AZ Strong Beer Festival 2014

 Tires pumped and helmets on, we departed our house around 12:30 (quite a few Saturdays ago) and cruised to midtown to attend our first ever AZ Strong Beer Festival.  The weather couldn't have been better.  Sunny, but with a few passing, wispy clouds to provide a break from the sun's intensity.  We parked our bikes: got our wrist bands: and entered beertopia.

Not being the beer aficionado between the two of us, I simply followed Jonathan's lead.  We started at Dragoon, with a delicious red IPA ale, then drifted from stand to stand trying red IPAs, cappuccino stouts, and various other ales and IPAS.  Surprisingly, we also tried a mead that knocked our non-existent socks off.  Since our samples were small in proportion we both wondered if the handful of tickets we received would last through the day, turns out we had far more than expected left over by the end of the event.

We tried brews from a few favorites including, Dragoon (Tucson, AZ), Borderlands (Tucsosn, AZ), Sierra (Chico, CA), Stone (San Diego, CA), Big Daddy (San Fran, CA.), Lagunitas (Petaluma, CA) and also shared a delicious piece of pizza from, believe it or not, a mobile Pizza truck named The Rocket.  I don't know quite how they worked in the truck with actual Pizza ovens blasting away, but the design of the interior was rather amazing.



As the event was nearing its end, we sat on a grassy hill near the exit and watched the departing crowd filter past security. This was some good people watching.  At one point two guys started approaching an atm stand near the bottom of the hill. One, noticeably obliterated, started to very clumsily unzip his pants. Thankfully his less than, but still drunk buddy figured out, the blurry structure he was headed towards was not a port-a-potty.  I was interested to see the police reaction, but think it was best for everyone that he zipped up and staggered to the actual port-a-potties.

Our next source of entertainment turned out to be one of the main, if not the, beer purchaser for the swanky Whole Foods in Scottsdale.  He was stagger-drifting towards the ATM and started staring in our direction.  In true buzzed heckler fashion I asked if he was going to get us money from the ATM.  What turned into casual banter resulted in our buddy taking a seat with us on the knoll discussing his fiancee (not in attendance), his love of beer and his job.  We had quite a fun conversation with the guy and will eventually take him up on his offer of drastically price reduced beer the next time we are in his store.

 Our ride home was safe and thankfully uneventful.  I was glad we didn't have to wait for a taxi or try to light rail it half way home. Needless to say, we will definitely attend this event next year!!

CA wine infusion

Just like last year, the Friday of MLK weekend I boarded a flight from PHX to OAK very much looking forward to a couple of carefree days spent in Sonoma catching up with my girlies and enjoying some fabulous wine tasting.  We would be spending our weekend in a different region than last year and I never could have imagined how different the wine would taste from the previous area we toured.We drove about most of the day tasting wines here and there and of course, posing for a few photos.

Silly Alicia...

After a short, ill prepared for Alameda's chilly weather, run on Saturday morning, I awaited Laura and Lindy's arrival to officially start our wine tasting weekend. We stopped in Oakland to pick up Meghan before heading North to meet up with Alicia at the Fairmont hotel in Sonoma.  Alicia had graciously offered to be our DD for our tasting adventures and traveling about in her kick ass mustang surely added some spice to the weekend. Before officially hitting the wine tasting road, we drove from the parking area to the front of the hotel with the Mustang's top down, gaining the vocal envy of a few passersby. Young, sassy, and very giddy to be reunited, what's not to envy!

Had the day been a bit warmer we would have pulled out all the stops and toured wine country in a mustang with its top down, but with all the driving and a lingering chill in the air we opted for top up cruising.   We started at a vineyard with an amazing, love inspired view (look close among the trees). Can't say their wines were my favorite, but with so many more places to try, no need to rush the taste buds. Like most places they provided a snack, which turned out to be a fabulous gumbo, complete with a recipe card.  I finally made their gumbo the other night, with a few minor modifications, and it turned out quite delicious!
















One of Saturday's vineyards that sticks out in my mind is named Old World Winery. They had this of a full bodied red called Abourious, which is unique to this winery due to the fact that Old World is the only Vineyard in the United States to grow the specific grape.  It just so happens that their US acreage is a portion of the last remaining 1,000 acres in the world where this special grape still grows. Needless to say, this isn't a wine you asked for a second taste of, if you had no intention of purchasing. 


 At one point we took the tour off road when we accidentally turned down the road for the vineyard property vs. where the tasting room was located. Again, always an adventure with 5 giggly ladies packed into a car. Near the early afternoon we managed to arrive at one winery where, unbeknownst to me, a wasp who I must have known is a past life, was very much looking forward to reuniting.  I tried to maintain my cool for as long as possible, but after the second time it had unbeknownst to me landed on my body (only knew when I was alerted by a friend standing mighty far way), I could no longer maintain composure.  After returning inside with Lindy and Alicia, both got a kick out of the fact that my reaction was "an improvement" from bug reactions in years past.  Moving on...

 Our final stop on Saturday included not only the expected tasting options but also a barrel tasting event complete with all sorts of new-to-me wines. I appreciated the fact that the people providing the tastes were more intoxicated than we were, and despite my inability to taste the "pepper" in a certain wine, my novice red wine tastes were not judged or berated.Instead of dancing our tails off like last year we enjoyed a tasty dinner complete with some unintentional, comical screaming at a waiter, and plenty of girly gab. 

Smart

Blurry pictures... bound to happen on wine tours...

More wine, press faster!

Delicious barrel tasting

Dawn at The Fairmont

 Meghan, Lindy and I started off the next morning with some yoga and a few chuckles at our occasional inflexibility.  Back in the Mustang we made our way back out to the tasting rooms before finding a fun bar/restaurant for the final playoff game between the 49ers and the Seahawks. Since its way past when I should have posted this you'll know the Seahawks won that game leaving the city we were visiting in a quiet, defeated slump. We finished our day at the Bear Republic brewery before returning to our hotel (complete with creepy lamp) and partaking in a little more chit chatting.  

Lindy and I on game day

Meghan and I with the
Bear Republic Bear.(kindly
excuse the harshly cold flash)

 We parted ways on Monday morning, Alicia heading back home, Meghan, Laura and Lindy heading back to the bay area and me heading to LA for a quick work trip.  I had a fabulous time hanging out with my ladies and hope to make these adventures a more frequent occurrence. Life has a way of speeding past us all, but its unbelievably refreshing to reconnect and spend time with close friends as if we had never been apart.