honeymoon - day 8

today we woke up in our temporary house in pemaquid point, provided to us by one of my mother's wonderful friends. after hanging around for a bit and having some coffee we decided to head into the nearest town (damariscotta, me) for some eats, where once again we ran into some sort of fall festival. they had giant pumpkins, carved and uncarved up and down the street and i heard someone talking about a regatta in the harbor. we had a great meal at the salt bay cafe and then walked around to look at the giant pumpkins.




then we walked across the street and behind a row of buildings where we found the pumpkin growing contest winners. basically, they are some sort of unholy radioactive miracle-gro pumpkins that given the opportunity would probably try and overthrow the united states. they were so big they had to be brought in on a trailer. the winner was 1129lbs.



then we walked over to the water where we saw a few of the remaining regatta entrants straggling up the boat ramp.



yes, you are in fact looking at what i presume to be a father and son motoring around in 6hp pumpkin. this was not just any old regatta. this was a pumpkin regatta. here are some pics of a few of the other "boats" that had already been pulled out of the water. i have no idea where to begin describing how awesome an idea this is. i'm pretty sure i would enter if i was a local.

beverage season

maybe it has something to do with the fact that i was born on halloween, but i really do love the fall. it's got quite a few things going on for it... cooler weather, football, free candy, columbus day (my favorite holiday of them all), did i mention my birthday? but none of these things are the subject of this particular blog entry. no, today i am going to write about all my favorite fall beverages.
	we'll start with one of the more common ones. the starbucks pumpkin spice latte. some might argue that the winter seasonal gingerbread latte is superior. i would argue that those people are idiots. when starbucks is making the pumpkin spice lattes, i would estimate that my weekly starbucks expenditure goes from something pretty close to zero to something pretty unreasonable.
as delicious and comforting the pumpkin spice latte is, nothing beats that warm feeling that a few pints of beer can give you and there is no better and socially acceptable time (with the possible exception of st. patties day) to get totally shitfaced than oktoberfest. the sam seasonals are always good and the oktoberfest is no exception. oh, and did i mention their brewery is in boston and laura and i are going for the tour on saturday?
	you might remember when i blogged about the jack's pumpkin spice beer. it's pretty good, but the shipyard pumpkinhead is damn good. it's hard to find around DC. in fact, i've never seen any shipyard stuff around DC. lucky for me, i happen to be in massachusets right now, just one state away from the shipyard brewery and found a six-pack in the local grocery store. we'll be visiting their brewery in portland, maine next week. hopefully i can get them to ship me a keg. you know how some guys like to go on a road trip and see a baseball game in every stadium? i'm thinking beer brewery road trip.

high expectations - update

i drank it. it was pretty good.

side note, some of my favorite beer stores in the area:

• corridor wine & liquor - 3321 fort meade road laurel, MD 20724
• astor wine & liquors - 364 domer ave, laurel, MD 20707
• chevy chase wine & spirits - 5544 connecticut ave nw, washington DC

high expectations

high expectations are generally a precursor to disappointment. a little over a year ago they had this jack's pumpkin spice ale on tap at the green turtle and i really liked it, though unfortunately they didn't have it this fall and i'm not sure why. i tried in vain to find a six pack of this stuff and hit all the beer stores i know that have really good selections and came up empty and i stopped actively looking.

then, on one of my many trips to florida, i went to a piggly wiggly or peebles or something to get some dinner, and there in the middle of the floor was a stack of cases of the stuff. of course, being in florida, it would have been pretty inconvenient to try and bring it home, and i figured, hey, if it's just sitting here in some random grocery store, i should be able to find some at home, right?

when i got home i renewed my search for the brew, and again, after trying a number of different stores came home empty handed. as all the seasonal brews changed from fall to winter ales, i gave up. and then it happened. saturday. after christmas. laura and i went to cuba de ayer (get the empanadas!!!) for dinner. afterwards, i popped into the liquor store next door to grab some beer for later that evening and there it was. hiding on the bottom shelf of the cooler. the last six-pack of jack's pumpkin spice ale. i grabbed it without hesitation and headed to the counter. i asked the clerk if they had anymore but he said that was the last one.

i tried so hard to find this beer, i'm now concerned that is has become over hyped and that if i drink it, i'll just be disappointed. the beer has been sitting in the fridge for three days now, unopened.

on a side note, if anyone knows where to get shipyard brewing company caramel lager (had it on tap once in hilton head and never heard of seen it again) or their pumpkinhead ale around washington dc, please let me know.