My Epic Summer Weekend In Pictures: Craft Beer Brewing!

Well this was definitely an interesting, action packed Epic Weekend In Pictures. A pool, cornhole bag toss set, and 5 gallons of beer, these were a few of my favorite things this weekend. We will start our Epic Weekend with Friday afternoon. My bestie Carrie reached out to me looking for some fun Weekend shenanigans. She texted the right guy lol. We did a Friday happy hour beer at The Irish Cottage Inn in Franklin, then ventured over to Hef's Hutt after the intense rain stopped. Since it was a heavy late afternoon rain storm, we didn't have to contend with much of a golfer crowd at Mountain Creek's Hef's Hutt. We knew we would be meeting up with besties Brad and JG. We ran into besty Marky at The Cottage and invited him to join our growing party. We didn't know how long we would be at Hef's Hutt, the original plan was a Happy Hour drink all of us together.

We had fun catching each other up on our weeks and busting on each other at times. Laughing with friends busting on each other, the way life should be. We then stumbled onto their cornhole bag toss setup. Believe it or not, our friend JG had never ever played cornhole in his life. I didn't know how that could possibly be possible. JG was able to successfully use his math and geometry skills and pick up this new to him game very quickly. We played 3 total games and they were epic, marathon heavyweight style knock out battles. I played in two of them. The final game we played was almost like an overtime marathon session. While we did lose, I could brag on one round where 3 out of 4 bags went in the hole clean swoosh style! I think I've done all 4 one or two times in my cornhole playing days. We were all so exhausted after the third marathon game we made our way back inside. We then played pool for my first time in many years. My rustiness definitely showed there, not one of my better nor memorable games. I didn't crush our team or hold us back, but I didn't really do much to help us either. Ah well. We still had so much fun doing it playing the yard games together all of us laughing and loving the friendly, intense competitions.

One victory I made happened Friday afternoon where I successfully made reservations to Industry Restaurant And Bar in Sparta. Talk about the newest, latest, greatest, wildest new restaurants in Sussex County. My friend owner Steve Scro is meticulous with his attention to detail. I love how they even have a plasma tv for their kitchen team. Little things can definitely be big things for sure. Everyone there was absolutely fantastic. I took a fun, new friend out for lunch and we shared the bacon wrapped scallops. They were delicious, and then we followed it up with these waffles that were mixed with apple slices and gave that maple bourbon flavor. We had an absolutely wonderful time. I enjoyed several good laughs with my friend.

Saturday afternoon is when things become rather Epic. I'm a complete rookie newbie when it comes to the world of craft beer brewing. My dear friends Christine and Chris have been inviting me forever to brew beer with them. A few weeks ago we pulled up my calendar on my phone and this past Saturday July 23 was my next available free night. We put the event in my calendar for 6pm. Being a brand new rookie to craft beer brewing, I had absolutely no idea how long and intense of a process this is. I was expecting this to take 1 hour or 90 minutes. Instead it was closer to 6 hours long LOL. I had such a wonderful time getting to help Chris and learn about the science behind these craft beers. Chris always makes it both fun and informative, he's great at explaining everything to us in layman terms that we can understand. I can't wait for it to come to fruition in the next 5-6 weeks! Brewing craft beer isn't something you can just watch on Youtube and try to figure it out. I highly recommend trying it, but with an experienced beer brewer. Wow, I'm making this sound like skydiving! In some ways it can be like that. Great Saturday night with Christine, Chris and Carrie. Success!

Sunday was HOT. I was also getting ready to fill in for Steve Andrews on our WSUS morning show. I'm doing double duty today both his show and mine. I'm crossing my fingers and toes we get him back from Jury Duty soon! I was able to beat the heat by going to my happy place, The 180 Vista Pool at Crystal Springs. The minute I showed up and said I was with iHeartMedia the girl there said "yep, I know that voice!" LOL.

I had a nice, mellow afternoon under an umbrella poolside so it wasn't too too hot for me.

Overall I had a fun weekend with friends making memories we won't ever forget. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend!