Talk about a lot of activity in a short time! You can’t say we don’t pack it in. Anyway, as you may recall, we headed to Jacksonville for the weekend. Now originally, we signed up for this whiskey tasting with some friends because it was slated to be Friday evening. There was some confusion because he first wrote Friday the 19th, which was wrong, and when he corrected it, I guess we thought he still meant Friday, just got the date wrong. So even though we planned to have a meal, hit one brewery, then do that, we had to adjust when we found out the event was actually Saturday evening. It was not the worst but I am never good with rolling with the punches.

So we got into town between 2 and 3 and hit Chuy’s, because we don’t pass it up when we can get it; ours closed shortly after Covid began. We sat outside, which was nice but also, maybe a bit too breezy? I hadn’t been near the coast in a while I guess. Anyway, we got on with brewery-hopping that day instead of Saturday; flip flopping our plans.

First, Aardwolf, because they had good style choices last visit. They had a few this time but not amazing so, one flight and a 4 pack to go and we moved onto Intuition. The last time we drank there was August 2021 and it was an unfair taste for me, since I was actually getting over Covid, though didn’t know it until Ash passed me a glass and I couldn’t smell or taste it. Well, this brewery is still no good, for us anyway. We had a pilsner and a kolsch and neither was to style. Sigh.

Moving along, we hit Ruby Beach, which apparently just won some Best in Jacksonville award. Indeed, they did have some good stuff. Much better than Intuition, that’s for sure! One flight there and then off to Bold City (downtown). That was definitely where the locals go. We walked in and the guys at the bar greeted us warmly while we waited for the barkeep to show up. This place distributes widely around here so I wasn’t expecting much else but they actually had a few really good pours. And 8 dollar flights, which is a steal.

We moved onto our final place of the night, Myrtle Avenue. Seemed like a place designed for families; lots of toys and outdoor space with playground equipment. We got to talking the server who ended up being the brewer, which was cool. Not all their beer was good but he was super nice and gave us free stickers and a bottle opener. So that was pretty neat and a nice way to end the night. Finally went to our airbnb, which was nice, though odd to be a room in someone’s home. It was separated enough though. After a long tiring day, I just need a quiet, comfortable place to sleep!

I took zero pictures that evening; I just lived in the moment!

Since Saturday now had two things we had to do – dinner reservations at 4 and then the tasting at 7 – we planned to do bottle shops and waste time on maybe one or two other places. Well, you know us. LOL. We slept in a bit, walking out to breakfast by about 8:45. Last time, we discovered a little diner named the Fox, which was clearly where the locals go, so we walked up there and waited a bit before being seated. Excellent food as always; their sausage gravy is so good! We walked back and then decided to head to Total Wine first. They didn’t have as much as we’d hoped for but I think what’s finally happened is we’ve tried so many different beers, it’s becoming difficult to find anything new in our general region.

I thought we might head back to the airbnb but the Total Wine was nearly 25 mins away and that didn’t make sense. Jacksonville is a surprisingly large city, considering everything west of it in the panhandle is podunk! So, we made plans to hit the Jax beach breweries, since we really never explored those. First up was INK factory, which was really neat. They also served coffee and food and seemed like a good family location. I did take some photos on Saturday!

Their beer was actually good too! We then went to the Green Room, which was also a cool beachy location. Ash had checked a beer in here before, though he couldn’t remember it. Seems like it was in ’22 when he and his guy friends did some concert there. This brewery had a good selection and some tasty beers!

This was a pretty neat place and again, some good beers. The ones we hit on Saturday didn’t really disappoint! We next headed to Southern Swells but only because I’d had a pilsner at a beer festival – in a can – that was good and I wanted it on draft. They really only had two I wanted to try so we got those and moved on. The good thing about this brewery, though, was it was next to a Dollar Tree and the night before, my sunglasses broke! The screw came out of the hinge. Luckily, they’re Shady Rays, which has a lost/broken replacement thing. So, yay. I picked up some cheapo sunglasses just to get me through.

We moved onto a place named Engine 15, which was more like a brewpub. They had one bad beer and one good one so that was all we had. We needed to get home so we could move onto Buchner’s Beirhalle, which is a must visit if you’re ever here. We made our reservations for right when they opened because last time, we went around 8:30/9 on a Friday and had to wait a while. We got right in and ordered. It had already been a longer drinking day than we had planned but we’re seasoned vets and made it alright. Ash had a giant pretzel and I just ordered red cabbage and potato salad. Both were so good!

We had a little time to kill so we went back to the airbnb and changed, drank some water, rested a minute, before going to the reason we were even in town: the whiskey tasting. That was about a 15 min drive and held in the clubhouse of someone’s neighborhood. It was fun doing it in person; we have done them virtually a couple times now but nothing beats being there. We got small pours and learned a bit about tasting, etc. A nice night but a long day overall! We went home and crashed, that’s for sure!

We headed out around 8 the next morning. I’d prepped Easter baskets for the kids and let them know while we were driving back. I know my daughter was still so excited. Boys are getting too old now but they still thanked me and enjoyed the little gifts. Soon as I got home, I made guac while Ash rode 20, then I did my 15, showered and made tacos. We had a nice low-key day. I did laundry, caught up with the kids, watched last year’s NFL draft so we could plan for this year. We watched some of Severance season 2 later on, while also watching night 2 of Wrestlemania. I’m a long-time fan and like to check in now and then, see who’s big.

Might as well get both posts in one! Day 18, let’s go.

R is for Running

I debated running or resilience, but I went with running because we’re biking now and I kind of miss running. I do not have time for both right now!

I always swore I was not a runner and I hated outdoor running. When we started actually exercising in 2004, I was an elliptical person. It was better for the knees; I avoided the treadmill! Then somewhere in maybe 07/08, my brother in law lived with us and he had lost a ton of weight and gotten into running. When he started doing marathons, my husband wanted to be supportive and after going to one of his, he was hooked. Ash started running and then, shortly after I had our second child, so did I. I’ll never forget the start: I ran/walked 2 miles every other day for 2 weeks until I felt like I could go farther. I signed up for 5ks and 10ks. I then started training for half marathons. I think I have done six or seven now. I never did do a marathon though. I started training for one but had to have my appendix out and the recovery put me too far behind to make the one I’d signed up for.

The longest I have run is 17 miles; that was during the training. I’ve gone through all manner of phases with the activity; being slow, getting faster, not hitting my goal time and after losing weight during covid, getting much faster. The double bridge 15k in Pensacola was a particular win for me. Upon my second running, I shaved 17 minutes off my first finish time. That was probably my proudest running moment, followed closely by the Pine Run, which is a very hilly 12.5 mile trail race. It was not as fast as I wanted it to be but it was A LOT. Once that was done, I backed off because my heel was hurting and I was just sort of done.

I still enjoy it though; it’s very grounded compared to biking. You feel connected to the earth when you run. On the bike, to me, there’s some kind of disconnect. It’s you and the machine, not you and the pavement. I feel like I engage with my surroundings more when I run, even if I do have on headphones. I like listening to music while running because it’s like a little respite for my soul. It’s just me, the music, and the neighborhood. I am sure I will probably go back to it at some point; I just enjoy the get-away a little too much. Running makes you feel like you worked your body. Biking doesn’t do that same thing for me. It just hurts my quads.

I’ll probably always do some kind of walking or running; it’s so therapeutic and I know that one key to longevity is movement. I feel too often as people age, they become sedentary and I refuse. I’m so grateful we discovered the joy of running all those years ago and who knows? Maybe once RAGBRAI is over, I’ll go back to running.