We headed out of town Friday after work in Missy’s car. The most eventful part of the drive there was discovering a cell network called Bug Tussel in middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin:

We stopped at the Great Dane in Madison for dinner. It was shortly after 9, but Madison was already approaching drunk disaster mode. (I think it’s like that 90% of the time anyway.) We had dinner and a beer, then headed on to Milwaukee. We got into our hotel around 11:30pm, checked in, and then hung out in Joe and Missy’s room drinking Surly and watching Slap Shot. What?

Saturday morning, we went to Hi Hat Lounge for outdoor brunch. It was fantastic.

We finally heard from Chris and Meg that they’d arrived at their hotel (they had left town after us, and camped on the way). We made arrangements to meet them at 2pm, and headed to the grocery store for tailgating food and booze. We got enough beer and rum to supply at least eight tailgates, but that’s normal for Wisconsin.

From there, we headed to Great Lakes Distillery. We each had a cocktail, then joined the tour at 2pm. (That made three distilleries I’ve toured: Jack Daniels in Tennessee, Mount Gay in Barbados, and now Great Lakes in Milwaukee. That’s a pretty good mix.)

The tour was great, and the tasting was better. For some reason, Missy and Joe didn’t want their gin or absinthe, so we got doubles. We picked up a bottle of Roaring Dan’s Rum, absinthe verte, and pear eau de vie. (Those were off-limits for tailgating.)

We met up with Chris and Meg, and caravaned to Miller Park to set up for tailgating.

The lines for the port-a-potties were insane, so I was hoping to wait til we went into the park. Of course, this resulted in Matt and I practically running into the building by that time, but we made it.

We had standing room tickets, which allowed us to experience the Twins’ massive failure from multiple angles. I’m glad the tailgating was good, because the game was horrible.

We left around the 5th inning and headed to the Safe House for dinner. We didn’t want to stay there all night drinking from fishbowls, but they had decent food and Joe got his martini that traveled through a tube in the ceiling. Also, I got to see my butt on Buttcam. It’s a tradition.

 

Missy and Joe headed back to the hotel, so we rode with Chris and Meg to the Hamilton, a cocktail place off Brady Street where Nick (originally from Town Talk) occasionally tends bar. He wasn’t there, but the other bartenders were fantastic. They made great cocktails, and gave us advice on other destinations in town. We had to talk Matt out of trying to make another stop at a tiki bar before going elsewhere, but we all wanted to survive the night. We headed right to Bar None instead.

I won’t review our previous Bar None adventures, but this was on par. We had apple pie shots, the bartender was awesome (again), and some Brewers fans really wanted to talk me out of liking Delmon Young (to no avail). Chris and Meg headed out, and Matt and I took the longest cab ride ever a bit later. (They were staying on the opposite side of town from us, so that was our only option.) We sat in the hotel lobby for a while, waiting for pizza and watching a wedding party stumble around. And then I burned the hell out of the roof of my mouth on cheese, but it was worth it.

Sunday, we got up and headed right back to Minneapolis, listening to another Twins disaster on the radio. (If they hadn’t played that poorly on Friday, too, I’d have thought we had jinxed them.) We got back right as Pride was wrapping up downtown, and transferred our belongings between cars surrounded by glitter and rainbow confetti.