Milwaukee

This year I was much more limited in my choices for my annual baseball trip. My only two requirements for the trip are that I visit a stadium that is new to me and that it occurs in April or May.  The last couple of years the Pirates have had extended west coast trips which opened up a lot of new stadiums to visit.  This year the schedule wasn't as kind. 

I've been to a lot of the east coast stadiums so my best options were Miami, Milwaukee and Philly. Milwaukee was the winner since it was a weekend and weather wasn't a concern because of the retractable roof. 

Overall we had a great time. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and the Milwaukee fans were very friendly.  The only negative aspect of Miller Park is that even though or hotel was close it wasn't an easy walk.  Plus there isn't much in the way of bars and restaurants by the stadium. This really wasn't a big deal for us as Ubers were cheap and many of the bars offered shuttles.

Here are some photos

 This is Third Space Brewing.  Of the two breweries we visited it had the best beers.

 Delicious barrel aged beer in the background.

 Jenga is an underrated drinking game.

 Our seats are Friday were legit. The season ticket holders were surprised we got three tickets together at such great prices on a Friday. The Pirates won this game which also featured an inside the park homerun by Starling Marte.

 We visited Third Space Brewing right before the Friday game.  I tried everything on their menu besides this pale ale.  The beer gods were on my side when I found it in cans at the park.

 We went to City Lights Brewing on Cinco De Mayo.  They had a Mariachi band come in and play for about 45 minutes which was a nice touch.  While I liked the Third Space beer better the atmosphere was a little better here at least on this day. 

 This was the best beer at City Lights in my opinion.  Nitro Coconut Porter.  Tons of flavor even with a lower abv. 

 Our seats on Saturday.  It was kind of weird as it seemed liked the least attended game all weekend yet we had the most trouble with tickets.  Either way these were just fine.  The Pirates had a mini bullpen letdown which cost them the game late.

 Our seats Sunday.  The game was pretty enjoyable at the Pirates crushed the Brewers.  Also most fans left early which made for an easy ride back to our hotel.

 I wanted to go to the Lakefront brewery but time just didn't permit. 

 Our last beer oriented stop was a craft beer bar called Sugar Maple.  It was awesome! Tons of choices and a very friendly staff.  Plus being that it was a Sunday evening it wasn't that crowded.

 Here is the front entrance.  It is kind of tucked away in a neighborhood. 

 Delicious Beer!!!!

Devil Horns!

Milwaukee's most famous residents

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A Three Hour Game Can't Spoil an Entire Weekend

The WVU game didn't have the result I was hoping for, but overall it was a fun experience.  The game was about evenly matched as you can get.  You could probably make an argument that it was the best game of the entire opening weekend, although Liberty beating Baylor was fun.

Probably the worst thing about the game was the venue.  Fed Ex field is where the Redskins play their games.  In terms of other NFL stadiums it is kind of isolated being that it is in Landover MD. The closest Metro station is a long walk so many people were screwed after the game as the Metro closes at midnight. Uber and Lyft had hefty surcharges and long lines and I'm sure cabs were outrageously expensive if you were heading back to DC.  For a ton of reasons this game would have been better suited for a 4pm start.

 Here is the view from my seat.

My buddy and I paid for a tailgate sponsored by the DC chapter of the WVU Alumni Association. It was money well spent. 

A sea of  blue and gold. 

 This was some of Saturday's activities.  A trip to my favorite DC brewery, Ocelot.

 A little sampling.

 Night scotch

Even with the loss it was a fun weekend.  I'm not a big fan of neutral site locations, but the DC area works well for both Vtech and WVU.  I'm hoping the game can become a regular event in the near future where we can just alternate home and home.

Back to cards tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

Going Out in Style

This weekend was spent celebrating the end of my brother in laws life....whoops, I mean single life. 

 Eight of us met up in Pittsburgh to play Scrabble and drink green tea.

 I was the old man of the group as I'm ten years older than my brother in law. My wife designated me the "responsible one" to make sure everyone comes back in one piece.

In all seriousness it was a fun weekend that was centered around 3 big events. First was our big dinner Friday night at the Hofbrauhaus. 

The Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh is modeled after the original in Munich. It is a great place to take large parties. Oh yeah, they have beer.....really big 64oz mugs of beer. 

 This place is where diets go to die.

 The "Haus Band"

Our second big event was a Pirates game.

 The Maz statue in the background.

 It started out as a really nice day.

 Our seats

 Mother Nature thought we were drinking slowly so she spotted us an extra 90 minutes or so....It turned out to be a really good game as the Pirates hit 3 homers in a win.  It was also Gregory Polanco bobblehead day so that was an extra bonus.

Before we left town on Sunday we decided to hit the preseason Steelers game.

 It was very hot clear day.

 We didn't stay the whole time because preseason football is boring and the heat was overbearing.  The casino next door has a very powerful air conditioner and free drinks. Holy crap did that air conditioner feel good.  I think my eyeballs were even sweating.  Note to self....Don't spend 48 hours partying and then expect to be comfortable in stifling heat.

We came out of the weekend unscathed so I consider the whole bachelor weekend a success. There might have been a few headaches and fatigue, but nothing some aspirin and your own bed can't cure.

Back to cards tomorrow!  Cheers to my brother in law Steven.

Beach Cards

I've spent the last 5 days in North Carolina doing the family beach thing. All in all it was a pretty good trip since this was my daughters first long car trip. I'm a night person so I just drove doing her normal sleeping hours and thankfully we avoided a car meltdown.  We weren't too worried though as she has already conquered an airplane ride, so if you can do that you should be able to handle the car. I'm also thankful for modern technology. Tip of the cap to my parents who were stuck with three boys beating the hell out of each other every trip.

It was cool seeing my daughters reactions to the aquarium. I enjoyed the pier beer immensely.  If I was president I would mandate that one afternoon beer should be consumed for the good of the country.  Vote Walk!

I did open one pack of cards doing my time off and pulled a Pirate!!!

Vintage stock team card /99.  I'm a sucker for these cards and I have accumulated quite a few parallels so this was an extra nice pull.

It was nice getting back in town and having today to get life back in order. The bad thing is I'm back on the road for a work retreat Saturday.  Maybe I'll find some cards, 100% chance I find a beer.

Thanks for reading.

Back From the Desert

All good things come to an end.  Sad to see the trip end as I had a great time in Arizona.  I got to see three games and meet up with fellow blogger Daniel. Big props to him for hooking me up with tickets on Friday.  My brother and I greatly appreciate it.

Our down time was spent eating food and drinking some local brews. I probably need to cleanse for a week or two to get back in working order.  All diets out the window for vacation.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.  If you follow me on Twitter some of these may be repeats.

 I thought the in game experience was pretty good at Chase Field.  We sat on both the first and third base sides and enjoyed each. We were kind of surprised at the lack of attendance for the fireworks night, especially since the Dbacks are so good at home.

 A couple more drinks I would have probably tried to jump in....

 Note: Neither were the real Clemente...

 This was a flight of delicious beer from the Arizona Wilderness brewery.

 I got really close and the security didn't say anything....

 Make some Noise!!!!

 This was a cool shot of Cutch

 My wife laughs at me because I'm totally anti fireworks. Usually I just use them as an excuse to beat traffic or head to a bar after the game.  This is proof to her that I actually watched them.

 A view from the craft beer bar in the outfield.

 Another picture with proof of purchase!

This was taken at the top of our hotel.  I don't think we were supposed to be up there. 

Overall this was a great trip. I'm already trying to decide where the 2018 trip might be. Early favorite is San Francisco.  

Thanks for reading.  I'll announce the contest winner tomorrow.