Life and such: Another Day another Adventure

I am becoming quite the little adventurer. Well, for a little while. Soon enough I will be hunkered down in Geneva again, maintaining. Until then, though, watch out world! :)

Yesterday, my App mentor, Bill, and I set up a get together in Ithaca. I like Ithaca and don't get to spend as much time there as I would like. I decided that I would also make it a beer day.

Got up, got out and mailed a package and stopped the mail for a few days (while I go to Maine and pick mom up). The drive to Ithaca was uneventful, though the GPS wanted to send me on yet again a different route. One that I will actually take, I think next time. Apparently it thinks that taking the route by the lake is a smidge better than the other one. Good to know!

Arrived in Ithaca a little early, as is my habit. Sat on the mall across from the restaurant and watched people as I waited for Bill to get there. A dog who came out of an apartment (with his owners of course) went directly to a grill in the sidewalk and peed there. How awesome is that?!

Bill appeared and we had a good meal at Viva. I like Mexican food overall. Since I was feeling salad like, I decided to have a taco salad with chicken. Very tasty. With two dressings on the side - buttermilk and lime something. Both went well with the salad. Bill had a tasty looking quesadilla.

After lunch, we headed to Bill's "office" - College Town Bagels! We got a lot accomplished and he showed me some cool code. I do have a bunch of work to do though, to integrate what he showed me into Flippety and have it all work. Maybe I will have some time to do that on Sunday (most of the next two days will be spent driving). More on Flippety in a writing blog soon.

After we were finished, I headed off to my beer adventure. First stop, Bacchus Brewing in Dryden NY, about 15 minutes from Ithaca. They are brand spanking new. Just opened in March. Kristen, the brewer, was running the tasting room. They had three beers - a Belgian Pale, a Red Rye and an IPA. The IPA was the best of the three. I don't know why, but some reds taste a little like dirt to me. And the Belgian didn't taste very Belgian-y - which for those of you who know me, I was happy about! The tastes were a little teeny for my, er, taste.

Next stop, Scalehouse Brew Pub. Apparently the owner of a pizza place decided to turn his hobby into part of his business. They had three of their own beers on tap - A pilsner, a red and a double bock. And to round out the flight of four, they made a sort of black and tan combining the double bock and the red. None of them were scintillating. The bock was the best of the three. The food looked good, but I didn't eat any. I had a nice chat with a woman who was doing laundry next door and who worked nearby - something of a regular. And I showed Flippety to a friendly server - she said she would download it if it were available! Yay!

Then I headed downtown. I don't know where my parking Karma went, but it seems to have abandoned me for the time being. There was some sort of parade happening in Ithaca, so parking was horrendous! I eventually found a spot and walked to my last beer place of the visit - Bandwagon. I have wanted to visit Bandwagon for a long-ish while. It is subterranean. Cool space - but the whole place felt a bit pretentious to me. They did have the best of the beers of the day. And the food all looked great. But the staff left me cold. I had a good talk with an emergency medicine doctor who was in town for a home wine makers conference. And a brief chat with a physicist from Montreal doing his post doc work at Cornell. And a good venting session with a cook who works at the Bandwagon and echoed my sentiments about the place's pretentiousness. As for the beers - they all were good. None stood out as exemplary, but I would definitely hoist a pint of each, given the right opportunity!

As some of you know, I am starting work on a book about brewpubs. And two got added to the list from my adventure!

Home was looking pretty good and it didn't take long to get there - just the same hour it always does. I do wish Ithaca were closer - if it were only half an hour away I would go once every couple of weeks at least!