cents per gallon cheaper.

Since I had some time to kill before visiting my first brewery, and the weather was nice, I stopped along the way at Pratt's Brook Park and walked the trails for two hours. Only a few parts were pretty; it was fairly humid; and the only wildlife I saw were one deer, several birds, and a couple of baby toads. Surprisingly, no squirrels. I got bitten several times by biting flies. This is one of the many reasons we build houses. We are born with soft bodies in an environment that hurts those bodies. If there is a God, then He set things up this way. He has given us biting insects, infectious diseases, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, cancer, and Donald Trump, which makes me think that if He exists, He's a real prick.


I arrived at Maine Beer Company a half hour before they opened at 11:00. I'd had some of their beers in the past and was not impressed by them, but since they were on the way to Acadia National Park, where I would be going later that day, convenience persuaded me to visit. Within minutes of opening there were more than a dozen customers there. It's a fairly big place. They donate all tips to environmental initiatives. As expected, the beers did not wow me. Now, they were well crafted: very clean, crisp, and refreshing. But so is Budweiser. They all lacked that "oomph" that moves me to travel the country for beer. It's all a matter of what your palate likes. I prefer beers with a lot going on. Some people like light, simple beers, and these are probably the ones giving Maine Beer Company's brews such high ratings on Beer Advocate.


Also on the way to Acadia, in a town called Newcastle, was one of Oxbow Brewing's locations (they have three in all; I had been to the Portland location two days earlier). As with Maine Beer Company, I hadn't enjoyed their beers but I stopped there because it was convenient. It's located off a winding country road, with a sign that's easy to miss. It's basically a shack, with no restroom (there's a port-o-potty outside). One of their beers, called Saison Dell' Aragosta (sold in bottles only), was made with live lobsters. The beers I tried were a little better than the ones I'd had in Portland.


Then it was off to Acadia National Park. I arrived at Blackwoods Campground, in a part of Acadia called Mount Desert Island, at 4:50 PM and set up my tent. When I selected my site online several months earlier, I made sure to get one that's near a bathroom. On the previous year's Teton trip, campsites were first-come-first-serve, and my site was a quarter of a mile from the bathroom.

It was warm and somewhat humid. Everything was pleasant except the mosquitoes (I could sarcastically thank God for them but I won't).

I now had time to just relax. I went over my printed notes for the hikes I would be doing the next two days. There was no cell service so I put my phone in airplane mode to save the battery. This is precisely why I always bring printed driving directions on my trips - you can't navigate with your phone without cell service (well, you can to some degree, as you'll see later).

I also reflected on my life. Overall I've been very lucky. My biggest blunders have been financial: bad investments, marrying someone who cleaned me out, and lending money to people who never paid me back. However, by getting a good education that enabled me to land a lucrative career, I have always recovered from financial setbacks. Plus, due to a frugal lifestyle, I will always be able to afford everything I need and want. My health has always been great, and I haven't (yet) suffered any long-term serious injuries despite many years of kickboxing and wrestling, as well as some close calls spelunking and rock climbing. My love life has been sporadic, with occasional relationships separated by long dry spells (especially during my youth), but I'm not someone who needs an intimate relationship. I enjoy my single lifestyle. I go where I want, when I want, without having to coordinate with someone else's schedule. I don't spend my precious time driving to someone's house, taking her to restaurants where I feel like an invalid because I wait for someone to bring me food, or racking my brain trying to pick out a good birthday gift.

Within minutes of getting in my tent it started to rain, cooling things off a bit. Tents are great. They're very portable; they keep out dirt, bugs, and rain; and they more than pay for themselves by virtue of the fact that campsites are much cheaper than motel rooms (although you can always sleep in your vehicle, and I've done that, but sleeping in the backseat of my Camry is uncomfortable). I checked motel rates in Bar Harbor while planning my trip. During the summer tourist season they go up over $200. My campsite rate was $30.

Didn't eat dinner because I wasn't hungry. I usually don't get hungry unless I've been physically active. The only reason I had eaten earlier in the day was to lay a base for the beer.

Fell asleep around dusk due to not having slept the night before.


Monday July 15. Woke up around 3:00 AM. The sky starting getting light at 4:00ish. It felt good to lie there peacefully, with nothing to do. The temperature was cool, but warmer than mornings I'd experienced at Teton and Glacier. Had some breakfast to get energy for the day's hike. The mosquitoes were looking for breakfast too.

Left at 7:00, armored with bug repellent and sunscreen, to hike the Cadillac South Ridge Trail. While bugs are a bit of a nuisance here, there are no bears, so I had no concerns about sudden encounters. On my hikes in Glacier and Teton I was constantly on the lookout, occasionally making noise so as not to startle a bear.

The initial few miles of this hike are rather dull. In fact, this is the only photo I felt worth taking:


The first bit of nice scenery is at Eagle's Crag:


By the way, I got cell service at that point, as I would at several high points on my hikes.

Here's some more scenery from my ascent. The first photo shows a trail marker called a Bates cairn, named after Waldron Bates, a trail builder who introduced these in the early 1900s in order to guide hikers. There are hundreds of cairns in the park.

This grassy pond is called The Featherbed.


The latter half of the trail is rocky and steep.


More views...


Eventually I made it to the summit of Cadillac Mountain. At 1530 feet, it is the tallest mountain on the eastern seaboard. (This pales in comparison to mountains out west, many of which surpass 10,000 feet.) There is a road that leads up there, so there were hundreds of dorky tourists wandering around, photographing family members against the backdrop, and/or standing around eating (apparently driving up a paved road makes some people hungry).


When I left the summit at 11:00, there was a line of cars waiting for parking spots. This is very typical of national park tourist attractions. Parking generally doesn't fill up until after 9:00 or 10:00, so it pays to be a morning person.

As I descended the same trail, I encountered many hikers on the way up. There were some more nice views.


I stopped at Eagle's Crag again and snapped this panoramic shot to see how it compared to the one I'd taken earlier. The following were taken at 12:37 PM and 8:16 AM respectively.


Got back to the campsite at 1:30, tired and sore. All those rocks did a number on my feet because I hike in sneakers, not boots. I hadn't trained for this trip because I'd only be hiking two days. I train for my western trips because I typically hike for 4-5 days, about 10 miles each day, with elevation gains/drops as much as 4000 feet. I was as sore as expected after today's 10-miler considering that I hadn't trained. When you're healthy there's so much you can do with your life. Cherish your health, and use it while you can. If there's something physically active you want to do, such as hiking, skiing, rock climbing, bicycling, or whatever, don't wait. Do it now. Our health will inevitably be taken away, either gradually by age, or suddenly by illness or accident.

The campsite bathrooms have toilets and sinks but no showers, so I took a sponge bath to remove the sweat, dirt, sunscreen, and bug repellent. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening writing (on paper -- no power for my laptop) and relaxing. My lower back grew progressively more sore, and some old muscle injuries cramped up, showing that once a muscle gets torn, it never completely heals.


Tuesday July 16. Slept sporadically during the night. (So what else is new?) Got up before 4:30. Lower back was still sore. The ambient temperature was warmer than it'd been the previous morning.

Drove to the Fabbri picnic area to start the day's hike. I unwittingly drove right through it, which put me on a one-way road that goes for several miles around much of Mount Desert Island. This took me way off course. With no cell service I tried my Garmin GPS. It could not pick up a satellite. Then I tried my phone. Without cell service it could still track my location with a blue dot, even though I couldn't tell Google Maps where I wanted to go, so I was able to find my way. This detour cost me 25 minutes, but I was in no hurry; I had all day.

I was the first to arrive at Fabbri at 7:35. It was 70 degrees and sunny. I geared up, did some stretches, and set out at 7:53. The first point of interest was Otter Cove.


I found Ocean Path, which, as you might expect, is a path along the ocean. There were some good views of the Atlantic, and lots of rocks and cliffs. Some people were rappelling down one cliff, but I couldn't get a good photo. I stopped at Thunder Hole, a place where waves crash into a rock channel. Tourists were looking at it but it wasn't very interesting, so I didn't take a photo or video. I suppose the waves are interesting when the tide is just right.


I thought about how the only way to truly enjoy anything is to be in the Now. With all the training we've gone through, in school and at work, teaching us to think, our conditioning often causes us to think at times when it's not helpful to do so. We think about how others perceive us, our careers, our money, our relationships, mistakes we've made, what the future might hold, etc. This distracts us from the Now. We cannot enjoy an ocean view, good food, music, etc, when our minds are swimming with thoughts. We must let go and put thought aside in order to fully experience what is going on around us. Maybe this is why many children dread school - it takes them away from their natural Zen state. And then, after 10-20 years of being forced to sit and think, they have had their natural spontaneity conditioned out of them.

Eventually I made it to Sand Beach. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't all beaches sand beaches?

The waves look curved because this is a semi-panoramic shot.


There is a trail that starts on the other side of the beach, so I decided to take a detour from my planned route. Called the Great Head Trail, it's steep and rocky...


...and leads to a spot called Great Head that has this view:


The trail loops back down to Sand Beach. On the way I got these views:


I traversed Sand Beach again and continued on my planned route, picking up the Bowl Trail, which was also steep and rocky. It connects with the Beehive Trail, which - and the websites I read didn't mention this - is extremely steep, rocky, and treacherous. It's not so much a hike as a rock climb. A sign at the beginning warns that the trail is very hazardous and that people have been seriously injured and killed on it. But other people, including kids, were climbing it, so I figured, how tough can it be? Well, I'll tell you. There are many places where you have to be extremely careful to get good handholds and footholds because there is no path, just rocks to climb, and there is no guardrail. In some places there are iron bars embedded in the rock to help climbers. In addition to the danger, it is physically challenging because you're climbing almost straight up much of the way. The sun beating down on me, combined with the physical work, caused me to sweat quite a bit. I didn't take any photos on the way up for fear of falling or at least dropping my phone. Finally, near the top, I snapped this:


That death-defying section of trail was only 0.3 mile long, but it was the most grueling, fear-inducing 0.3 mile I ever traveled, unless you count my wedding. I can't believe people take their kids on it. I thought about turning back a few times, but not only would that have been even more dangerous (going up is actually easier than going down when rock climbing), it would have been nearly impossible because other people were coming up and for most of the climb there is not enough room for more than one person.

The Beehive is a large, slightly convex rocky surface with views of the ocean, mountains, and islands, but this sort of view is available at many places in Acadia Park. I didn't take a panoramic photo because it would've been no better than some of the photos you've already seen, but I did snap this:


After all that hard work, sweating, and risking death, I spent only a minute or two at The Beehive. The mind - or at least my mind - cannot enjoy looking at the same view for very long. The vast majority of this experience was the traveling, not the destination. That's the way life is. We set goals, then go after them, and most of our time and experiences are involved with the journey. We often miss what life gives us because we focus on our goals and ignore much of what happens along the way. This relates to what I wrote earlier about thinking instead of being in the Now. Anyway, I will remember the climb much more than I will remember The Beehive.

As I made the steep, rocky descent down the other side of The Beehive, I got some more good views:


Then I came to a pond called The Bowl.


Shortly thereafter I ascended the Gorham Mountain Trail. Fortunately it was windy atop Gorham Mountain so I could cool off.


I got cell service up there so I posted some of the day's photos to Facebook. Then I descended down the other side. Some of my favorite views of the trip were on this mountain.


As I neared the end of this hike I used up the last of the 3 liters of water I'd brought. Lesson learned: always bring more water than you think you'll need.

My hike ended as most of my national park hikes have ended: in the hot afternoon sun, driving back to my campsite in a hot car. My feet were sore from the rocky trails, but my lower back wasn't bad at all. All in all I hiked about 8 miles that day, but it was just as tiring as the previous day's 10 miles due to the Beehive climb and the greater mileage of steep trails.

I got back to the campsite before 2:00 and took a refreshing "shower". Behind the restroom there is a water spigot that I hadn't known about before the previous day's sponge bath. I repeatedly filled a water bottle and used it to lather myself with soap and rinse off. Then I wrote for the rest of the afternoon and evening, first on paper, then on my laptop using its battery in low power mode.


Wednesday July 17. Woke up around 3:00, give or take a half hour. My liver had had more than two full days of detox, so it was time to toxify it again. Good thing it started getting light out a little after 4:00 -- it helped me take down and pack my tent. It was a balmy morning but I had to put on my sweats and hat because the mosquitoes were out in full force. I left at 5:15 because I had a 6-hour drive ahead of me (which would be the longest drive of the entire trip without stopping for lodging or beer). It was already quite light out when I hit the road. As I drove through Bar Harbor I stopped to take this photo:


A local radio station, 95.7 FM, played great classic rock until 6:00 when it broadcast the Bob and Tom Show, a pretty funny show that has been around since the mid-80s. My two favorite business names that I passed were Chow Maine and Pete's Pretty Good Ice Cream. There was lots of nice greenery, with a mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees and meadows. There are a lot of lakes up there too. There are long stretches with very few man-made structures. It was cloudy with some rain. After 4 hours I crossed into New Hampshire, where gas was cheaper than in Maine. When I entered Vermont 45 minutes later gas prices went up again. I grew up in New England and I think this was the first time I'd ever been to Vermont. The scenery was gorgeous. There were signs, as there had been in New Hampshire and Maine, indicating that there are moose up there. Oh, and as of this writing, Vermont has the most breweries per capita of any U.S. state.

At 11:20 I arrived at Hill Farmstead, which is a farm brewery located in a remote location where for the last two miles you drive on dirt. There were about 20 people in line because the brewery was having a beer release. The website says it opens at noon but it opened at 11:30 that day. The line was for retail sales but there was no line at the taproom, so I went there. The place had no coasters or stickers. The smallest pour is 25-cl (a little over 8 ozs) but they let me try sips of 3 beers before deciding which to buy. They were all pretty good, not great.

Although I wasn't overly impressed with the beers, I went back to the retail area to see what they had. As I stood in line I read the beer descriptions on the wall to see what I might want to buy. There was neither cell service nor public wifi so I couldn't check Beer Advocate. I decided on one bottle each of Brother Soigné and Florence, and a 4-pack of Double Citra cans. The release beer, Sue, was $25 for a 750-ml bottle, and I wasn't going to spend that much on a beer without being able to research it.


When I left at 12:20 people were still arriving and the sun started to come out. As I drove to the next brewery, I encountered the same problem I had in Maine and New Hampshire, namely, some of the roads don't have signs. Eventually I made it to Lost Nation Brewing, which opened in 2014. There was no wifi but I was able to get cell service. The place didn't have coasters. The stickers were $2 apiece so I didn't get one.

I bought a 4-pack of Tossing Seeds, and had a hard time deciding which one. The Citra version smelled better but the Galaxy version tasted better. I went with the latter. Although it wasn't great, it was good, and very few of my friends have ever had a Lost Nation beer so I figured it would be nice to share it.


Next I went to Stowe and checked into the Riverside Inn. I chose this place because it's walking distance from two breweries. It was $109 per night including taxes, which is more than I like to pay, but lodging isn't cheap in Vermont during the summertime, plus being so close to breweries saved Uber fees. And anyway, I can afford it. I had planned to walk to one brewery after checking in, but the proprietor mentioned that there is another brewery a mile and a half away. I already knew about it and hadn't planned to go because all they make is lagers, but I figured, what the hell, I'm here, why not? Since I was still okay to drive, I went. On the way I stopped to take this photo:


Von Trapp Brewery is an above-average-sized place that makes mostly German-style beers. It serves food too. This location opened in 2015 but their original place is not far away and I don't know when it opened. I'm not a lager fan but I could tell that all the beers were well made.


Interestingly, they charged 11% bar tax, while Lost Nation and Hill Farmstead hadn't charged any. Could it be because Von Trapp is a restaurant and the other two places aren't? Anyway, I finished only two of my samples, which kept me sober enough to drive. I went back to Riverside Inn and walked to one of the nearby breweries.

The Alchemist is best known for its flagship beer, Heady Topper. This beer is highly sought after and touted as the "original" New England-style IPA. Its Beer Advocate rating is insanely high, but, as with many other highly rated beers, it has a lot to do with scarcity (hard-to-get beers usually get inflated ratings). There was no cell service or wifi. They had 3 IPAs on tap, as well as coasters and stickers, and all were free! All you pay for is beer that you take home with you. To keep folks from mooching, they limit samples to one of each per person.

Panoramic shot of the bathroom.


Although Heady Topper and Focal Banger were good, I liked Alena better. I bought 4-packs of Alena and a stout called Luscious (which has a high Beer Advocate rating) because they were only $12.50 each, which by today's standards is inexpensive. It started to rain hard. Since I was walking, I waited to see whether it would let up soon. It didn't. I asked one of the employees for a trash bag, then made a hole in the bottom, draped it over me with just my face sticking out, and walked back wearing this makeshift poncho. It worked like a charm. My legs and feet got wet, but since I was wearing shorts and flip-flops, it didn't matter. When I got to the room I stayed up for a bit, then crashed before sunset.


Thursday July 18. Woke up around the same time as the previous morning. Left by 9:30 on a beautiful sunny day. First I stopped at the same place I'd stopped the previous day to take a photo of the landscape. It looked different in the sunny weather.


Then I went to Ben & Jerry's in Waterbury. This is their main factory. I got a factory tour but didn't take photos of it because they don't allow that. The business was founded in the 1970s by two guys who met in 7th grade gym class. Each employee gets to take home 3 pints of ice cream every day they come to work. As you might expect, employees tend to gain weight, known as the "Ben Ten". At the end of the tour each visitor got a sample of Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream, which was great.


On the grounds there is a "flavor graveyard" for flavors that they don't make anymore.


My first brewery of the day was to be Prohibition Pig, also located in Waterbury. They don't open until 11:30, but I knew that across the street is a beer store called Craft Beer Cellar that has many different beers, so I went there shortly after they opened at 11:00. I spent about a half hour reading labels and checking their Beer Advocate ratings. Unlike many beer stores, this place lets you buy singles of just about anything, so I ended up buying 4 different cans.


Then I crossed the street to Prohibition Pig, and there was a little sign on the door saying that they wouldn't open til 12:30 that day. But no biggie. Another brewery on the docket would open at noon, and I wouldn't arrive there until after it opened.

Lawson's Finest Liquids started in 2008 but didn't open their taproom until a decade later (October 22, 2018, to be specific). At their Waitsfield location are two buildings: the brewery and the taproom. I went into the brewery's "viewing area", which is just one corner so there really isn't much you can see.


Lawson's doesn't serve flights; it serves 6- and 12-ounce pours. This limited the number of beers I could try.

On tap was also Triple Sunshine, which fortunately I'd already had at the National Homebrewers Conference the previous month.


I drove past gorgeous Vermont scenery back to Prohibition Pig. It has two adjacent buildings. One is the brewery/taproom, which is open all day; and the other is the restaurant, which opens later in the day. But they still have some food at the former. I'd heard great things about the food, so I ordered the Chopped Pork Sandy, which was delicious. As at Lawson's, 6 ounces is the minimum pour, so I got:


On the way back to my room I drove by Cold Hollow Cider Mill. I'm not a big cider fan but my "What the hell" attitude caused me to turn the car around and get a flight.


I dropped the car in front of my room and walked down the road to Idletyme Brewing, which doesn't have great Beer Advocate ratings, but what the hell, walking distance. It opened in 2015 and has a restaurant. I sampled:


Then I walked to The Alchemist, where I had already been the previous day, but what the hell, right? They had the same 3 beers on tap. This time I liked the Heady Topper more than I had the day before, which is just one example of how our palates can change daily. As a result I bought a 4-pack.

Yes they are twins.


Walked back to my room, wrote and dozed off a bit, then walked back to The Alchemist because they have live music on Thursdays from 5:00 to 9:00 PM. More than a hundred people and dogs relaxed and played on the lawn against a beautiful backdrop of Vermont sky and mountains.


Came back and went to sleep before 9:00.


Friday July 19. Woke up at 3:30ish. Anything over 6 hours is a good night's sleep for me. After the sun came up I packed the car, checked out, and headed to Burlington. Motels in Burlington get expensive during the summer, so I'd be staying at two Airbnbs over the next two nights (couldn't find one that had two nights in a row available). Checked into the first one, which didn't have air conditioning, and that would normally not be a problem, but a heat wave was in the forecast, and I had more than two cases of hazy IPAs that are susceptible to degradation by heat. Oh well, they would at least be a few degrees cooler in the Airbnb.

I would be going to the Vermont Brewers Festival, which would have two sessions that day and two the next day. I chose the very first session because I figured it would be the least crowded and none of the beers would run out. Since I had some extra time, I went on the festival website to see which beers would be there and researched them on Beer Advocate to see which ones I might want to taste. The $44 admission price did not get attendees all-you-can-drink, but only 15 beer sample tickets. Additional tickets cost $2 apiece. So samples were $3 each until initial tickets were used up, then $2 each thereafter. Plus, any beer that was 8% ABV or over cost TWO tickets, which translates to $4-$6 per 4-ounce sample, so I wanted to make sure I didn't waste my tickets.

After wolfing down some food I walked down to Waterfront Park for the festival. There is a nice view of Lake Champlain. I noticed that the linden trees were in bloom and very fragrant (5 weeks behind Maryland).


It was a hot, sunny day, but if there was any consolation, it was that there was a breeze that helped to cool things off a bit. There were a lot of people, but since it was the very first session, I was sure the remaining three sessions would be even more crowded. Here are the beers I tried:

  1. 14th Star B72 (good NEIPA)
  2. Brasserie Ā la Fūt QV10 (nice lambic)
  3. Alchemist Rapture (good IPA)
  4. Burlington Beer Company Nü Disco Jumpsuit (quite good orange creamsicle milkshake IPA)
  5. Simple Roots New North End (good and smooth)
  6. Trout River Pebble in Paradise (pretty good)
  7. Burlington Beer Company You Can't Get There from Here: Passion & Dragon Fruit (fairly good gose)
  8. Frost Beer Works Lush - Festival Edition (quite good, juicy, and murky)
  9. Brasserie Dieu du Ciel Solstice d'été Framboises (good Berliner weisse)
  10. Fiddlehead Mastermind (good DIPA but not worth the 2 tickets it cost me)
  11. Burlington Beer Company Sea of Air (quite good DIPA; not bitter)
  12. Burlington Beer Company Intangible Tides (great TIPA - my favorite beer of the day)
As the day went on it got cloudier, which cooled things off. I discovered two breweries that I liked enough to want to visit: Burlington Beer Company and Frost Beer Works. They were not on my radar while I was planning the trip because they're not located in Burlington. Yes, that's right, Burlington Beer Company is not in Burlington; it's 20 minutes east in Williston. I noted on my voice recorder to add these places to the next day's itinerary. Also, a guy from BaltiBrew came up and introduced himself. He was in town for a stem cell conference.


I left the festival at about 3:30 and walked along the waterfront, taking in the wonderful aroma of the linden trees...

Lake Champlain.


...and then to Zero Gravity at American Flatbread. It has a nice dark bar ambience, not a craft beer ambience. Since the minimum pour size was 6 ounces I checked Beer Advocate and ordered just one beer:


I headed back to the Airbnb, but what was just around the corner? Vermont Pub & Brewery. It got below-average reviews on Beer Advocate, but what the hell, I was here and I still had some liver power left. This place was founded in 1988 by Greg Noonan (a respected beer expert in the 1990s) and was Burlington's first brewery in 94 years. The beer samples were the cheapest of my entire trip - $1.25 each - and that's about what they were worth.


Afterward I walked up the sidewalk...


...to the Airbnb, took a cool refreshing shower, and wrote for a while. Although there was no A/C, there was a fan in the room that helped quite a bit. I think I made it until after dark before I fell asleep.


Saturday July 20. Still hot in the Airbnb. Moved the beer to my car's trunk because it was now cooler outside than inside. Here is Lake Champlain at 5:30 AM:


At around 7:00 I'd had enough heat. I showered, packed, and left. Temperatures were predicted to get into the mid-90s that day, with a heat index over 100. At 7:30 in the morning it was already 81 degrees out. Good thing that night's Airbnb would have A/C. I walked down to Battery Park, which is located above Waterfront Park. It has pretty trees and grass, and a good view of Lake Champlain.


It was too early to go to any brewery but at the very least I could drive around in an air-conditioned car, and after spending the night in a hotbox it was a pleasure to sit in a cool, dry place. I explored various side streets on the way to my first brewery to see whether I could find a pretty spot by Lake Champlain, but I couldn't. I arrived before 9:00, more than two hours before my first brewery opened, so I drove down a nearby side street, parked in a shady spot, and relaxed.

Well, I'd just happened to turn down the road that leads to Vermont Teddy Bear. I Googled them and found out that they give tours starting at 10:00. I'm not into stuffed animals, but I figured this might be an interesting way to spend some time. The company started in the 1980s. The very first bear they made was modeled after Groucho Marx (it's in one of the photos below). The modern bears' stuffing is made from recycled plastic water bottles. Each bear has a lifetime warranty; no matter what you do to it, they will repair or replace it for free, provided that it still has the tag and at least one of its eyes (this will confirm that it's one of their products).


Afterward I went up the road a bit to Fiddlehead Brewing. There is a pizza place in the same building called Folino's, but it doesn't open until noon and I got there at 11:00. By 11:15 every seat at the bar was taken. Fiddlehead doesn't do small pours. For a slightly reduced price they can reduce a beer size by 4 ounces, meaning that if a beer is normally served in pints, you can get 12 ounces; and if a beer is normally served in 12 ounces (they do this with their stronger beers), you can get 8 ounces. Since I would be visiting several breweries that day I conserved liver power by ordering a single 8-ounce pour.


On the way out I bought a 4-pack of Second Fiddle, as well as four 4-packs of Hodad Porter for some friends of mine. As I put them in my trunk, I thought about how a cooler would be nice. Actually while I was planning the trip I had thought about bringing a cooler, but I knew that I'd be accumulating a lot of beer, so I would have needed at least two large coolers, which would have been space-consuming.


Next stop: Frost Beer Works, who I'd discovered at the previous day's festival. It's a small place. They had four beers on tap, and you have to order either a full pour, or, if you want small pours, you have to get all four. However, the server let me try tiny tastes of two beers for free.

They had many of their beers for sale in cans, so I checked Beer Advocate and decided to buy a 4-pack of Plush, which is another DIPA.


I walked in the sweltering midday sun back to my car and drove to Burlington Beer Company, who I'd also discovered at the festival. I tried only two of their beers because I'd already tried four of them the previous day. There was no A/C, so dozens of people were drinking and sweating.

I bought 4-packs of Orbital Elevator, Sea of Air, and Intangible Tides.


As I drove into Burlington at 1:00, my car's thermometer went from 90 to 95 degrees. I think it's hotter in Burlington than surrounding areas because it's at a lower elevation, so it traps the heat. Also, it's humid because of evaporation from Lake Champlain. I arrived at the Airbnb and checked in. My first order of business was to move more than 80 cans and bottles of beer out of the heat. The room was upstairs, so when I finished moving the beer, plus my other stuff, I was drenched with sweat due to going up and down the stairs many times and unloading my car in the hot sun. I placed the beer on the floor under the window A/C unit, and put my food in the fridge. Then I took a nice cool shower.

Since I hadn't consumed much beer I was perfectly fine to drive. And since I was ahead of schedule, I added another brewery to my itinerary: Switchback Brewing. When I parked there I left the windows all the way down because my beer and laptop were safely stored in the Airbnb. Switchback was mobbed. It could be because there was a live band playing. I sampled:


Just north of Burlington, in a town called Winooski, is Four Quarters Brewing, which opened in 2014. There was no A/C so it was a sweatfest. Some of the beers had no Beer Advocate ratings. I Googled them and found ratings on Untappd, which I once used briefly but stopped using because it's yet another form of social media that would eat up my time (I use Facebook and that's enough). It seems that people are shifting from Beer Advocate to Untappd, but as long as Google gets me their ratings, I don't have to join Untappd. Anyway, I tried:

I bought a 4-pack of Ghosts in the Sky (the murky beer in the photo).


I returned to the Airbnb, dropped off the car, and walked down the sidewalk south of Battery Park in what's called the Battery Park Extension...


...to Foam Brewers. When I arrived the place was slammed and there was a line to get in because it's located right next to Waterfront Park and the first session of the Vermont Brewers Fest had just ended. I went in the back door and made my way to the front so I wouldn't have to stand in the sun or wait as long. It was quite hot in there. One of the servers told me that they have A/C but it might have been broken. Also there was steam coming out of one of the brewing kettles. The smallest pour they do is 8 ounces. After the first two I had a good buzz on, and then I figured what the hell, I was walking, so I got two more.


For some reason I sweated more at Foam than at Four Quarters, maybe because I'd walked there. Soaked with sweat, I walked back through the Battery Park Extension toward the Airbnb. I heard a band playing in Battery Park so I snapped a quick photo.


Got back to the Airbnb around 6:00, took a much-needed shower, and fell asleep sometime after that.


Sunday July 21. Headed out at 10:00 AM. I was becoming more dependent on my phone for navigation because of various construction detours and areas that were just downright confusing. The Google Maps app gets frequent updates that will provide the best route given current conditions; paper won't do that. Also, it shows you where you are in real time and where your upcoming street is; whereas when you rely on paper, you have to look for street signs, which are often barely visible from a distance or even nonexistent.

I arrived at Foley Brothers at 11:15. It's a fairly small place that's tucked away off a country road, kind of like Oxbow's Newcastle location. The Foley family started making beer in 2012, and has also made wine since 2008 at its Neshobe River Winery. The beer samples were $1.40 each -- the second cheapest of the trip.


Drove through beautiful Vermont countryside into New York, where there was more traffic and gas was more expensive. Arrived at Common Roots Brewing at 1:15. Since it was 93 degrees out I parked under a tree on the street instead of in the sunny parking lot. Common Roots had been damaged by fire four months earlier, and this place was a temporary taproom located a few blocks away. I walked up to the door and ... they weren't open yet. They don't open until 2:00 on Sundays. I had originally planned to visit two breweries before this one, which would have gotten me here at or after 2:00, but I'd decided to skip one of them, and in the process I forgot about Common Roots's Sunday hours. But this gave me time to research their beers, as well as breweries near the Airbnb I'd be staying at that night. I went into Common Roots right when they opened and tried:


Less than an hour later I arrived at my Airbnb in Troy, New York. Troy isn't the prettiest city. In fact, it's rather run-down. So are many of the people. The apartment I stayed at was in an old, ugly building. That's one of the things about Airbnb: hosts will post photos of the inside of the place you'll be staying, but not the outside. They will also neglect to mention whether you'll be climbing stairs. This place was not one but TWO floors up, with no elevator, which would normally not be an issue for me, except that by now I had accumulated 96 cans and bottles of beer that had to be saved from the heat. And these weren't 12-ounce cans; except for one six-pack, they were all 16-ounce cans and 750-ml bottles, which adds up to over 100 pounds of beer and glass. Also, while the apartment was air-conditioned, the stairwells were not. So, after some grunting and sweating, I was all settled in and ready to walk to some breweries.

I chose Troy because that's where Shmaltz Brewing has its "official" taproom. When I started planning my trip in 2018 (these trips take time to plan), Shmaltz was brewing beer in Clifton Park, and that was where I'd planned to go. Sometime that year they sold the brewery, so my only option to go to a Shmaltz taproom was a place in Troy called 518 Craft. It's a bar, not a brewery, and in fact as of this writing Shmaltz doesn't even have a brewery - its beers are contract brewed at Captain Lawrence (according to my server at 518 Craft). While there were several Shmaltz beers on tap, it was far from all of them, and it wasn't their A-game. Also, flights were pricey: $15 for four 5-ounce pours.


Due to the research I'd done while sitting outside Common Roots, I'd discovered two breweries in town. Neither one got good Beer Advocate ratings, but what the hell, I was here and they were walking distance. First I went to Rare Form Brewing, which opened in 2014. The beers definitely lived up - rather, down - to their ratings.


Then it was off to my last brewery of the trip: Brown's Brewing, which is a restaurant/bar with a nice atmosphere and air conditioning. The restaurant portion opened in 1992 and the brewery opened in 1993. The place had friendly people, just like Common Roots and Rare Form did. Overall the beers were pedestrian, as expected.


I can safely say that if you're on a quest for delicious beer, Troy is definitely a good place to stay away from.


Got back to the Airbnb around 7:15 and fell asleep not long after that.


Monday July 22. Woke up in the wee hours, wrote for a while, packed up, and left at 5:20. Since I wouldn't be visiting any breweries today, it was impossible to leave "too early". My phone's Google Maps app couldn't get a signal from in front of the Airbnb, so it's a good thing I had my paper directions to get me started. The ride home was easy, except for the predictable a-hole drivers that I always encounter when I'm anywhere near New York City. I made it home in 5½ hours with all 96 beers intact. It had been a successful trip that included visits with several friends and relatives, some great hiking, 51 breweries, 208 beers, 2 distilleries, 2 bars, 1 meadery, 1 winery, 1 cidery, 1 beer store, 1 ice creamery, and 1 beer festival.

After getting home I unloaded the car and unpacked. My lawn had grown considerably in the 15 days I'd been gone, so I mowed it in the hot midday sun. I followed that up with - you guessed it - a nice cold beer.