Dec 31, 2016

I slept in again and it was really nice. Once I got myself up I picked up Erynne and went to Silver Run for the closest thing Millville has to hiking. It was nice weather and we had a good walk while we caught up. She had never been there and I hadn't been there in some time.

We went to Wildflower for lunch and split a black bean burger wrap that was soooo good. It's been a couple months at least since I've been there but this is one of the best things I've had from them. We took a little trip to the mall trying to find out of the Viet place had a vegan version of their Vietnamese coffee with heavy cream. They did not, so we went to Target and got Starbucks to walk around with while I went to find the expansion pack to Settler of Catan.

Later it was time for the big New Year's Eve Party to begin. So when Ryan, Shannon and Alex got to Becca's we set up Catan and proceeded to explain the directions to everyone, confusing even those of us who had played many times I think. It was fun though once we got started and Ryan went on to destroy us all.

We spent the next couple of hours playing Catchphrase "Decades" which has categories from the '70s to the present. I prefer the other one, but this one ended up being fun. Becca's friend Lauren and her boyfriend Tony brought it so we could all play. The time passed quickly, lots of jokes were made, good and bad guesses had by all. Someone said as a clue: "He's in Genesis." My guess was Jesus. It was really Phil Collins.

At midnight most of us were uninterested in the dropping ball or turning of the calendar in general, but the festivities sort of came to an end there and people started leaving. After a brief cleanup and some stronger hints for people to leave, we got to bed in preparation to get up for the first sunrise of the new year tomorrow.

Dec 30, 2016

We slept in and got up to make a tofu scramble eventually. It was really tasty, but the sweet potatoes are always the best part.

We sat around being lazy for a while, which was quite nice. The cats joined in.

We decided we should go for a run so we went to South Vineland Park to do a couple of laps. I did a little over two miles but it felt nice to be outside. We tried playing disc golf, but after being sweaty we both felt cold and not really in the mood for it.

Later Omarey met me at my house and we drove up to Starland for Thursday night two. We had a great chat on the way up about a lot of things in life and travel and inspiration. It's great to be able to have deep conversations with friends I don't see too often. Thursday was amazing just as last night, but I prefer the other setlist. Tonight's was themed towards more hopeful songs and they did a great job with the theme. The crowd was a little more crazy too so that played a part. Along with everyone in the crowd being excited it was apparent that Geoff was having the time of his life. It's great to see the band back together like no time has passed. Definitely worth the long wait.

Dec 29, 2016

I went to Ryan's in the morning for the second two games in our Koopa Bowl showdown. We played Super Mario 1 first and Ryan won as I struggled in the last world. In the event of a tie, we play Super Mario World and if that doesn't provide a clear winner there's a round-robin All-Stars match. But really we just played Mario World for the win. We were again very close but I got to the last castle faster and won. It was a lot of fun playing it that way.

I went home for a little while before going to Becca's where she surprised me with an amazing vegan chocolate cake with ice cream in the middle. It was so good. I had a little slice before we got ready to leave for the night.

We picked up Tracy and went to Starland where we sat in the car for a little bit to have a couple beers before the show. Diana sent me this wonderful little graphic to say happy birthday that made me smile.

We went inside and the show was running late, which is predictable for Starland, but we got settled on the side of the crowd and Nathan and Chanel came in and found us for a little bit before the lights went out. Thursday came out to For the Workforce, Drowning, which is one of my favorite songs and my favorite opener of theirs. The set was dark and incredible and it was so great to see them back on stage like they never left.

After the show I saw Omarey and he came to chat with us while those of us without jackets shivered outside. It was great to be with so many friends for my birthday and see one of my favorite bands. We had a nice long ride left home, but it didn't seem so bad.

Dec 28, 2016

We reluctantly got out of the bed with the cloud pillows and headed toward the water to try to catch a nice sunrise. Not too much happened in the sky and I couldn't get near the water, so I attempted to catch some shots of this church. Can't win them all, but it was nice to be up early anyway.

One thing I was looking forward to was Edge of the Woods in New Haven. We got there as they opened and went back to the cafe to order a reuben, a Monte Cristo, and the falafel sandwich. The reuben was amazing as always, but the others left something to be desired. Not bad, but nowhere near as good in my opinion.

After breakfast we headed to Park City DGC where I pulled out some new discs to replace my lost one from the other day. I found a few that I liked and tried to break them in and learn how they worked as we played. It was another really nice day to be outside, if a little chilly at times. We stayed warm even when a few snowflakes started to fall. We mostly had the course to ourselves so it went by quickly.

We found a coffee shop called Source to kill some time while we waited for the brewery to open and we sat inside the packed cafe sipping on a cold brew and a hot tea, listening to people chat and planning our day out. The coffee was okay and the tea was okay.

Two Roads is always a great stop when I can make it, and this time was no exception. Most all of the beers were noteworthy, but the best were the session IPA, the Espressway coffee stout, and the cranberry gose. We did three flights of 5 beers and ended up spending a couple of hours at the bar.

We were having a really good time so we didn't rush out. There's always time for selfies. And we left with some bottles and cans of our favorites.

Our next stop was Cranbury Park DGC, where we awkwardly drove by the toll house because it looked like the guy inside was an electrician or something and didn't even give us a second look. So we came in for free. The course is nice, but very wooded and a little repetitive. Definitely one I'd play again, but I prefer the one we played earlier. I'm glad we were able to get through two courses anyway. After that course we hit the road and promptly started hitting rush hour traffic.

After a seemingly long drive home through New York and North Jersey during rush hour we got back home and I dropped Becca off. I had a little time to change, eat, and relax just briefly before jumping back in the car to go to Philly for Valencia at the Fillmore. I stood in the back/middle for the whole show because no one was moving around or into it too much. The band sounded a little off for a while, but they picked up steam with the second half of the set. They played "Linoleum" by NOFX, which was a great surprise addition. Not a bad set, but definitely not my favorite. Finally headed home to sleep after!

Dec 27, 2016

We left our hotel in the morning and headed to Allston Diner for breakfast. They had a nice vegan selection so we got the tofu scramble with BBQ seitan which ended up being incredible! It was a cute little diner place with nice staff and great food. They even had the proper coffee cups. It was good that we split the meal because we were properly stuffed afterward.

We went to Cambridge next for a little walk after our big meal. I took Becca to the MIT campus where the Frank Gehry building I like is located. We walked a little bit, wandered through a public art gallery of medical information, and then headed down to the river.

We started our run heading toward the Longfellow Bridge so we had the view of the city the whole way out. Once we crossed the bridge and sidestepped a lot of construction we were on the other side of the river where we headed back toward the Harvard Bridge for the loop. It was a perfect day for a run and there were a bunch of people out there with us. We walked along the river a bit after we finished our 3 miles to continue soaking up the nice day.

After way too much driving around we finally snagged a parking spot near the Institute of Contemporary Art and headed inside. It was split into two sections of exhibitions. The first side we walked through featured female artists and was full of a lot of really great pieces. Kara Walker's pieces that I saw in Australia were featured at the start of this exhibit as well.

The other side of the gallery had some interesting things, but mostly we weren't grabbed by it. We were also getting hungry (or at least I was) so that didn't help matters. There was one great audio/visual piece with randomized sounds made by ordinary objects displayed on televisions placed in a circle around the room. I really liked that one, but after we saw it we headed down the awesome stairway and out the door.

We ate chili and pepperoni bread leftovers on our short drive to Harpoon Brewery. Unfortunately the tours were all sold out for the day so we just had to get flights in the taproom. Another thing I had forgotten was they started doing set flights that you can't alter or add to so we had to pick from those instead of making our own like I would have preferred. I wasn't particularly blown away by any of the beers, and the overall experience of the crowded room left me longing for the old days when it was a smaller operation. I might be over that place.

It was time for sunset so I found a spot across the water at Piers Park with a view of the city I'd never seen before. The sky didn't light up too much, but it was still a beautiful show of color on the buildings as the sun dropped. There was another photographer there as well who was talking to me about the shots I was taking. It was also very cold and windy. I got some decent shots and once it was dark I made the call to head out.

Before we left Boston I wanted to finally try ice cream from FoMu, so we made our way over there and sampled a bunch of the amazing flavors. We ended up settling on peanut butter (which tastes just like a spoon of peanut butter, but even better!), cookie dough (yes.), and a chocolate thai spicy flavor. They were all delicious and refreshing on a cold Boston day.

Our plan was to go to Trillium Brewing for a flight, but when we arrived we found out they don't do flights and their beer is really pricy. We made the call to skip it and head to The Grange in Providence for dinner instead. There was a bit of a wait for a table which was frustrating as we were hungry and already disappointed about the brewery. Once we were seated I got a delicious dahl soup followed by what I came for: the Po Boy. It was a good as I expected, and it was the last one they had. I decided it was a good thing we didn't stay for beer or someone else would have gotten my sandwich! Becca got the seitan tacos which were also amazing.

We booked a room at the Marriott in Norwich, Connecticut for the night and made the hour drive there after dinner. We had a nice, big king bed that had pillows like soft clouds. It was a great way to end the night.

Dec 26, 2016

We got up before the sun and quickly headed out of the hotel to find a spot along the water for sunrise. When the first place was unaccessible I headed a short distance away and found a great spot with a view of an offshore lighthouse that was just in front of the glowing sky. The sun rose perfectly behind the lighthouse and I got some great shots. It was incredibly cold out there and I couldn't feel my fingers for a good while after shooting. But it was worth it.

As the feeling slowly returned to my hands we drove into Maine and headed to Woodland Valley DGC. We went into the office and paid to play, where several other groups had already started out. Disc golf is amazingly popular on the day after Christmas at a snowy course in Maine. The course itself was pretty nice, with the snow packed down it didn't feel too different than regular play. I did, however, lose a disc after shooting a second shot and somehow it disappeared in the snow. After a long search we accepted defeat and moved on.

We had to cut the course just a little early to make the 40 minute drive to Portland in time for our Allagash tour. When we arrived we got our badges that all had punny phrases using the word "tour." Mine was TOURture. They gave us our first sample of House Beer and we milled around for a short time until the tour began. Disclaimer: The rest of this post will be very beer heavy, so if you're under 21, please look away.

Our tour guide was hilarious and good at describing the processes of brewing without being overly verbose. It was a big crowd and he handled it well. It was fun little tour starting in the brewhouse with a sample of Allagash White, moving on through the old facility, and ending in the barrel room where they age everything. This is also where we got our last three samples of the day and got to wander around. We took some photos for people, people took some photos of us, and we just had a good time. All the beers were good, with the Little Brett and Sixteen Counties being my favorites.

Maine is nice enough to have great breweries right across the street from each other so we walked over to Foundation where we did some flights of really good beer. Everything was great. The Zuurzing sour was the standout. The Ember IPA was incredible as well. Overall just a great little brewery with a nice vibe.

Around the corner was Austin Street so we walked over there and sampled the three beers they had on. Both pale ales were very good and the stout was also tasty. This is a pretty great place to spend a whole day drinking.

We were heading for the coffee shop and I forgot that rising tide is directly across the street so we stopped there on the way. We got one flight that was decent and then moved on. It wasn't as good as I remember and it was a little crowded.

We walked over to the Portland Coffee Roasters and I got a delicious cold brew and saw this coffee bean on the trash sign. Things I did.

We headed up the street to the HoneyMaker Meadery and when we walked in everyone turned around like we were in a movie and the bartender asked us if we were in the right place. It was an awkward start. There may as well have been a record scratch as the music went off. Anyway, misunderstanding diffused, we did our tasting. The lavender mead was quite good, but the lavender mead lemonade was even better. He saved the best for last as there was a Chai mead that Becca and I both immediately agreed we need to get a couple bottles of. The bartender told us about a barrel aged sour at Oxbow right behind their bar so we went back there and did a quick sampling of two beers. Not bad.

We got to Pleasant Hills DGC maybe 45 minutes before sunset and it was already cloudy so it made it even more dark. We played 8 holes on the icy snow before it was too dark to find our way, but this is a course I'd definitely like to come back to sometime. It was mostly open, yet they made most of the holes pretty interesting in some way. 

After stopping at a brewery called Earth Eagle and finding the beer list and the atmosphere to be not at all appealing, we headed to Stoneface Brewing for another quick flight. There it is. The beer was pretty good, but I'm starting to think the amount of things we tried over the day possibly skewed my reactions.

We got to our hotel outside of Boston and got an Uber to Night Shift Brewing. The guy drove us in silence the whole way and I used my "first ride" credit to pay for it. Nice. The place was packed because they were doing Geeks Who Drink trivia night. We jumped right into the game and eventually went up to get some flights.

It was a very strange night, and Becca went and made the executive decision to take chair that people were using just for the jackets and purses so we could also sit down. Pretty awesome. The game was hectic and hard to hear the host over the crappy speakers or microphone. It was a bit stressful, and we only got to taste our beers once in a while during a break. The beer was good though.

After the game we breathed a heavy sigh of relief, finished our last beers, and then got an Uber back to the hotel.

Dec 25, 2016

I came back to my grandmom's on Christmas morning to finish putting everything together for the trip and charging things and taking photos off cards-- the usual. When Sarah, Ken, Isabel, and Aiden showed up I went out to give them their gifts. Aiden seemed happy with the Tsum Tsums and moved quickly on to the next gifts of course. That all went quickly. I opened my envelopes of cash and gift cards and it was all over.

Becca and I hopped in the car, got gas at Wawa, and then asked, "How the hell do we get to Maine?" We started by driving north and stopped 3 hours in to play the animal course at Warwick. It was a great break in the drive and we played a good game. Becca had some really great putts and I threw one of my discs in the water. I forgot how beautiful parts of the course are with a stream running through it and a nice foot bridge.

After our round we got right back on the road, eating quinoa and brussel sprouts on the go. It was a smooth drive with no traffic; the only snag came when we got off the exit for gas we realized everything was closed. The Shell that we were heading for had all the pumps roped off and only the inside was open. We had to improvise to find a place to pee, and then we drove a little farther to get to an open gas station.

We decided we would stop in Portsmouth for the night and we found a hotel right off the highway. It was nice to stop and get to sleep at a good time after a day of driving.