Sometimes it makes sense for me to ramble on as I recap a travel experiences and other times I have pictures that will do a much better job.  Also since this is a post holiday Monday, I suspect that most people could do without excessive reading today.

On the second day of our visit to Baltimore, The Wife and I took the train down to Washington D.C. to stroll around a bit and meet up with my good friend, Mr. Wilson.  The day after that, Mr. Wilson took a train up to Baltimore to keep me company (a.k.a. bar hop with me) while The Wife was in her conference all day.  That pretty much explains the string of pictures below.

Union Station has some beautiful spaces

A different view of The Capitol

Not bad for behind thick glass

Stopped for a moment to smell the flowers

Finally some shade for a moment

Head just inside the door and go to your right . . .

and bring your reading glasses for the beer list!

I must pause to make a more prominent mention of The Brickskeller, where we stopped in D.C. for lunch (and beer).  Having a list of 1000 bottles of beer to choose from can be a very difficult situation.  Usually I gravitate towards the draft list, which will narrow my selection down a bit before I really put any effort into a decision.  I did not have that option, so that day I focused on American breweries.  I do enjoy beer from many other places, but there is so much good craft beer in the United States to choose from that I have much work to do just to try half of it.  So after that, I looked for breweries that I don’t see here in Florida.  It just so happened that I landed at what was actually the first beer on the list and a 21^st Amendment Brew Free or Die.  It was a pretty IPA heavy weekend all in all.

21st Amendment - Brew Free or Die

How would you tackle such a big list of beer options?

Mr. Wilson come to Baltimore via Penn Station

Keeping me company at Koopers

I do love me some good beer in a can.

How sad . . . no really.

There are so many more pictures to get to.  Maybe I will give Baltimore and D.C. another feature sometime soon.

Until then . . .

What a great week and a half of traveling it has been.  The last stop in Maine has been fantastic as expected and today we must leave family and this wonderful place behind.  This morning we will head towards Portland to catch our flight to Orlando later today.  It is possible that we will hit another brewery tour on the way out, but we will certainly find something fun to do between here and there.

The real world (unfortunately) awaits our return, though we are both looking forward to seeing the furry members of our family again soon.  As we leave this morning I will leave you with a few images of what we will be putting in our rear view.

Soothing sounds

"The beach"

Cannot beat the view

Until next time

A football Sunday will soon help us transition back to reality and me back to all things beer.  Until then . . .

So if you were at all curious about the “all you can eat whatever” that I was referring to yesterday, this FAT Monday (food and travel) post will make the picture more clear.

On Saturday The Wife and I headed down to Celebration to make use of the free passes that she won for the never ending pie buffet at the American Pie Council / Crisco National Pie Championships.  I did not read the link in the previous sentence before attending so I was not really sure what to expect, though I did have it in my head that homemade pies would be served at some level.  However as the article says, slices of pie were “provided by the nation’s leading commercial pie makers.”

A great day to be outside.

That was not bad, but it just is not the same as grandma’s homemade goodness.  To make up for the slight pie letdown, we had gorgeous (though slightly too hot) weather and the company of Jim, Jackie, and Little E.  Minus the stomach discomfort afterward from eating too much it was a great time.  Enough talk . . .  now some pictures.

This crowds were bigger and bigger as you neared to pie.

Strawberry-rhubarb . . . I think.

As my first official good deed of the day, we smuggled a few pieces of blackberry/raspberry pie out of the event to bring to a friend at Celebration Town Tavern.  I think he was happy about the surprise delivery.

Pie makes people happy . . . just ask Rich.

On our way back home we parked the car in downtown Orlando and took a walk through the Central Florida Earth Day 2010 event that was set up around Lake Eola.  We did the same last year with The Mother-in-law and enjoyed it enough to put it on the schedule again this year.  As you will see, The Wife even made a new friend.

There was beer available . . .

. . . and oxygen for those looking to sample.

We have too many pets already!

All in all a great day and without me having even one beer while we were out!  To cap it all off we even made it home in time to catch the end of the NFL Draft (which consumes me this time of year) and put our feet up a bit after walking so much.  Did I mention that we spent a total of two dollars (parking) for the afternoon of fun?

We all get into the draft at my house!

Until the next FAT post . . .

Maybe the fact that The Wife and I had never been to a UCF football game until this weekend is a clear sign that we are transplants from the north and have yet to assimilate. I mean we have lived in our house for well over 4 years now and the campus is only about 8 miles or so from us. Even when we first moved down here and they were still playing in the Citrus Bowl we were never more than a quick 20-30 minute car ride away. Even with my beloved Orange being pretty awful for the last 10 years, they were the only team that I would bend my schedule to see (including once driving 4.5 hours each way to see a game).

However, via the generosity of Will (@willspot) offering to take us along to the homecoming game this weekend we finally broke through whatever barrier was holding us back all this time.

After getting there a few hours in advance and setting up some shade, it was time to sit back with a few beers, some good food, and watch a little of the other college football action happening elsewhere.

Doing my best to help get to the beer drinking part.

The students were out in force.

Though there is no photographic evidence, Will has engineered a very nice satellite setup to watch television with while tailgating. The Wife enjoyed it so much I think there were thoughts of running a cable out to the back yard just to watch television in the cool fall breeze on Saturdays and Sundays.

Yes, I did mention that we enjoyed a few beers and since that is what I typically mention on this site I will be a bit more specific. Since Will is one who enjoys Porters, Stouts and dark ales in general that is what I brought along for the occasion. A little Bell’s Expedition Stout, Bell’s Double Cream Stout, Great Divide Hibernation Ale , and some Terrapin Reunion ’10 did a lot to make the afternoon more enjoyable. I am pretty sure we went a lot heavier (and craftier) with our beers than was the norm for everyone else that afternoon.

After enjoying the tasty tasty beers (and food) it was off to what we were actually there for.

Getting the crowd worked up before the start of the game.

I love seeing the whole field at once.

The Wife getting her cheer on.

The game itself was not very competitive (as UCF made Rice look pretty bad) but the experience and the afternoon was a lot of fun. For an abundance of reasons that some of the readers of this site can attest to, taking a Saturday off to enjoy a football game was not typical of my college experience. If only for that reason it was nice to be on a campus and in that environment again.

Dante and Kevin enjoying the halftime recognition.

Many thanks to Will for thinking of us and giving us the chance to enjoy the day of football fun with him!

It is time to go back to the beginning of the trip.  Immediately after returning I made a point to highlight my time visiting Cantillon, then moving on to various spots in Italy without ever making mention of the rest of our time in Brussels.

The truth is that I loved Brussels and Bruges and just being in Belgium overall.  Though I have to think it will not happen (since there are so many other places to visit) I would love to go back to Belgium someday both to be in Brussels again and also to see more of the country that we did not get to this time.

On the whole the people in Brussels were very pleasant and that went a long way to making us feel comfortable.  Our hotel was great (including the surprise balcony), the food and the beer (of course) were wonderful, and the city was simply enjoyable to be walking around in.  Had we known the travel hell that awaited us as we passed through Paris we definitely would have stayed another night in Brussels.

Sante!