Your mom put a lot of work into making sure my 30th birthday was something special, and most definitely it was. We rented a pretty vacation house in the middle of San Francisco and invited some friends to hang out for the weekend while hitting up some of the cooler brewpubs in the city that I hadn't tried before. It ended up being an amazing weekend, and I owe much thanks to my friends and your mom for making it so. What would I do without them ...
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| On our way into the bay on Friday, we hit up a cool brewery outside San Francisco, where we met up with Marshall. |
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| We picked up my sister at the airport and made our way to the house, which is in the Noe Valley neighborhood, a colorful and hilly area with windy streets and lots of gorgeous houses. This was the view from upstairs. |
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| Before setting out for the night, we made some drinks and hung out a bit, waiting for others to arrive. My sister Shannon helped out with cocktails. |
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| Spirited conversation with my best man, though unfortunately I cannot remember what it was about... |
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| Your mom and two of her bridesmaids, her great friend, April, and my sister, Shannon. |
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| After getting thoroughly warmed up, we hit the streets on our way to one of the neighborhood brewpubs for drinks. It ended up being packed solid, so we had a drink and hopped around looking for a more comfortable spot to hang out. It ended up being a long night, with many stories the next day about things I couldn't remember doing. |
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| I woke up the next morning to find Marshall and Matt enjoying the patio hot tub. |
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| I watched while I tried to recover from the night before. |
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| For lunch we checked out Social Kitchen, a neat place with some good stuff to eat and drink. Then we stopped for a bit of coffee at a shop across the street. |
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| Then we made our way back to the house, because Saturday night we planned to stay in and party. Your mom made these delicious Jello shots right out of these orange peels. They were awesome! |
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| Our good friend Matt is always a welcome addition to the festivities. At this point, your mom and him go back quite a few years. |
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| Marshall and I both brought plenty of homebrewed beer to share. He always makes some really great stuff, and sometimes I need his help to figure out just what might have gone wrong with mine, though I'm getting better, too. |
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| Your mom enlisted some help and made this delicious kebab dinner. Everything was delicious... |
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| Probably the only time the house was quiet all night was when we were witting around eating. By that point, we were also joined by our friends Melissa and Joe (on the right) and your mom's cousin Jenny who happens to live nearby in the Bay area. It was cool they got to reunite after many, many years during this fun occasion. |
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| Your mom baked me my favorite: white "Funfetti" cake with white frosting. Excellent! |
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| Some spontaneous dancing was part of the fun evening, which also included singalongs and general merriment ; ) |
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| Sunday morning we got up, shook off the second long night in a row, and made our way to this really awesome brewpub in the Haight and Ashbury district, Magnolia. |
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| The traditional English breakfast was phenomenal, and a lot of us got it. Marshall tried the cheesy grits and raved about those, as well. Their beer was also some of the best of the trip, and they featured a wide selection of really well done English and Belgian styles, including an amazing cask-conditioned porter which was my favorite sip of the weekend. |
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| It was a long weekend, but the spirits stayed high and we all had a blast. I am a lucky man to know such fantastic people who were willing to make this special trip to celebrate with me. |
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| I also got to indulge my obsession with taking pictures of beer, and Magnolia offered some of the most picturesque opportunities. This is their Kolsch served in a traditional "stange" (meaning "stick") glass. |
