Oakshire, part II

Do you really need the caption??

Seeking cold beer, we found the Oakshire brewery in Eugene. Google Maps took us right there. What google maps didn't tell us was that the brewery is just for touring and tasting. At this particular moment I needed food.  

Taking a brief tour, the bartender was quite kind and tells us that Oakshire just opened a Public house a mere two miles away and then gives us both a coupon worth $5 bucks. 

The public house had only been open three days. It's a new building, made to look industrial with cement floors and cool wood tables for a comfortable atmosphere.  We are told we can bring food in or have it ordered and deliver or we can buy a hot dog from the vendor on the patio.  We opt for the hot dog and found two empty stools at the long bar. 

The hot dog with a taster beer, much smaller than 8 ozs

The pints are, well...pint size which is almost double size of a 8 ounce plastic cup. The beer is cold. I had a smokey flavored dark beer, my husband a spring ale that is light and almost hop free. I really wanted to try the unhappy gnome but at almost 9 percent alcohol I had the desire to stay awake for rest of the day. I declined. 

A few moments later, I wore a beer on my back. The guy next to me spills an entire pint of beer down my back. Okay, I didn't wear the entire pint, my husband shared some of that joy with me. I was hoping he would offer an apology by the way of buying my beer. He didn't. He must of been a broke college kid.

No, this glass did not fall into my purse

After our pints, we purchased two glasses. At this point if I wanted a glass they would just fall in my purse and I'd walk out; however the glasses I wanted weren't the ones we were drinking out of. 

Our total bill $4.00. That was for 2 pints and 2 glasses. This is why I love coupons. 

As for Oakshire, yes we will go back. Next time, I will order pizza delivery.

Prost!

Just say NO to Bacon fest :( Part I

Yes, that's a maple bar with Bacon! 

Rogue Ale Eugene held their second annual Bacon Fest. For me, it was my first, last and only Bacon Fest.

This is such a sad statement for me.

First, I love bacon. Second, I love beer. Third, I'm a fan of Rogue. 

The Bacon fest was to start at 2:00. For $10 bucks it's beer and a box of pork. Oh goodie! Beer and bacon! Color me happy. My husband and I arrived promptly at 1:50 pm. Yes, for me that is prompt. Being on time, or late is not my personality. 

The Bacon Fest was behind Rogue Ale in a parking lot. Security and an orange fence surrounded the area. We were told by security we must enter the event through the restaurant. 

1:51 pm In the hot, small, long hallway we waited with a whole host of people. We could see through the dirty window at the end of hallway people in the event. Bold as I am, I go outside to inquire why people are outside and we are not. I am assured we will be outside soon; those people are shouldn't be there. 

2:12 pm, Twenty minutes and fifty people later, finally we are allowed to mix and mingle with the people who were allowed to entry through the outside gate. For our $10 we are given five tickets. 

Is this is sign to come???

2:17 pm I find us a a couple of chairs under the pop-up shade on this unseasonably warm day for Oregon. My husband stands in line for the beer. 

2:29 He returns with a tiny 8 ounce plastic cup with warm beer and a impressive foam head for four tickets. 

I found a Rogue Ale worker and ask about the tickets and pricing. Beer is 4 tickets, a taster of beer is one ticket. The box of pig and Voodoo donuts is free.

Okay then.

2:30 Voodoo donuts are offered on a back table hidden from most the festival. There is 250 people present.  There is only 100 donuts. I think we got the last maple bacon bar. I shared.

2:32 my warm beer is gone.

Too bad I didn't get any pig.

2:27 no pig yet. Our table mates leave. They cant buy cold beer inside Rogue ale and bring it outside and they can't buy more tickets for 8 ounces of warm beer. 

3:30 the pig is out. My husband takes pictures and I wait in a line of 300 people in the hot sun. 

 I even wore my Rogue shirt......oh well. Prost!

3:37 the first plates of pig are out. My husband pulls me out of the line. The boxes of pig are indeed a plate with one, yes one slice of pig.  He's not waiting in a hour long line for a bite of pig. 

3:40 And that was our experience of Rogue Ale Bacon Fest. Almost two hours for a few ounces of warm beer. 

Disgusted at being underwhelmed we are not impressed and won't be back despite my love affair with Rogue Ale.

Leaving Rogue Ale.....we find a new brewery.

Read part II.

Until then, Prost!

Back to Ft. Stevens Campground

On the path to the beach. Love the moss.

What defines camping? Is it hiking into the wilderness and with only your gear on your back? Or is being away from home without your cell phone/laptop and cooking over an open camp fire?


On a perfectly fine raining day, back to Fort Steven’s we go. I never thought the State’s Largest Park would be such a draw for me. But it is my favorite park for camping and activities.

Near Sunset on the beach.

Besides being on the beach, the park has a lake with lots of grassy area’s surrounding it. Prefect for kids to play in, fishers and kayakers as well.

The park has plenty of paved bicycle trails and walking paths. In addition, historical buildings and bunkers. You can see the place where the only bomb was dropped by the Japanese on the continental US during WWII. And if that is not enough entertainment, the Columbia River meets the ocean nearby (one easy car ride or one very long bike ride.) You can watch a wind surfer as the barges of grain goes by.

He's a local I'm sure

As for the town, all the stores you’d ever need camping; Fred Myers for the items you may have forgotten; Starbucks when camp coffee just quite cut it anymore and breweries. Several breweries. Take your growler and for about $13 bucks you can drink four and a half pints of freshly tapped ale around the camp fire.

Our style of camping is renting a deluxe cabin. A cabin that comes with a mini-kitchen (full size refrigerator, sink and microwave) a living room with a television & DVD player, and a bathroom with your own shower and toilet you don’t have to share with rest of the camp ground. In addition, there is a gas grill off the patio along with the standard campfire pit and picnic table.

The front porch of the cabin.

No drama, no entertaining stories. Just a relaxing time exploring the area, enjoying the great outdoors and cooking some mouthwatering food over a camp fire. And yes, the grub was great and the beer fresh. Who cares if it rains???


Fort Stevens, I will be back.

German Brats, Beer...camp fire..prefect.

Prost.

Beer Only Diet



At Munich Oktoberfest. Another hero of mine.



"Just cut out carbs" is what my doctor told me when I sought out diet advise.

He might of just taken away to will to live at-that-moment.

A couple of years ago I read this blog about a guy who gave up all food for lent and only drank beer. Lent that year was particularily long at 46 days. Before he started his beer-only diet, he went to the doctor make sure he was healthy enough for such a diet.  Fourty-six days later, he was twenty-six pounds lighter and rose to the top of my one of my most-favorite-people list by breaking his beer only diet by drinking a bacon milk shake. Oh yes, my kind of person indeed. 

After admiring such a feat and fantasing about a beer only diet, I was ready to embark on such an adventure when I recieved a layoff notice at work. What excellent timing to shed a few pounds.

But as fate would have it; I gained employed the day-after I was laid off. I chucked the beer-only diet since now I'm a government employee. I didn't think the agency wanted the such press that an employee is allow is drink beer at work. (Another great fantasy) 

So back to present day when I have to shed weight the old fashioned way; eating.  Carb-less eating with one exception; beer.

Prost!

Here's an article from CNN about this Beer-only-diet-guy.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/25/my-take-what-i-learned-from-my-46-day-beer-only-fast/

TIMBER!

Before the Timber Game, Jeld Wen Field

When a tree falls in the woods, do you yell Timber??

If you at soccer game in Portland, you would. And you’d be yelling a heck of lot more than that.

At a brewery in Bisbee Arizona.

My professional soccer cherry was broken this past Saturday night. On a whim, I purchased two tickets to the season sold out, stadium sold out game. I’ve heard how Portlanders are crazy about their soccer and I wanted to experience it for myself.

Okay, that’s not the truth. The real reason is that I own Timbers sweatshirt. My husband purchased Timbers sweatshirts for us about a year ago so we could board first on Alaska Airlines. Since we only carry-on luggage spending $20 on clearance shirts seemed like a bargin in order to board first and place our bags in the overhead bin. And thought it time I wore the sweatshirt to a game.

However, I am told by my brother simply wearing the sweatshirt is not good enough; I need the Timbers scarf. Serious? Serious. After finding a $6.00 parking garage near the stadium narrow enough that only a Smart Car could comfortability park and drive in; we made our way to the Jeld Wen field hours before the game to visit the Fans store to potentially buy a scarf. After all, we wanted to fit in.

Yes, what this blog should be all about....

The scarves are not cheap, starting at $30 and the “scarf of the month” is slightly discounted at $28 bucks. So much for fitting in. We didn’t buy.

Walking to our favorite section of Portland to eat and shop, the Pearl district we witnessed all the Timber scarves walking past us. Tons of them. Everyone was wearing them but us.

At one of my favorite stores, one of the sales girl was more excited that us about us going to the game. Her exact words in which she said numerous times, “I’m so jealous; those games are so much fun. I’m so jealous. Wish I could go.” Now that I’ve typed that, it sounds lame. But her enthusiasm for us going to the game was almost embarrassing to me. Or maybe it was because I wasn't wearing a scarf and she was.

Game time rolls around and let me tell you, it was was out-of-this-world. Our cheap seats were covered. Score! A big deal in the pouring rain, and such a great relief.

We sat in our cheap seats surrounded by scarves. Young, old, and babies in front carry packs had on a scarf. But us. I saw one person wearing two of them. I considered snagging one of hers...but.....

The Timber Army

And those Timber fans are CRAZY. They stood the entire time, they chanted and made noise continually sang the ENTIRE time (most of the songs were Christmas tunes re-worked) and they flung around those scarves. At one point, people held their scarves in front of them like a banner. What that was all about; I don’t know. I also learned that Salvador sucks. The fans chatted about him sucking. (What he did, who he is and why he sucks, again I don’t know.) Some of the chats to me sounded like they either had stress or transmitted diseases. Maybe both. Maybe I need to go to a hearing specialist. I didn't hear any songs about scarves tho. Maybe by then I was deaf from the continually chat of the crowd.



What it was; it was nothing like I had ever experience. I do know this,

When I root, I root for the Timbers! And you better wear a scarf!

PROST!

My App Misses Me

My Run Keeper application sent me a message stating it missed me.

Yes, an application on my cell phone misses me and it’s only been three days since I’ve last used it. (And I had a pretty awesome run with a record breaking pace I might add.)

I opened my Run Keeper, looked at all my past run activities and made big plans with the app to use it again tomorrow. Feeling needed, I looked at my other apps.

I haven’t played Angry Birds in almost six months. Angry Birds hasn’t sent me a message. Those poor birds are not out killing pigs.

And with a name like Babbel, the language learning app you’d think it would be screaming OPEN ME OPEN ME or rather it should be screaming öffnen Sie mich. I’m going to Germany soon and you’d think I’d be practicing daily but it’s been months.

When is the last time I looked at the night sky and identified stars using Google Sky Map? The safe answer would be never. Surprised that app hasn’t deleted itself.

I’m sure my life would be better off if some apps did delete themselves due to excessive usage like Facebook or the super colossal waste of time; Pinterest (unless of course you like looking at food you’ll never make.)

I scrolled through my phone and wondered why I have Today in History, Coupons or Ice Cream Jump. Amazon could be helpful if I actually opened it much like the app Play Books. I must admit, I have never played with a book, I’m known for the wild and crazy behavior of actually reading a book.

Our lives are being intertwined with modern technology that exists in the palm of hands. Soon, we’ll be wearing watches that does all this or on our eyeglasses. (And you throught Star Trek was futuristic.)

Now that I’ve depressed myself, I need to find the Brewski app. Better yet, I should take off my sweat pants, get dressed and find my local craft brewery and have an actual beer in the physical world and talk to live people.

Prost.