Snowboard meet-up

The snowboard meet-up group had an off-season happy hour. This irish bar they like to go to is huge with 3 big areas. We often get free appetizers. They even had Stone and Backdraft Brown if I remember correctly. I had to convince the waitress though; apparently it’s not their most popular selections. I ate some free food and had a good time. About 20 or so people showed up. A few familiar faces from last year. I’m looking forward to a few big trips next year with the group.

Kirby was in town

Kirby was in town as she bounced between NYC with Lisa and Detroit for a workshop. As usual she is busy all day and it's not until 10 or so that she is ready to relax with me. And as usual we got ful with Lisa in the morning. Best breakfast ever. After dinner with her parents she was off again that evening on her way back to Colombia.

Freshfarm Local Beer Dinner

Yesterday was another beer dinner at Pizzeria Paradiso. The theme this time was fresh and local. Freshfarm puts on many of the DC area farmer’s markets and they brought in all fresh local ingredients for the dinner. Greg, the Pizzeria Paradiso beer guy, paired each course with a beer from the region. I took Shree and we both enjoyed it. We sat with another couple who were a bit eccentric, talkative, friendly, and fans of good beer and wine.

Menu:

Herb Roasted Squash
Dogfish Head - Sah’tea

Trio of Raw Salads
fennel w/ lemon & basil, beet w/ balsamic & chives, carrot w/ sherry & tarragon
Victory – Wild Devil

Crabby Beans
beans (green, wax, haricot vert & roma) topped w/ Red Sky crab salad
Clipper City - Red Sky at Night Saison

Garden Pizza
radicchio, dandelion greens, garlic scapes, sweet peppers, onion, feta on Hefeweizen spelt crust
Vintage 50 – Hefeweizen

Goat Pie
goat sausage, goat cheese, chopped tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella
Troegs - Troeganator Doublebock

Angels & Cherries
Foxtrot angel food cake topped w/ cherries, garnished w/ Foxtrot caramel sauce & Foxtrot vanilla whipped cream
Weyerbacher - Foxtrot

The herb roasted squash was perfectly roasted and tasted very good. Maybe it was that fresh local taste??? The Dogfish Head Sah’tea is quite unique. This is the second time I’ve had it. The first being about 15 minutes before we sat down. I saw that it was on the draft list while waiting to sit and since it’s new, rare, and I haven’t had it yet I had to order it. Then we sit down and see the dinner menu and it’s the first on the list. It has a tea smell and taste. You can also taste the juniper berries. There is a lot going on with this beer: tea, juniper berries, a few other unique ingredients, boiled with hot rocks, and fermented with a German Weizen yeast. Decent stuff.

The trio of salads was enjoyed by the group but I’m not a beet or fennel fan. It wasn’t bad so I ate it all. The Victory Wild Devil was its good usual self and not a bad pairing.

The beans had one of two meat ingredients of the night. Shree is a vegetarian so she didn’t miss out on much. The beans were good. Obviously fresh. I’m not so familiar with the various kinds but those at my table were impressed with the variety. The crab was good too of course. I’ve had the Red Sky at Night Saison only once or twice before. I’m a fan of saisons. And as usual they used the beer in the dressing.

Greg said this Garden Pizza was their flagship of the night. I assume because of all the fresh veges they threw on it. It was pretty good. The tasted like a wheat crust because of the Hefeweizen they threw in it. Not sure I’ve had the Vintage 50 Hefeweizen before but it was pretty good. This beer is only available at the restaurant. A favorite local brewer, Bill Madden, gave the place a reputation for good beers but he has since moved on to a new brewpub opening not too far from me. So Bill gave a keg to Greg since it is not legal for him to sell it.

The Goat Pie was the favorite of the table. The goat cheese is what made it. I might have to start getting that on my zza’s from now on. This is probably the point of the night where I can’t really comment confidently on the beer. I’m sure Troeg’s doublebock went well with the goat sausage and cheese.

As usual they always have an interesting dessert. The angel food cake was made with the Foxtrot beer which made it darker. I didn’t realize till now that the whipped cream was also made with the beer. I’m not a cherry fan or a big angel food cake fan but I did eat all the cake. I’ve never heard of Weyerbacher so that was new for me.

Next month the theme is summer beers. I think I’ll skip that one; you can’t go to them all.

C&O Park (Great Falls)

Shree and I hit the Billy Goat trail on Sunday. I think this is the third time I’ve done the trail. I always forget how long and difficult the terrain is which is an issue when I drag along less than agile folks. Shree is not the tallest gal for climbing over rocks, is a little hesitant, and not exactly a rock scrambler. We made it through slowly but without much difficultly. It was a rather hot and humid day. Lots of people were out. And as usually we saw lots of unprepared people on the trail. People with little kids, babies, sandals, no water, and unfit for the distance and difficulty of the trail. We heard that two people had to be evacuated. We saw one of them with a broken ankle. A rescue helicopter circled overhead for about an hour. People unknowingly suspected they were searching the water for a body. A vulture also circled right over our heads which didn’t seem to be a good sign.

We saw lots of more capable and prepared enthusiasts as well. Lots of rock climbers were on the Virginia side. Rafters and kayakers were paddling down the river. I even saw what appeared to be a paddle surfers. Along the trail fine female athletes with lots of skin showing cruised on past us. We also saw some people cliff jumping. I heard it at first and only saw an extremely large splash that I knew wasn’t some small drop. Minutes later after much peer pressure a woman jumped off of the ledge. It looks to be nearly 50 feet. A guy jumped in after her. I was jealous of all these adrenaline seekers. The wildlife observed included a few deer, the usual sunning turtles, and a freaking tall bird. No lizards or snakes this time.

Pics and video

Fourth o July

I took Shal to the office for the fireworks. Usually I ride down to the mall amongst the thousands of people but I’m still not healed. My office happens to be on the 10th floor of a building on the river overlooking DC. There is a great view of the river and the national mall. With DC’s height restriction you can see across the whole city. My coworker Sonny had about 10 people down on the plaza with beer, liquor, and various food. I brought a bottle of Allagash Victoria Ale and Shal brought some Magic Hat Wacko (summer ale). Our spot must not have been too secret as a whole bunch of other people joined us before the show. Shal and I went up to the office for a better view. Not a bad show. Everyone had a good time.

dangerous pot smokers

As Shal and I were walking downtown near Farragut this morning around 2:30am we came across some young college kid who tried to warn us about someone ahead who was forcing people to smoke pot. He was a curious fellow; very adamant about the danger before us. Not exactly sober either. We walked on wondering just what kind of hallucinogens this guy was on. A half block later we ran in to two guys hanging out on the sidewalk, in the middle of downtown DC, smoking a glass pipe. They were full on out in the open puffing down. I turned around and noted that this must have been what the funked up kid was talking about. The two guys sharing the bowl knew exactly who I was referring to. The black dude had to walk up and tell us how crazy that kid was. Which was quite funny because the kid was trying to warn us about these dangerous pot smokers. The white dude just sat there all stoned holding the bag and puffing the pipe. It was an amusing situation.

Allegheny NF

I went with my boss and a guy who works for me to the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania this week. This is the third forest we have visited after the Deschutes in Oregon and the Bitterroot in Montana. The Allegheny is a pretty nice forest for the east. It has a big reservoir and a wild and scenic river. The other thing they have is a crap load of oil and gas development. Those with subterranean rights supersede those with land rights. The Forest Service only has land rights. The oil companies come in and drill wherever they want. Each drill needs a road. It’s a huge impact on the forest. There are thousands of them and thousands more being proposed. The Forest Service can’t keep track of all the drills and roads and the oil companies don’t maintain them. Hopefully we can help them out with a bit of mobile technology. After staying at the Microhotel in small little Marionville we found a nice new Hampton Inn in Warren. The residents of Warren had chairs already lined up on the Fourth of July parade route. It must be a pretty exciting parade. The forest is about a six hour drive from DC. No quick way to get there.

Pics and video