Post #109871 by freddiefreelance on Mon, Aug 23, 2004 6:10 PM

TBird, I was there with my wife. I was the guy in the Chicago Real Ale Fest T-shirt ("A Firkin Great Fest!") & Kukui nut lei. I didn't see Monkey Man so I probably missed you, too.

You're right about there being more people there, it took us 4 hours to drink all our coupons & we kept the 4 bottle caps. If they're going to have as big a party next year they need to make it longer, have more tables & chairs (and set the tables parallel to the lines), have more beer from breweries, and have a lot more volunteers to help serve. I'd volunteer for 4 hours for admission & a T-shirt if the party went 8 hours.

Afterwards we hit In-n-Out and went downtown to the San Diego Maritime Museum to see the "HMS Surprise" from "Master & Commander" (AKA HMS Rose), & hit Karl Strauss for a 1/2 gallon of their Stout (I have a "Beer for a Year" card that gets me a 1/2 gallon of their beer every month for a year. I had to use it or lose it, & that was the only beer there I could still taste...).