I Survived!

Last night we stayed in a brewery hotel in a historic building. Chris had warned me that the bathrooms were in the hall and I figured that I would suck it up because I wanted to experience this cool place. I am happy to say that I survived it without any problem! The bathroom ended up being right across the narrow hallway from our room and it was amazingly clean!

Last night a rowdy group came in around 2am and they sounded pretty drunk. I thought, “Oh god, someone is going to be puking in my bathroom all night and it will be super gross in the morning”! And then, this morning I heard people taking a shower before me and I was getting more anxious by the minute. Well, when I went in, it looked like no one had been in there. Apparently, the hotel has someone cleaning it up after each person. Excellent for a germaphobe like me!

I don’t know if all places are as clean as this place (I don’t think so), so I don’t know how many chances I will want to take in the future. However, I’m glad that I didn’t pass up staying in this cool hotel because of the bathroom situation. If I survived, anyone can!

Unexpected in the Northwest

WAter St. Brewery - Port TownsendSo far the trip has had a few things I didn’t expect.  1) It’s raining and wet.  Okay, maybe one should expect that up here and I even knew what the weather forecast was, but rain like this at this time of year is apparently not usual. 2) The beer hasn’t been tasting that great to me.  Weird!  Chris and I decided that my taste buds must be off from a recent cold.

Other than that, it is beautiful up here and Sequim is having their annual lavender festival, with all things lavender!  Very cool! Even though I have a number of lavender plants at home, I decided that I want to plant a small plot just like a farm! (Chris doesn’t know that yet!)

We’re going to try to hike today and we hope that the weather cooperates.  But who knows, I guess I need to learn to go with the flow and expect the unexpected!

We Made it to Seattle

After a bit of delay, we made it to Seattle last night. After all that waiting around, we sure needed a few beers and luckily there is a brewpub 5 minutes from the Seattle Airport. (If only all airports were like that.) Good food and beer for weary travelers. One piece of advice, don’t argue with the stewardess unless you want to get thrown off the flight.

Today, we are off to the Olympic Peninsula where we will hit two or three more breweries and hopefully get some hiking in if the weather permits. Rain is expected the next few days and there are flash flood warnings for Olympic National Park. Oh… and there is a lavender festival…

Pacific Northwest Here We Come!

We’re in the final planning stages for our trip to the Pacific Northwest. We fly up to Seattle a week from Friday.

We will be hiking Olympic National Park, the Oregon Coast and some places in between.

As for beer, I have about a dozen breweries targeted that we are going to visit, plus visiting a few that we have already been to. We haven’t been to Bridgeport since the remodel so I am excited to see the new pub.

We are staying at 3 brewery hotels… Olympic Club in Centralia, WA, Rogue in Newport, OR plus the Inn at Cape Kiwanda/Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City, OR. After spending many a night in a German brewery hotel, this will be our first American experience.

To top everything off, we are making our return to the Oregon Brewers Festival… We haven’t been since 1999 which was our 7th straight OBF.

And we will be filming for beergeekTV especially at the OBF. Track us down… we will be at the dinner on Wednesday and the festival on Thursday (and maybe Sunday).

If you want to see our complete itinerary you can click here.