Winking Lizard World Beer Tour

Each year the Winking Lizard Tavern, which has 13 restaurant locations in N.E. Ohio, offers its World Beer Tour to its customers - giving them one of the best and most varied beer selections in the nation. Last month, my friend Steve and I went to the Winking Lizard in Peninsula, OH for dinner and learned about this tour from our waiter and decided to give it a shot. Basically, to join the tour you must visit your nearest Winking Lizard location and give them $10 to sign up. Once you are registered you have until the end of the year to drink either 50 beers off of their list and receive a full color picnic blanket, or drink all 100 beers and receive a world tour jacket and admission to an all-you-can-eat party at the end of the year with everyone else who has completed the tour. Completing this tour should be a little more challenging for my friend and I though, considering that we didn't sign up until midway through this year! I was pretty impressed though when we signed up to see that they give you an electronic swipe card and a pocket wallet card to keep track of which beers you have drank at any of their 13 restaurant locations. They also give you a nice guidebook which lists and explains each beer and its history and origin.

This evening, after walking some trails with Tami in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, we decided to stop by the Winking Lizard in Peninsula for some wings and a couple drinks. Tonight I decided to go with Brooklyn Brewery's (Brooklyn, NY) "East India Pale Ale" and the Flying Dog Brewery's (Denver, CO) "Flying Dog in Heat Wheat". Both of them were pretty good but I definitely enjoyed the Flying Dog brew more since I hadn't had a wheat ale for quite some time.

For those running the Buckeye Trail 50K this Saturday, here is a photo I took of the stream crossing as you approach the turnaround point at Pine Lane. As you can see, there is not much water here due to our dry summer...

I'm looking forward to running the 50K on Saturday and being able to see so many familiar local runners again. This year the race has reached its maximum entry limit of 175 runners so it should be a great time! Saturday will also be the 1-year wedding anniversary for my wife and I. It's hard to believe that a whole year has already passed by, but I have enjoyed every minute of it with her.