Never a boring thursday, in Bellingham.

Well,

my friend giacomo and his family came to bellingham last weekend for vacation, visiting their family, and so, i took a day off to go visit them seeing how close it is.  well, we left around 11, and got down to the border fine, but then we got held up in some mad lunch hour border crossing fiasco, that ended up taking us an hour and a half to get a cross.  always a treat, sitting in an idling car moving nowhere. 

Anywho, we ended up arriving, just to say hi and we jumped back in the car to go to a nice restaurant they knew about, called Boundary Bay.  WELL…  let me tell you this, i ended up finding out its a brewpub!!  now, they did not know about my recent brewing obsession, and therefore, i decided it was the perfect time to tell them. 

So, we got to the boundary bay brewpub, and it was pretty cool.  its a huge restaurant, with a part of the brewery visible thru some glass, and even a large outdoor area where they hold beerfeests and such. 

So, in order to broaden my horizons and my palette, i of course ordered the beer sampler.  off to the top of my head i can remember the Amber Ale, Blond, Most bitter, and an IPA.  anyways, there were 6 to try.  they came out in these small glasses, with a little sheet that tells you what hops they used, and malts and such.  RIGHT UP MY ALLEY!

so, that was super.  then i asked if i could go have a brewery tour. they said sure, and one of their brewers actually came out and talked to us for about 10 min, gave us some free samples, and then i went and had about a 45 min tour where we just talked shop, basically.  i know the theory behind much of what larger breweries use, and the equipment, but i have never seen any.  so i was asking tons of specific questions about what they do, and the differences between our operation and scaling up and such.  it was great, and a i learned a whole lot.  i think he enjoyed talking to someone also who knows a little about brewing, and is asking some more specific questions, instead of just, so, is this where you add the alcohol?  apparently that is a common question hes asked!!

after that, i came back out, and giac had bought me a growler(0.5gal) of the amber ale, which i shall break out this saturday at the dan’s going away party.

then we headed back to the house, and flew my park flyer, which giacomo’s kid really enjoyed.  i think we got a little airpane fanatic on our hands.  ill try to continue to sway him towards airplanes as he gets older!

but anyways, we had a wonderful afternoon after sitting in the garden, it was a beautiful day out, and we spent a lovely time with them there.  even got some wicked enchilada’s for dinner, which turned yesterday into just about the perfect day.  brewery tours, flying, friends and nice weather.  not much that can beat that.

you can view all the pictures here