MCM Mama Runs

MCM Mama Runs for Beer and Bling

  • Home
  • About MCM Mama
  • Racing the U.S.A.
  • I Heart Craft Beer
  • Product Reviews
  • Recipes
  • Disclosure
You are here: Home / beer / 16 Breweries in 15 days!

16 Breweries in 15 days!

July 31, 2012 by MCM Mama 4 Comments

That sounds kind of excessive, huh?  Luckily, I’m a smart girl and I know how to do these things without hurting myself.

In fact, I wrote a post over at Fitfluential about how to incorporate craft beer into a fit life.  Go. Read it.  Learn from it.

Now I can tell you about our trip.

When we go on family vacations, we don’t normally eat out for every meal.  We try very hard to rent accommodations that allow us to cook a lot of meals at home.  And this vacation was no exception, except we did end up eating out about once every day, thanks to the Bend Visitors Center.  (Thank you VRBO for some awesome rental houses over the last 6 years.  I’m happy to talk more about this later if anyone is interested, but this post is about beer.  Good beer.)

However, a challenge awaited us in Bend and I am not one to walk away from a challenge.

The first few days of our travels took us to the TriCities area of Washington.  Our first brewpub netted us dinner the first night after a long day of traveling.  Beer Geek couldn’t resist the siren call of another brewpub the next night for dinner, where I had one of the best smoked porter’s I’ve ever had, as well as quite possibly the most amazing salad I’ve tasted – a bacon/shrimp/spinach salad with a bacon tomato vinaigrette.  Oh my!  (Yes, this is why I say even non-beer drinkers should go to brewpubs. )  The next day we met one of Beer Geek’s friends at, you guessed it, another brewpub.

3 Brewpubs, 3 days and we hadn’t even hit Bend yet!

And then the challenge began.  See Bend is a smart town.  They have this little challenge called the Bend Ale Trail.  If you hit all 9 Bend breweries/pubs, you get this really cool pint “glass” made out of silocone.  And if you hit the “extra” pub up in Sisters, you get a patch.  I run for bling, of course I’m going to drink for bling!  Yes, yes I did!

 Lest you think that’s the end of the story, that’s only 13 brewpubs. Yes,  we did manage to hit 3 more brewpubs.  (Actually Beer Geek even managed to hit a 4th on our very last full day, but I stayed at our friend’s house instead of joining him.)

So, how did I manage to hit this many breweries without gaining weight or spending my vacation hung over?

1.  I split a sampler with Beer Geek most of the time, which very seldom equaled more than a beer each and sometimes a lot less.
2.  I ate healthy meals at the majority of the restaurants (yes, there may have been one instance of calamari and another meal that included a jalapeno cheese dip).  Most of the time I ate a salad or replaced a starchy/fatty side with veggies.
3.  I hiked up and down mountains, white water rafted, and ran two races.

All in all, I felt very much like I managed to mix my love of craft beer quite successfully with a fun and healthy vacation.

Wondering where I went?  Ice Harbor Brewing, Rattlesnake Mountain Brewing, Mill Creek Brew Pub, The Bend Ale Trail, Sun River Brewing, Laurelwood Brewery, and Fort George Brewery.

Follow on Bloglovin follow us in feedly

More from my site

  • Running, Loving, Living Virtual Race ReportRunning, Loving, Living Virtual Race Report
  • And sometimes it just sucksAnd sometimes it just sucks
  • Half Marathon #16 for 2014: Appalachian Series – West VirginiaHalf Marathon #16 for 2014: Appalachian Series – West Virginia
  • Double DigitsDouble Digits
  • Five Fun Things for Friday the 13thFive Fun Things for Friday the 13th

Filed Under: beer, brewery, challenge

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  1. Melody says

    July 31, 2012 at 8:10 am

    I love this post – and your vacation! Sounds like you had a great time, and drank a lot of really good beer!! BJ and I may need to consider a vacation like this in the near future. Glad you had such a great time!

    Reply
  2. Marlene says

    July 31, 2012 at 9:36 am

    Sounds like the perfect balanced vacation! Glad you were able to live it up within moderation.

    Reply
  3. Jess says

    July 31, 2012 at 11:54 am

    Fun!

    Reply
  4. Beth (i run like a girl) says

    August 1, 2012 at 1:38 pm

    That sounds like my kinda’ vacation! Fit and fun. Excellent balance!

    Reply
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Who is MCM Mama?
A slightly obnoxious mom and wife who loves good beer and running, who struggles a bit with depression especially in the winter and when running isn’t allowed, who’d rather go on a fun vacation than upgrade the kitchen or add a master bath, and has a minor addiction to the Marine Corps Marathon.

Recent Posts

  • Coffee with a side of rain
  • Half Marathon #83:Appalachian Series – Alabama
  • Hotel Coffee is better than no coffee…
  • Training for Back to Back to Back Half Marathons
  • Runfessions of a Really Cold Runner
  • Kicking off the year with coffee!
  • Wrapping up 2021: a roller coaster year
  • Half Marathon #82: Probility Ann Arbor Half Marathon

Archives

A slightly obnoxious mom and wife who loves good beer and running, who struggles a bit with depression especially in the winter and when running isn’t allowed, who’d rather go on a fun vacation than upgrade the kitchen or add a master bath. Read More…

Coffee with a side of rain

Coffee with a side of rain

Apparently I only write coffee posts when I’m in Michigan. I guess my body is hard wired to wake up early, but the college kid has no interest in an early wakeup call. I’d run, but it’s raining and I did not bring the right running clothes, so here I sit. I’m joining Deb and […]

Copyright © 2022 · MCM Mama Runs on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in