follies of a spring weekend

We finally had our first dose of Spring weather!

 

 

JP cleaned up the patio enough to start the weekend

with happy hour!

 

Saturday morning started with the sunrise

and a couple games of LAX

in the Plymouth dome (sans sunshine).

Saturday - date night began with a car trip to St. Paul

Dinner at Dixie's on Grand

 



 

A walk along Grand Avenue

A sit for JP to enjoy at cigar.

 

Ice cream - my favorite, Peppermint BonBon in a sugar cone!

 

And then the sounds of Cole Porter,

the final in the Broadway Songbook series.

Elsewhere in the weekend - Oliver is learning how to be persuasive in text:

sweet, sweet boy

This plea didn't work.

Sunday after church I took Henry up to get a LAX goalie net. 
The two of them put it together (with only a little help from the 'rents).

 

goalie drills?

Henry's first year at playing goalie.  As the Mom, it makes me fearful, yet shows me that my son can be fearless and take on something no one else was willing to do this time around!  These boys never cease to amaze me and are growing up so very quickly before my eyes!!

gettin' kinda SURLY

JP's favorite local brew is by a company named SURLY.  Our Friday night date night was with our friends, Chuck & Kari.  We showed up at the location, amidst a neighborhood, and to our surprise, there were 100 or so other folks doing the same thing.  Thankfully we were a little closer to the front of the line and got our five tokens and into the sample line quickly.

I like beer.  But not like JP loves beer.  So when I asked for the "mild" and got something darker than coffee, I was surprised.  However, I've decided to stop being so picky lately and took a sip without complaining.  Well, knock me over with a feather - I absolutely LOVED the taste and flavor of that one!  It was not the mild, as I thought, but a brew called Coffee Bender.  Yum, yum and yum!!

With beer in hand, we followed our guide into the warehouse where he proceeded to tell us about the beginnings of the Surly brand.  It was interesting and yes, he was even a bit surly telling it.  At one point he asked if we had any more questions and then quickly snapped, "because I gotta pee!".

When we were asked who had been there previously, there were quite a few hands raised into the air.  This appeared to be something that folks do on a regular basis; and the crowd started talking and thinning out after the original presentation. Free beer, with a suggested donation to the local food shelf.  I can see how it might be on a regular rotation for folks (us included). 

A few more samples of beer. 

A few more words from our beer guide.

A few dollars spent in the company store.

We were ready to leave about 20 minutes shy of the 2 hour window.  We ended up having a late mediocre nice dinner at a local restaurant, and the time spent out on a Friday with friends = priceless! 

I would definitely recommend this experience to locals who are interested in doing something different.  Just remember to bring along a designated driver.  While we didn't see any cops hovering on the side streets, those sample beers were quite strong indeed!