A while back I was contacted by someone in PR for Alexander Keith’s Brewery and on a whim I asked if I could try the beer. They agreed and sent me three bottles.
I’d never heard of Alexander Keith’s so I did a little searching online. Their Wikipedia entry says, “Alexander Keith’s is a Canadian brewery founded in 1820 in Halifax, Nova Scotia making it one of the oldest commercial breweries in all of North America. It was founded by Alexander Keith who emigrated from Scotland in 1817. Today, the brewery is under the control of Labatt, a subsidiary of Anheuser–Busch InBev.”
I tried two on two different occassions and I can’t tell you what happened to the third. It disappeared from our fridge! Someone drank it, but I don’t know who. First I tried the Nova Scotia Style Pale Ale. I thought it was ok. It didn’t taste gross, but there was nothing unique or memorable about it. I actually thought the same about the second beer, the Nova Scotia Style Brown Ale. I thought the darker beer would be rich and flavorful, but it just tasted weak. The third beer was a Nova Scotia Style Lager. That’s the one I didn’t try. So… overall…. Alexander Keith’s? Not too impressed. Sorry, really nice PR lady. Also, just so you know, Beer Advocate gave the Pale Ale a C- and the Brown Ale a B-.
Over the weekend Dallas and I drove up to Wisconsin to visit my parents. They moved from their house in Waupaca to a new house in Greenville shortly before our wedding in February, but we just have not gotten a chance to get up and see it until now. The area where they live is very nice. The house is newer, the yard is bigger than a city lot, but not too big to keep up. I realized when I got home that I had not even one photo from their house!
When we arrived, we hung around and barbecued. My cousins Dawn and Kelly visited. Kelly brought Mark along and it was nice to finally meet him. We ate tons of food. I can’t even think of it all: Spinach dip, fruit salad, homemade salsa, Kelly brought pasta salad, turkey burgers, salmon, brats, cheddarwurst… We brought down Chicago-brewed Finch’s beer, my dad had some Wisconsin-brewed Central Waters, and there was also the local classic, Miller Lite.
Rachelle & Fang
Fox Cities Stadium Beer
Dad, Dawn, Rachelle, Dallas, Kelly, Mark, Mom
After dinner, my mom and dad treated us to a baseball game at Fox Cities Stadium. This is where the minor league Wisconsin Timber Rattlers play. The stadium was just opened right before I moved away from Wisconsin. I’d been to a game there maybe once or twice, but it had been 10+ years ago.
It was a fun time. Something different to do. The crowd there was really into the game. The Wisconsin Timbler Rattlers were playing the Quad Cities River Bandits. Before the game my dad made me get my photo taken with the Timber Rattler’s mascot, Fang. So, I stood in line behind the 8-year-olds and got my photo taken. I think it turned out cute, though.
From concessions, we drank beer specially made for the Timber Rattlers: Snaketail Ale and Rattler Brau Scottish Ale. Both are locally made in Appleton by the Stone Cellar Brew Pub. The Snaketail Ale was pretty good.
Our seats were right behind Home Plate. At $10, they were the most expensive seats in the park!
Game highlights via TimberRattlerTV on YouTube
Strange bachelorette party in front of us.
Post-game fireworks.
The game itself was pretty interesting. The Timber Rattlers did not get even one run, but it was still fun. Dallas wasn’t cheering for them anyway! We were looking through the program before the game started and he noticed that the opposing team had a player, Kolten Wong, from Hilo who went to Dallas’s old school, Kamehameha, so he decided to cheer for them!
Minor League games are a lot different than Major League. Most notably, everything has a sponsor. Everything. Even the lighting was sponsored by a local lighting company. And in between batting and innings, there were all kinds of promos. Tons of promos. And they, of course, were all sponsored. Dallas said maybe this is to off set the cost of the stadium?
After the game we stayed in our seats for a fireworks show. It was pretty good. We didn’t see fireworks on the Fourth of July, so this made up for that. Mark and Kelly headed home and Dawn came over to my parents to visit just a bit longer, while Dallas attempted to polish off the last of her spinach dip. (He didn’t succeed but we took it home and he finished it the next night!)
Blueberry Hill Pancake House, Appleton, WI
In the morning we got up and went to breakfast at Blueberry Hill Pancake House, a place Dawn recommended to us. She mentioned it was the old Country Kitchen, but it wasn’t until I was inside sitting down that I realized how many times I’d been there before. Late night and for breakfasts and dinners. Total flashback!
Overall a great trip to Wisconsin. Short, but still good. It was nice to finally see where my parents are living. I’m a little envious of their yard and patio off the dining room. I wish we had a bit more grass. Anyway, their place is nice and they seem to really enjoy it and that’s what counts.
Bucking the Reid family tradition of having elaborate games at 40th birthday parties (see Brian, Jill, Chad), Jen opted for a food and drink extravaganza in the backyard. Chad and Jen chose 4 different periods of Jen’s life and prepared food and drinks from each of those phases. What an awesome idea! Luckily the weather cooperated, because there were probably 30+ people there to celebrate with Jen. It was a little chilly, but overall good. I had so much fun stuffing my face on all of Jen’s favorite food and drinks! Plus, so many of our good friends were there. And it was sunny. Sunny! What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon/night.
Here’s what we had:
First course: Belgium, where Jen was born
Food: Cheese plate
Drinks: Leffe & Jupiler beer, white wine, or gimlets
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Second course: Newport, where Jen grew up
Food: Grilled shrimp, steamed clams & mussels
Drinks: Sam Adams Summer Ale, white wine, or more gimlets
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Third course: Virginia, where Jen went to college
Food: Assorted chips. Premade guacamole, salsa and taco dip.
Drinks: Cheap beer – Bud Light, MGD, cheap red wine, or more gimlets
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Fourth Course: Chicago, where Jen lives now
Food: Grilled sausages (assorted from Paulina Meat Market), baked beans
Drinks: Goose Island Summertime, red wine, or more gimlets
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Fifth Course: Kristin’s Homemade Cake
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Surprise Sixth Course, courtesy of beer. .. much beer.
English is a bar nearby my office. I don’t particularly like it that much, but it is really close, so I end up going there occassionally. I like to drink this English beer they sell, made by St. Peters Brewery in Bungay, a town in the county of Suffolk, in England. It comes in a big, fancy bottle and you can feel good about being at a bar you don’t really like when you drink it!
For our last dinner in Hawaii we met up with Cory, Chris, Danny and Caroline for dinner at Sansei. This is one of our favorite Waikiki restaurants. We even had gone to dinner there earlier in the trip. We were hoping that the Big Island restaurant would be as good as the Waikiki one, and it was. We gorged on all of our usual favorites as well as trying some new things. Dallas enjoyed a Japanese beer called Koshihikari Echigo. Us ladies were drinking lychee martinis. They were so delicious. I was on my third one when this happened:
Photo by Cory
I took a few sips and was going to eat my lychee when i noticed something in it. I thought it was part of a pit and was going to pick it out, when I noticed it was a bee!!!! After Cory took a few photos, our waitress was quick to apologize and brought out a complimentary replacement for the drink. So crazy!
Great dinner, though. I was sad that it was the last dinner of our trip, but we went out in style. I was so stuffed, and kind of drunk, by the end of that night!
