Newz from the North

Alas no biking happening this week as we ended up taking a Rental car up this way. So instead I've been keeping busy while the wife is off in her meetings everyday.

Monday I hit Sam Adams for the brew tour and tasting. The tour blew, the tasting was cool. I got to try the Boston Area only Boston Brick red, a nice Irish red ale. Plus 2 other regular favs of the Lager and Summer. Also got to vote on 2 new potential beers one was a pils and one was another lager, that was maltier than the regular Boston Lager.

Tuesday was spent packing the hotel room backup and then the afternoon wandering Medford Ma and then reading for about 2 hours in the public library, devouring a newer Clive Cussler book.

Today I've been wandering College hill of Providence and seeing sites and changes in the last 10+ years since I left. Its a mix of good and bad I suppose. The brown campus is under some heavy duty off session work right now.

ALSO yesterday we hit a Trendy little restaurant I will find the name and address of later and had a triple of good Belgians, starting out with a Karmelit Triple, then went to the Kasteel Donker and finished with a Kwak. The first 2 were in 750 ML bottles and not a bad value at 14-15 each. I had some awesome fish and chips done in a porter infused batter. Nice.

Tomorrow I'll probably troll around Downtown Providence and maybe tour some of RISD's art galleries. We'll see. Friday is still up in the air.

Lotso Beer and a bit of Biking

Beer first I must say. Lots of recent trials and a few acquisitions.

At Whole Foods Lake Fairfax I finally tried Dale's. Nice! Smooth and crisp with nice hop balance. Not overly hopped and a nice bit of malt. Good head also. Excellent with the BBQ. Though I refuse to pay the $10 or whatever a 6 pack in cans. F-That.

Saturday - Brasserie Beck - Vday dinner sponsored by El Wyf! She hooked me up with an excellent dinner and we each drank 2 big belgians. Super nice!
I drank -
Rochefort 10 - Wow nice and dark and smooth. Super malty with nice hints of raisins plums and such. Bottled.
GuldenDraak - Damn nice. Draft from Keg. - Dark and malty also but less fruit than the Rochefort, a bit sweeter though it went very well with dessert. Hints of hops also cut the sweet at the finish, a bit. Pleasant long finish.
Wife had
Kwak - Bottled to interesting wooden handled glass thing. This earns points alone. Smooth and dark, with light fruit hints. Not as heavy as my 2 beers.
Damn can't remember her 2nd. But it was good. Edit later....:)
Check out there website at Brasserie Beck

Sunday - The Gordon for some crazy high end super nice cocktails. Then we hit Ulah for dinner and I had a Leffe Brune and it was super good with everything. Smooth and tasty.

I picked up a big bottle of Troegs Nugget Necktar and am looking forward to trying that and a big bottle of Weyerback Slam Dunkel, a double dunkelweizen to share with the wyf.

LAst week was a total fitness BUST. However I'm back on the bike, Sunday I hit black hills and suffered horribly. It's really embarrassing. A week of the bike and my legs went into total rebellion. So I punished them at the gym on monday doing a mix of box jumps, upper body and then road the upright cycle doing intervals for 40 mins. Today I got back out and rode Cabin John between Democracy and Tuckerman Ln. It was better than Sunday fro sure and my legs felt better, but I need to keep pushing more, and get out and just do some stupid mileage on the canal on Mondays. Alas I'm working next monday it appears.

Part of me is suicidally tempted to prep for riding up in Fredrock tommorow. We'll see, depends on weather and if I can entice any pokey riders out. Time to shower and make some dinner.