I went to an open house for Insight Brewing in Minneapolis.
Some of you might remember Cody and his friend Ilan.
They met in 7th grade. That’s a while back. They have been great friends ever since.
Ilan has been in the process of opening his own tap room/brewery. He has some partners of course, but we like to think of Ilan as being the king of the brewers.
(I do continuously tell the story of how Cody and Ilan tried to make liquor in Cody’s bedroom. Ilan says that was his first batch. Blane says they could have killed themselves, the “little chemists” and I say parenting was a challenge…..)
Ilan spent a year in Europe and the Orient learning the ropes of how to brew. And did it pay off. He and Cody also biked across part of Europe that summer, the summer of Cody’s 150 dollar root canal in Belgium. (We decided it would be cheaper to have all your teeth fixed in Europe, including air fare, than to do it here. Just saying. It’s a destination dental visit…anyway….)
Last month he had an open house to introduce some of the beers and the venue. It was really really nice and the beer? Fab-you-lous.
Big shiny holding tanks (I have no idea what they would be called in real life).
This is the back room where the magic happens.
There was quite a crowd. (I stole this pic from FB because I couldn’t do the crowd cam)
People come when there’s delicious free beer. Or maybe just free beer.
And of course Ilan--
Another high school pal of Cody’s, Dylan, was there working the venue too. He doesn’t work there full time, he has another job, but I guess he can fill in when needed.
And here’s a charming picture of all of them from high school-
Interestingly, Ilan and Dylan (on the right) were at the brewery and Nate (on the left) will be working there too. The other two are doctors. (Cody and Mike)
The future of America. Who knew?
Go there-Insight Brewing-I can’t say enough good stuff about it. The beer is phenomenal.
The first weekend of October was the annual Pine Needles Eagle Bluff Retreat. It’s truly the highlight of the year.
The Traditional Retreat Breakfast of Champions--
And lovely views--
Beautiful sunny days, Fog in the valley, Sunrise over the Root River. What more can you ask for?
Well, there is some sewing going on too--
Suzie and Connie’s sister Deena were there
Marcia thinking hard on a crabby quilt
Connie and now her daughter Megan
And, of course, Sheryl, aka Murch, came all the way from Florida. Yayay.
She brought me a present-my new sock monkey jammies--
This is us doing what we call “the George Clooney”
Right? Not sure Sheryl has quite the same expression as George, but I am right on with Amal’s glamour. (Thank you People Magazine for the pics). We had quite a discussion about George Clooney. He’s really quite fascinating. In more ways than one. Just Google George and plastic surgery. That’s all I’m going to say.
Because what happens at retreat mostly stays at retreat.
This is Marcia’s work of art!
This is the mystery quilt-I really liked it although the colors were totally out of my comfort zone.
Super easy-and quite bold. Not really the colors of my comfort zone.
The pattern can be changed around to make the squares different designs AND different sizes. Nice.
So, another fall retreat over. I wish it was more often, but then maybe it wouldn’t be so special. Right?
I forgot to post this event that happened at the beginning of Sept (Labor Day). Blane came down to visit so we took a picture.
That’s him at the train station getting ready to leave. It was a nice visit. He’ll be back at Christmas.
Cody and Marel are here now. Let’s hope I remember to get a picture with them. Jeesh.
Jack says hello.
