Camping in August

A few weeks ago, Chris and I went camping. It was raining, but we had a good time anyway.

Of course, on the way to the campsite, we had to stop for a beer at a brewery!



Okay, so it was a little out of our way, but we went to a brewery in Western Massachussetts called Barrington Brewery. The food was good, the beer was good. It was a nice detour.



And they had AMAZING chocolate cake. I have to admit that I am not a big fan of chocolate cake. But they had an article on their wall where someone had written to Bon Appetit, asking for the recipe. And it was called something like "chocolate stout cake". How could we resist?



Yes, this piece really is as big as it looks. We were literally eating it for days afterward. (Like we were going to throw away that deliciousness!)



Then we headed for the main event - camping! We got there, and set up our tent. We were all set to check out a brewery in town, but when we got there it was not actually a brewery, just a bar - so we headed back to the tent for dinner.







We had to get the fire going before we could start cooking our brats. We realized we didn't have any kindling, and it was raining so we couldn't exactly gather twigs and pine needles. Luckily, I had a US map from 1994 in the trunk which was pretty much destroyed anyway... so...





I think that was Alabama.



So we got our fire going, and enjoyed a delicious dinner,





and a couple of Trader Joe's beers. Our new favorite bargain!



Then we played cards in the tent, but I was so exhausted I was falling asleep! So we called it a night after one or two games.



The next morning,



Chris made another excellent fire, and I made breakfast!











I had found a recipe for a delicious camp breakfast, which I modified a little bit...



It didn't come out exactly like I had planned, but it was ok. :)



Lilly is not allowed on furniture, but we are a little more flexible about the air mattress, so it is a treat for all of us to cuddle when we go camping.





We headed home, but there was, of course, one more stop before we went back to the city...



Brewery! You guessed it! We stopped at Gilded Otter Brewing Co.



This place had a huge selection



of really tasty beers



and pizza served with greens



and cheese curds!



This is a place we'd definitely like to check out again, and not far from the city.



We had a great camping trip!

Rhode Island Trip

I can't believe it has been over a month since this trip we took! But I guess I never did post about it. Neither of us had ever been to Providence, so we took a little overnight road trip up there a few weeks ago.





The traffic was, unfortunately, one of the most memorable parts of the trip. It reminded us that when we try to get out of the city, we have to get an EARLY start.





Our first stop in Providence was (big surprise) a dog park! Lilly had a good time meeting some fellow New England dogs.







After checking into our hotel and getting Lilly settled, we headed over to - another big surprise - a brewpub!



Union Station Brewery had pretty decent beers and pretty decent food. As often happens, we bypassed the wait for a table and grabbed seats at the bar. We usually prefer to eat at the bar anyway so it makes it easy for us to sit down quickly!





The most memorable part about this place was their pizza. They make the crust with spent grains from the brewing process! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the pizza. But the wings were good too. :)



Our next stop was Trinity Brewing Company.



They had good beers, and a more relaxed atmosphere. We sat in the lower level and it was almost empty, which was nice.







While we were sitting there, a song came on in the bar, and I knew instantly where I had heard it before. It took a little prodding but Chris also remembered this scene...

Click on me please!

I could not embed this video! Boo. Anyway I walked around singing "BAAABYYY!" for the rest of the evening.

Next, we headed to Providence's Riverwalk festival. They set a bunch of fires on the river, (sounds like a strange thing to have a festival about, but very cool in person)



















and also have outdoor events like performers







and a jazz concert.













I didn't get any photos the next day, but it was fairly uneventful. The most unfortunate part was hunting down a "brewpub" which had great reviews for its pizza, only to find out it was just a local pizza joint and served a couple of commercial brews on tap. Darn! We didn't eat because we weren't all that hungry anyway. It did, however, free up some time for us to stop in Bru Haus in New Haven, which was great! We will be stopping there on all of our future trips up 95! So, despite the traffic and a couple of missed turns here and there, we had an awesome weekend.