My Adventures in New York and Boston : Part 2

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The saga continues on to part two of my travels. This part takes place in Boston.

The next morning I woke early and made my way to Penn Station to get on the bus to go to Boston. After being straight up confused on where to go and seeing the United States Army everywhere with machine guns? At every major hub of transportation in New York there are military and police dudes walking around or standing with machine guns. Kind of scary but I guess security has been ramped up lately in New York. I got to the line for the bus super late, but the bus had not arrived yet thank god. Megabus rules and I toke that 4-hour trip to Boston. Outlets and free wifi on the bus is always a plus.

If you ever get a chance go north up Manhattan to Boston do it! The land gets so amazing up that way. Roads that go through mountains and all kinds of bridges on top of other bridges. It is seriously a beautiful thing to see. Valleys with houses built into the side as you get into Connecticut. Just a really nice trip in general. Well other than the dude who talked a lot and probably was on some type of Methamphetamine. Dude had boogers galore also. OH well.

Arrived in Boston and went directly from Bus Station to Sam Adams Brewery, and just a little side note here, the transit system in Boston made me laugh a little bit. It is called the “T” and the cards you get to go on the trains are called a Charlie Card. Kind of a funny thing. Basically the “T” is a trolley that can go under ground at times. You can tell that it was built in the 60’s and they were trying to give it a futuristic feel. Its orange and built in a dome like structure. Wood paneling EVERYWHERE! Haha a must see.

Made it to the brewery, and toke a tour of the Brewery and had some Red Brick Ale that you can only drink in Boston. That was pretty amazing to taste and see where all the magic happens of a beer I have been collecting for about 5 years now. Saw some Utopias brewing and aging in the Oak barrels. If you follow beer at all you understand why this is a big deal. The next release of this beer will be in 2011 and it goes for about $200 a bottle, and that is at cost. Sam Adams makes no money on this brew. Good luck on finding it, and if you do expect to pay around $300 for it. Mad respect for this company as they basically brought craft brewing back in action. After that I asked a local girl and her friend (I could tell he was visiting her) if she could suggest a place for me to eat some good food and she invited me along with them to go to a local bar.

She said: “I am pretty sure your not a serial killer so you can come hang with us if you want”

I promptly responded with: “How do I know you guys are not the serial killers?”

She responded with: “because you would already be dead”

So naturally I jumped in a car with them and went to an amazing bar and drank some really awesome beers and had a great dinner with these two. Very smart people, one was a Physiologist at the age of 26 and the other was in pharmacy school and about to graduate with his masters. I eventually felt like a burden to them so I split ways and made my way to the Hostel I would be staying for the night.

I am not even kidding this place was soooo scary. I opened the door to the place and I swear lighting struck in the back ground. There was a phone you had to dial to get the people to come to the front door. A old school rotary phone. “Dial 1 2 for service” So I did and a man with the typical horror movie voice answered “How may I be of service to you?” I told him who I was and it buzzed me in. He told me to sit on the couch and wait for him to come out for assistance. I seriously was waiting to hear the chainsaw crank up and him come running out and chop me up in top little pieces. This place is totally where the must of filmed the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. If you have ever watched that movie you would understand, everything from the location of the steps to the red door. Also a deer head on the wall with a bandana on for added taste. The guy came out to help me and was a skinny sickly little dude. He helped me out and then told me to follow him to my quarters. We went across the street to an even older house and went through like 5 locked doors and up to the 4th floor. I stayed in a room with 5 mattresses on the floor and had the whole floor to my self. Most of the time this is a good thing but in this place it was a SCARY thing!! I decided I should go out and mingle some more so I would not have to be at the place unless I needed to sleep. I went out had some more amazing beers, meet some neat people and made my way back to the Hostel. It was about 3am at this point, and I walked into the house and there was an old man hutch back and all with a cane walking around. He asked who I was and I told him I was staying upstairs. He then asked my name and I responded.

Me: “My name is Brandon”
Old Man: “NO!, my name is Brandon”
Me: “Oh ok, but my name is also Brandon”
Old Man: “B R E N D O N?”
Me: “No B R A”
Old Man: “Sounds like a fine name to have, sleep tight and enjoy your night here”
Me: ( no response as I ran up the stairs and locked all 7 doors to my room! )

Stay tuned for Part 3 coming soon. I get up and head back to New York and enjoy some fine foods and beer, and some amazing views of the city that you wont wanna miss out on seeing. 

Milwaukee | Beer | Cross Process

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Just got back from Milwaukee, WI and had a great time. Things went down in this order.

Rented a car
Drove up the coast of Lake Michigan
Stoped for some wonderful Chick-Fil-A
Drove some more on the coast
Rocked out and headbanged
Got to Milwaukee
Toke some photos
Toured Lakefront Brewery (amazing)
Met up with Amy
Drank some more beer
Brain (by Brain I mean Brian) ate a pound of Nachos
Slept in Jake's bed?
Ate breakfast with Amy's wonderful relatives (good people)
Drove back
Ate Toco Bell that destroyed my life
Returned car
Rode train
Rode bus
Wrote this post

Overall it was way random and I had a blast and can not thank Amy and her wonderful family enough for letting two strangers stay in thier home.

If you are ever in Milwaukee you really should go on the Lakefront Brewery tour. Seriously great time and great company. Support the amazing things that this company does. I leave with some pictures from the trip.

"Beer is love, beer is bread, beer is subsistence, Beer is good." - Nitro

Have you ever seen a frozen lake?

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First off just wanna say how much I love this city now. Today we went to the lake around dusk because it really has been beautiful here the past couple of days. When we got there the whole lake was frozen, and the sun was going down so naturally it made for a great photo session.

It made me realize that when I was living in Columbia S.C. I would of never had the oppertuntiy to see something of this magnitude. Or to get to experience all the great creative events around this city. I still love my home town and still really miss the people, but I feel a bit spoiled, now that I am seeing all these amazing sites weekly.

I just recently went to a cool event here call Merge. Ton of creative individuals getting together and talking about design and life and just networking. This would of never happened back in S.C. My point is that there are reasons on why people move to a big city and this is a prime example of one.

Next on the list is a Dogfish Head beer tasting at a bar that is a couple blocks from where we live. Super excited to mingle with beer dudes and taste some really interesting and ground breaking beers.

Should I start a beer company?

-Brandon.