Live from Japan!

We began our new adventure this past weekend with a road trip to Minnesota. Now, the primary purpose of the road trip was to drop of all of our stuff for long term storage in Aaron’s parents house (thanks again Eric and Virginia). The secondary purpose was to spend some quality time with our friends and introduce them to Minnesota.

I always struggle with introducing people to a new city, especially one that I am quite fond of. It always seems like so much pressure to find fun things to do that are unique to that locale. In the interest of finding uniquely Minnesotan things to do, we picked a few highlights.

First, we took them to breakfast at Key’s in White Bear Lake. Key’s is a family owned business that began in 1973. As usual, the food was tasty and the service was good as well. I also learned a very important lesson. When the menu says that the pancakes are as big as manhole covers, two of them are probably unnecessary.

After we unpacked the moving truck we began our mission to find microbrews that Ben and Jill could take back with them. We ended up acquiring many new and interesting brews for them to share, sample and review for the Beer Dorks website. Some of which included beers from Surly, Lake Superior Brewing Company, and Schell Brewery, among others.

We also went to Ax-man. Ax-man is a local surplus shop that has a little bit of everything. Electronic components, pocket knives, an iron lung, etc. And everything was super cheap! Each of us walked out with a few treasures and some good laughs.

For dinner we went to Town Hall Brewing Company. Town Hall is a small microbrewery in St. Paul, Minnesota. The beer was fantastic, I especially enjoyed the Ruby Jack. Ruby Jack was considered a belgian wheat wine, more than a beer and boy was it nice. Smooth and yummy but it definitely kicked me in the ass. Although, I’m assuming that anything with more than 10% abv would kick me in the ass.

Not only was the beer good, but the company was fantastic, Mara and Nate joined up with us for the evening as well. The service was sub-par, especially the kitchen. Our food didn’t come out at the same time and many of our orders were filled incorrectly. The server said it best himself, “Looks like we have the B-Team cooks in the kitchen today.”

Then we wrapped up the day sitting on the porch in White Bear, drinking some fine beer (mmm…Breckenridge Vanilla Porter), and playing Jenga. Although Jenga and beer together, not always a good combination.