Taking a Canal to the Capital

On the road again, and this time it was with Jenn and my niece to the capital of the Confederate South, Richmond, VA.  Richmond is the home of the White House of the South, the Confederate Museum, and the place Patrick Henry made his “Give me Liberty” speech (25^th, not 20^th, and Broad St.).  However, we had other plans so we got on the road and made it downtown just in time for lunch at the Penny Lane Pub (http://www.pennylanepub.com/). This Richmond institution has been here for over 30 years, and the owner was a native of Liverpool.  We sat out on the patio and had some traditional pub fare, including a cottage pie, fish & chips, a curried chicken salad sandwich.  I passed on the traditional British ales for a local choice, a Hardywood Park Single.  It was a nice venue, but it was time for us to do a little site seeing.

We started off with doing the Canal Walk, a refurbished area in the downtown area that followed the trail of the canal system that was set up by George Washington.  It was nice, and we chose to take the guided canal boat tour.  The neatest part was going thru the flood gates, a huge concrete wall that was designed to protect the downtown area from a 100 year flood.  Next we went looking for Patrick Henry Park, but we were off by a few blocks and instead got a good view of the city from Jefferson Park.  We stopped by the Edgar Allen Poe museum and checked out the gift shop.   Finally, we went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, a surprising large facility with a great selection of art, English silver, and Faberge eggs (although they were away on tour).  We enjoyed looking around, and the air conditioning, but it was time to move on to one of Beer Advocate’s top places, the Capital Alehouse (http://www.capitalalehouse.com/).

This Virginia restaurant chain is located in several cities, but the Glen Allen location had the largest tap selection.  The Capital Alehouse specializes in Virginia microbrews, and the selection today was impressive.  We started at the bar while we waited for my niece’s boyfriend’s parents (now that’s a description, how about the NBPs), and split a pretzel and an order of spicy peanuts to go with our beer.  Jenn tried the Hardywood Park Virginia Blackberry, made with over 1000 lbs of blackberries for a 40 gallon batch.  I had an O’Connor Green Can Gold Ale, recommended by the brewers at Portsmouth Brewery, and it was delicious.  We got a table and I enjoyed a pot of smoked gouda and bacon mussels (real messy) with a Wild Wolf Ginger Lager, and good football conversation.  Turns out the NBPs were both Virginia Tech grads that were Eagles fans.  I evaluated the bottle list, and was pleased with my Virginia microbrews; including Devil’s Backbone Azrael and Blue Mountain Dark Hollow Oak Aged Imperial Stout.  It was a great evening.

We made it back to Manassas (thanks Garmin for the detour around traffic), just in time to watch my nephew play in his hockey game (what a bruiser on defense).  It was a nice trip; relaxing, adventurous, and filling.  A new beer town did not disappoint. – 6100/12732

 “Good people drink good beer.” – Hunter S. Thompson