Making the rounds

The long Columbus Day weekend featured a few nice experiences, both at local restaurants and via a couple of pleasant jaunts outside the immediate region. Thankfully, these quality experiences helped prevent the devastating Philadelphia Phillies playoff loss on Friday and the Philadelphia Eagles horrible defeat on Sunday from totally ruining the weekend.

The first photograph depicts the beer sampler my wife Alison ordered at Stoudt's Brewery in Adamstown, Pennsylvania on Saturday, October 8. Despite all the beers made on the premises, I opted for a glass of wine, a terrific Malbec. A delicious cheese plate (cheeses also made on the premises) preceded the drinks, and a shared Black Angus burger, also delicious, followed. It was a nice cap to a nice day trip to Berks County.

By the way, the individual beer glasses were indeed sample sized, a good bit smaller than they appear to be in the picture. Even with me helping her a little, Alison couldn't drink four regular-sized beers at one sitting.



Sunday, October 9, featured another day trip, this time to our regular stomping ground of Ocean City, New Jersey. The photo below shows the amazingly crowded (for October) boardwalk, as high temperatures brought out large volumes of people who had the same idea we did, namely "It's really nice out, so let's hit the shore for a few hours!" West Coast readers of Kindle Taproom might yawn over summer-like October weather, but we don't take it for granted here in the east.



On the way home from the shore on Sunday, we stopped at a familiar destination for us, Circle Liquors in Somers Point, New Jersey. We wanted to see if there were any deals at the popular retailer that's smartly stationed just outside the "dry" town of Ocean City (there are no bars, liquor stores, restaurants with liquor licenses, etc. in Ocean City). While many people stop off at Circle Liquors on the way into Ocean City (presumably to stock the refrigerators and shelves of their Ocean City vacation rental units with the adult beverages they can't buy once they're in the resort), we often stop there on the way back home, just to check out the specials.

The photograph below shows the establishment's ample selection of Van Gogh Vodka, encompassing the many, many flavors the brand offers. Alison picked out a bottle of Van Gogh's caramel flavored vodka. A little sweet for my taste (though I might have a small sip at some point), I just bought a bottle of an old reliable: Clos Du Bois Chardonnay. Both deals were good.



Oh, you want my usual literary connection to all this fun? Well, during the course of the weekend, Alison continued listening to Sue Grafton's I is for Innocent on her MP3 player, and I finished up, also on audio, Max Allan Collins' Marilyn Monroe mystery Bye Bye Baby (terrific book, review to follow). I also continued reading, on my Kindle, Paul Bishop's police thriller Hot Pursuit (also pretty great so far, review also to follow when I'm finished it).

But now, sigh, I'm back in the office. But that's okay. Work funds that meaningful part of life known as leisure time, which includes the activities described above and diversions like this blog!