1,600 miles of Midwest Beercation

A small part of the trip to Camp Nebraska was to allow mommy and daddy to get away for a little and have a grown-up vacation. So after a few days all together, mommy and daddy headed out with a 10-year old atlas, a loose destination and a timeline of 4.5 days.

After lunch in Sioux City, Iowa (we got there before any breweries were open), we headed to Mankato, Minnesota where we met up with one of Whit's best friends from 3rd grade, Karla, and were able to meet her new baby, Drew. The two determined that they probably hadn't seen each other or spoken since at least 1995. Thanks to Facebook for allowing us to coordinate the very brief, but super cool, drop-in visit.

After leaving Mankato, we drove about 40 minutes up to Green Isle, Minnesota to see Roger and Holly's (Whit's Aunt and Uncle) farm. We got there with just enough time to get a tour around the farm in the golf cart with Holly. It had been years since Whit had been there and it was wonderful to see all the work they've done. They are truly amazing! After the tour, we sat and had a wonderful little snack with them before we headed off in the dark to Minneapolis.

After exploring around Nicollet Island, we began the brew tours... first stop: Surly Brewing Co. All the beers we tried were great, but the facility was the focal point. Fun seating areas. Nice patio - if it hadn't been cold and rainy we may have tested it out. These guys have invested LOTS of money in the facility. Felt a little over done and flashy.

After leaving Minneapolis, we ended up at the Maple Island Brewing Co. in Stillwater, Minnesota. We sat at the bar inside the open air brewery staring across the St. Croix River at Wisconsin. We thought this was going to be as close to Wisconsin as we would get, but that turned out to be false.

"We brew 2 butt loads of beer at a time, 1 butt load = 126 gallons"

As it turns out, this was one of Whit's favorite breweries of the trip.

From Stillwater we headed up the St. Croix River  to Taylors Falls. We stopped and did a little exploring around the river and then headed into Wisconsin.

After missing our intended turn, we drove north to Superior, Wisconsin. We passed about one million lakes and slaughtered about 3 gazillion bugs along the way. Thanks to Google, we stumbled upon the Thirsty Pagan Brewing Co. and stopped to having a beer or two. This place was a great discovery - I wished we hadn't eaten before getting here. Their pizza smelled amazing and looked even more so. They had a live band and the place was packed. The beers were solid brews.

 And finally, we ended up in Duluth, Minnesota just in time to see a boat set off into Lake Superior.

We didn't have a place to stay, so we went over to Canal Park Brewing Co to have a beer and do a little research. Local time is 10pm.

At the end of the night, we ended up at Fitger's Brewery/Inn right on the shore of Lake Superior. Fitger's is Duluth's oldest continually-operating industry and has quite a fabulous historic little hotel in a great location with all the modern updates. We enjoyed a lazy morning and then tooled around Duluth the next day before bumping into the wonderfully cute Vikre Distillery.

We sampled some gin, whisky, vodka and aquavit at the Vikre Distillery. Aquavit is the original Scandinavian distilled spirit. It’s generally infused with caraway and cardamom and aged in oak barrels on ocean voyages to Australia.

We hung out around the famous bridge and watched people and boats for a while.

After walking another mile or so around Canal Park, we headed to Bent Paddle Brewing Co. where we planned to stay another night in Duluth so we could each go out and bike/hike the next day.

This was one of Scott's favorite breweries of the trip.

Next morning we got up early, picked up a bike for Scott and headed out to Brewer's Park and the Piedmont Trails so we could both get in a little exercise before the rain started.

We returned the bike just as it began to rain, cleaned up and hit the road just as the rain rolled in. We weren't exactly sure where we were headed, but we drove along the coast of Lake Superior for a while to see what we could see. We found our way north to Two Harbors, Minnesota and into Do North Pizzeria (which is super awesome). We walked down the street to Castle Danger Brewery and did some rainy day tasting. Between the two of us, we were unable to find a beer here that we didn't like. This was a solid find for sure.

Whit's favorite brewery of the tour.

We set off across Minnesota for Fargo, North Dakota. Due to the rain, this took us a bit longer than expected, but we saw a lot of Minnesota and Whit even spotted a Bald Eagle sitting atop a phone pole next to a lake. We cruised by Leech Lake (a place we later learned that Grandma Becky used to go in the summer on vacation as a kid), Detroit Lakes and 100,000 other lakes along the way. We rolled into Moorhead, Minnesota in time to hit up one last Minnesota brewery, Junkyard Brewing Co. Since it was Friday night we were even able to catch some live music by Johnny Azari.

A hop skip and a jump later, we were in Fargo, North Dakota (dontcha know?). We hit up the Drekker Brewing company for one last beverage and then called it quits at the surprisingly wonderful Hotel Donaldson. http://www.hoteldonaldson.com/

On tap the next day? The viking museum.  The conversation went something like this:
    Scott: Hey, you want to go check out a viking ship today?
    Whit: Although I hate museums, that sounds like it could be kind of cool. Sure. But then we've got to go.
    Scott: Great! Turn right here.

Where we went was the The Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center, commonly known as the Hjemkomst Center. This is a museum (in the loosest sense of the word) in Moorhead, Minnesota. It first opened in 1985 and serves as a home to Hjemkomst Viking Ship ... a SHIP BUILT BY A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER beginning in 1974. To say that Scott was much much much more interested in the "museum" than Whit is an understatement.

http://www.hcscconline.org/current-exhibits/hjemkomst-viking-ship/

From there, we headed to Fargo Brewing Company to have a beer to recover from the museum visit and watch a little soccer. This was another very cool brewery that exceeded our expectations. If ever in Fargo, I would make sure to visit this place again.

And because you can't visit Fargo and only go to 3 out of 4 of their breweries, we hit up Kilstone Brewing Co on our way out. The beers were not so good. And after chatting with the brewer we learned that the guys who started this brewery (brothers with a little $$$ help from dad) had never brewed a beer in their life but rather were just winging it (they had watched their dad homebrew as kids) ... it all made sense. Next time we'll skip this one.

And then we hit the road, Lincoln bound. Whit did all the driving (and only light tasting) and found it suspicious that when we needed to stop for gas, there was always a brewery nearby... like Hyrda Beer Company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Literally less than a half mile off Interstate 29 and across the street from a gas station. Well done navigator.

Approximately 1,600 miles later, we were back where we started... in Lincoln, Nebraska. The kids came and woke us up the next morning and all was well in the world.

http://mapq.st/29BX6x3

 Cheers!