On Friday, we revisited the beach and then ate lunch at Anthony's Fish Grotto. After he was finished eating, Tyler defiantly grabbed Tyson's empty pint glass, and rushed away. I chased after him just in time to see him enter the kitchen, hoist the glass above his head and shout, "All done!", waiting for an adult to take the glass away from him. The kitchen staff stopped what they were doing to gather around and laugh, with comments ranging from Tyler needing another beer, to his desire to bus his own table, to options for a future career in the culinary industry.
After lunch, it was time to get down to serious business. And by serious business, naturally I mean touring local breweries.
We loved Green Flash Brewing Company. Great setup, fun tour, and of course, great beer.
We anxiously awaited 5pm, the designated tour time.
However, Tyler, for what ever reason, didn't seem all that excited about it.
This is Green Flash's second brewery - when they expanded, they moved into this location, and their brewmaster, who we keep hearing spent 20 years on a submarine, designed this highly efficient layout.
The Green Flash employees all seemed to be very happy people, and their sense of humor was evident in various ways during the tour.
Every comprehensive brewery tour includes a hop and barley display...
And of course, that's about the time Tyler likes to wake up and pay attention - he loves chewing on malted barley. This always makes him a big hit with the tour guide.
Our tour guide was lots of fun, full of enthusiasm, and kept asking questions to asses "the nerd factor of this tour." Hey Erin, Jessica from Green Flash says to tell you hi!
Tyler eventually lost his focus. He instead turned to Lightning McQueen to assess his health status after poor Lightning suffered a near drowning incident involving a certain toilet bowl. (We're happy to report, Lightning has made a miraculous recovery.)
After the tour, we were invited to sample four Green Flash beers. It was tough to narrow all the choices down to four.
Tyson demonstrated the key technique for visiting multiple breweries in a single day - alternating beer with water.
Next on the agenda was Hess Brewing Company. Unlike Green Flash and Stone, Hess is a nanobrewery. It was a little hard to find, because it was simply one suite in an industrial park. We knew we were on the right track when we saw a bunch of twenty/thirtysomethings standing around in a parking lot with pint glasses in their hands.
Remember all that fancy equipment at Green Flash? Or even the photo of the equipment at Pizza Port? This is all it takes for Hess to operate at its current level of production:
Great beer, and I loved the casual atmosphere, drinking a beer in a parking lot. There was even a nice view of hot air balloons at sunset.
And a conveniently located food truck, serving quesadillas, tacos, and burritos. And this is where I learned that it is absolutely NOT okay to assume Tyler will share his quesadilla. I hope one day Tyler and Tyson both will forgive me.
Our final assignment for the evening was The Lost Abbey brewing company. Also tucked away in an office park, but the silo sits, a welcoming beacon to seekers of beer from near and far.
These pictures are a bit misleading, it was actually quite dark in The Lost Abbey, giving it a bar feel.
This painting seemed kind of out of place in the dark...
And I was completely confused to find this on the other side of it:
Tyson later explained to me that Port Brewing Company and The Lost Abbey are the same company, The Lost Abbey referring to their line of Belgian style beers.
Between the bar atmosphere, my full stomach's disinclination for additional nourishment (perhaps due to my intense feelings of guilt as Tyler clung to Tyson for comfort, still reeling from the betrayal in discovering the loss of his precious quesadilla), when Tyson suddenly proclaimed, "This is no place for kids!", we called it an early night.
For the record, I fully intended to buy Tyler another quesadilla on the way back to the hotel, but when I heard Tyler snoring and saw he had fallen asleep in his carseat, I decided to skip it, thinking he'd forget about it by morning. Boy was I wrong. But that's a story for another day.
Happy Birthday, Tyson!
