The day after Opening Day.

It's the rough morning after Opening Day's frivolity. With a holiday weekend and families involved, we said some goodbyes quite early, we ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant then said goodbye to others, and finally Dale, me, The Other Chris, and Julie made our way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to be touristy. It was pretty cool. I had been there once before years and years and years ago, but for some reason this trip I found it to be more satisfying. I had reservations about returning, but this current visit alleviated those fears. This was really cool!

About 3:00, The Other Chris and Julie had to skip out and do their own familial obligations, so Dale and I went on a west side brewpub crawl until 11:00pm. From downtown, we hit:

First, Rocky River Brewing Co.

Then on to Lakewood and the Buckeye Beer Engine.

Third, we hit up a new spot we read about in the Great Lakes Brewing News while at Buckeye, a new brewpub that just opened up this past TUESDAY and has been a rollicking HIT ever since! It was the cartoonishly-named yet delicious beer-brewed Fat Head's Brewery & Saloon. What a find!

Fourth, yes fourth, it was time to eat so some "southern style" BBQ was in order. Dale's a big "eastern NC" vinegary BBQ fan (blecch!) so my dissertation on Cleveland BBQ intrigued him. The destination: The Brew Kettle. To quote Dale, "Who knew that 'southern-style' meant 'Memphis-style'?" I countered that technically Memphis IS indeed south of Cleveland. Eastern NC does not have a monopoly on the term "southern style".

Then, realizing that the giftshop at Great Lakes Brewing would be closed by this time, we searched for the closest grocery store on my new GPS device (I LOVE it) and found a Giant Eagle to buy a metric ass-load of GLBC bottles to bring home and ration until Opening Day 2010. Blackout Stout, Burning River Pale Ale, and Edmund Fitzgerald Porter were the winning beers to come home to NC.

Finally it's 11:00pm, and for the final stop we made our way back to the venerable Great Lakes Brewing to fill a couple growlers of Blackout Stout and Edmund Fitzgerald Porter and to have that one final beer and ice cream of the trip. A great way to end the weekend, for early Sunday morning we'll be hitting the road for our close to 8-hour ride back home. An awesome trip all the way around.