Busy 4th of July weekend

My 3-day weekend off was a indeed busy one. "Columbus Chris" / "The Other Chris" / "C-Mar" paid a visit to NC from the cooler northern climes of Dublin, OH. Our docket was a busy one.

Thursday night after he arrived we went downtown and hit up Natty Greene's for a late dinner. Thirsty Thursday so it was PACKED. Ran into fellow beer nerds Jeff, Turtle, and Dale while there. C-Mar is in NC now, so the BBQ sandwich was ordered up. Good stuff.

Friday morning, we got up and went on the Beer Hunt to end all beer hunts to satiate the central Ohio beer club the HobSnobbery crew. Harris Teeter at Friendly Center for some (hell, I mean ALL) Natty Greene's varieties and some local BBQ sauce. Then it was 1950's era Bestway grocery on Walker Ave. If you're local and love craft beer and you haven't been, you NEED to go. Seriously. Next was Total Wine & More for some Saranac pop ("soda") and other single bottles. Then finally late at night it was Sam's in Durham to round out the NC offerings. City Beverage in Winston-Salem was left off the itinerary due to automobile spatial needs (we seriously bought THAT much), monetary requirements, and frankly we got quite a hefty NC haul without that gem of a store 30 minutes to the west. Whew. Can't wait to hear about the huge ass tasting that will occur with the southern brews in Columbus.

Friday night in the midst of the beer shopping, we took in a game in Durham. First, we hit up the Mellow Mushroom in the American Tobacco Complex for some pretzels, pizza, and Lagunitas IPA. Delicious. We had no tickets for the game. We tried online earlier in the day, but their server was down to buy lawn seats for the Charlotte Knights @ Durham Bulls game, the only seats left for this busy fireworks-entailed pre-holiday game. So we walk up to the ticket booth and I ask for best available, fully expecting to just buy lawn seats and then stand and roam the park. "Well, we have lawn seats, and....an unsold suite tonight for $25 each."

Um, what?

So, to fully entertain my guest, we sat in a suite. Great views, even with zero chance of a foul ball. Sweet. The only downer was I specifically asked if we'd be able to see the fireworks OK. We were assured, but when it came down to it, we saw the bottom third of the higher explosions. Crap. Still, we saw two Bulls home runs, so the Bull lit up and smoked. Plus, the Bulls won, so the victory resulted in more famous Bull animatronics.

The Bull responds to a home run:

Saturday morning, on July 4th, we visited Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, our very own federal national park within the city commemorating the events of March 15, 1781. Happily, there were cars EVERYWHERE. A busy day for the history buffs. We took the driving audio tour (I shockingly own the tour CD already) and hit up all 8 stops on this Independence Day.

A great tour. Plenty of photos. C-Mar was hoping for a Civil War site, but Revolutionary War was all I could offer locally. Nevertheless he enjoyed it. Granted not as much as I did, but I'm a colonial history geek that way.

And this video below gives me the shivers every time I watch it. Too, too cool!

After Guilford Courthouse, it was time for more minor league baseball. The Cleveland Indians Low-A South Atlantic League team, the Lake County Captains, were in town to combat the Greensboro Grasshoppers, the point of C-Mar's visit. I always try to catch Cleveland's minor league teams when they come around here (and they do quite often), and to have Lake County play here on July 4th made it all the sweeter. The Gallers and Kimberly came over to meet me and C-Mar for a cookout: ribs on the grill, corn on the grill, potato salad, beans, the works. Good eatin' before the game!

So we make our way the 10 minutes to the park and enjoy another good minor league game. And to top it off, C-Mar catches his FIRST FOUL BALL! I got my first 2 weeks prior, and he gets his on July 4th of all days! COOL! A good time, a Captains victory, and more fireworks.

It was GREAT to have a guest. We had a really good time. And in between all the running around and the baseball and the beer shopping and the battlefield, we managed to watch a BOATLOAD of Family Guy episodes on DVD. We're both Family Guy junkies.

Truly an awesome weekend.

And one final photo, at Tannenbaum Park, the start of your Guilford Courthouse tour, Hoskins Farm includes an item that is held dear to the heart. The farmer whose open fields were near the first line of defense by General Greene's troops actually grew hops. Nice!