Odds and Ends 7

In less than 40 hours we will be sitting on the beach in Clearwater, FL soaking up some sun for an entire week. I plan on leaving my iphone off, no computer, no distractions from vacation. So if you're waiting for a return phone call or email, you won't get it! :) See ya when I get home.

To gear up for our vacation (and celebrate Devin's upcoming 30th Birthday), we (Kelli, Gram, and myself) spend a lovely evening up at a condo on Mt. Hood with the Vaughns. Nothing like sitting outside in the hot tub while it's snowing! I suppose it would have been more romantic if the one I was with would have been my wife rather than Devin, but win some, lose some. We were expecting Gram to go into "vacation sleep mode" which is when he wakes up screaming every 1 1/2 hours, but he slept extra-ordinarily well, which I hope is a good sign for next week in FL.

Speaking of Mt. Hood, we ate at the Ice Axe Grill in Government Camp and sampled all of their beers and I've got to say that I was impressed! I appreciate the fact that they were all beers in the 5% range. I'm tired of only seeing beers on tap at Portland establishments that are 6, 7, or even 10% alcohol. I want to enjoy a beer and relax with friends, not feel like going to sleep at 7:30pm. As Mark Sherwood wisely pointed out (as a fellow home brewer), it's much tougher to create a beer that tastes just as good at 5% as it would at 7%. That's very true!

See ya in a week!