Beer cruising

I was tardy. Yep, I was later yesterday. I had intended to be there for the official tap off at 10:45. Instead my first beer was opened at 10:48. I don't like being late.

But I wasn't as late as others were. I was the first to pop the top of the can of Lite. Three more would follow as well as some brats before we headed down to the first stop of the cruise, the Lakefront Brewery. Though technically it is on the Milwaukee River, a mucky looking river, it is as good a starting place as any. We collected out cups and beer tokens and bellied up to the bar. We were to get just 2 tokens. That sucked. But if they don't ask for the token, you don't need to give it to them. I chatted up the girl serving the beer, helping her with hangover remedies, grabbed the White bier and blended back into the crowd. One beer and I still have my tokens.

About a half hour later, and 3 more beers- not bad for just 2 tokens- we were down by the river watching the boat approaching. I liked the signs they had posted. "River contains high levels of bacteria. NO SWIMMING". Hmm... ya think? The bartender had told me about some kid jumping into the river last week just to cool off. Must have been a really stupid kid.

We were on the boat and heading south to the Milwaukee Ale House. It is pretty neat how they have built up the river area, with walkways throughout downtown. You can get pretty far along the river by foot. The Ale house wasn't as generous as Lakefront. We were given only one ticket for a beer. One frickin' ticket! WTF? How do you expect people to try your beers, enjoy and spread the word when you have one damn beer!?!?! So after we had downed the WHOLE ONE beer, a couple pitchers were purchased to ensure we weren't going dry. But as soon as that boat got there, we were on it.

The Rock Bottom Brewery was our last stop. For a chain, their beer is ok. Not as good as Lakefront but acceptable. But they had the audacity to make us listen to their spiel about making beer. Hey, zip it lady and get me some beer! After a little mocking of her presentation, she finally led us downstairs so we could get back to drinking. They poured like 2 pitchers of the 5 beers they had on tap for us to drink. With about 30 of us there, that wasn't going to last long. Soon we would be buying more beer again. They had some Scottish brew that was quite good as was the Hefe Weizen. But we were getting bored and soon retired outside to the patio. It was around 4 or so, I think. Our beer cruising was basically over. We needed something else to do, or more importantly, some place else to drink.

So we walked over to Mo's Irish pub to find they having a street festival. That will work. When you have a chance to drink openly on the public streets of Milwaukee, you do it. Some two piece band was on the makeshift stage, playing their guitars. They were boring us and we were getting hungry. It was time for some food. Though some kept insisting we just grab a burger from the tent, I wanted to sit down and enjoy myself. So a friend and I started walking down the street. That is when I noticed the Clock Steak House. They were supposed to cook a mighty tasty steak here and I was willing to find out.

We were immediately seated and drinking 7 & 7s soon. I nice NY Strip would be in front of me and I would devour that awesome piece of meat. Cooked cow rocks! I highly recommend the Clock to anyone. The steak was fantastic.

Needless to say, I was still drunk, but also stuffed. This is where it is good to have a tenant who drives a cab. A quick call and he was there to give us a ride back home. After a couple of beers in the backyard, it was time to call it. Still feeling buzzed up, I had a choice of going up to Big Mama's to check out the new bartender or going home and playing poker. My senses won out when I realized the bartender would be off duty and probably leaving right away as they mostly do.

So I went home and fired up the pc and made some money. I must have done pretty well because my balance this morning was quite a bit higher than I expected it to be. Like over $100 more. Sweet.

So the beer cruise was a good time. I guess the next one up is the Disposable. That is coming on Labor Day weekend. I will explain the Disposable later. For now, it is up to you to try and figure out what this can be.