The Greater Chicago Links, Fore!

This entry should be much longer but once again there are just too many details that should be included that there is no way I can remember them all. That combined with a booze haze makes what should be a long story short. I had my Chicago bachelor party on Saturday. I drove down with my brother, Evraets and Billy. We drove to Chitown and checked into the Hyatt Regency in downtown. I got a steal on Priceline.com at $100 a room. After we checked in we took a cab to the Cubbie Bear in Wrigleyville where I met up with a bunch of my friends from Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. Once there we started our game of bar golf. Bar golf is scored like regular gold with one drink at a bar being par and each drink after that being one under. We had a scorecard and itinerary all made up so we were well prepared. We all started on our way wandering from bar to bar. Some of the bar events that occurred during our wandering were cigar smoking, wooden Indian posing, other party food raiding, batting cage swinging and Fat Tire Ale (imported from Colorado) drinking. We were doing really good until about hole number nine. We stayed there a little too long because one of our friends from Madison worked there. So we camped out there and since there was a Qdoba across the street some people went get something to eat. After that, the group got pretty split up and it was everyone for themselves after that point. I tried to plod on with my cousin Steve. About a half hour behind was my brother, Evraets and a couple other friends but as far as the golf game was concerned it was over. I was -11 after nine so I’m pretty sure I was winning. We continued drinking at various establishments throughout the night and we ended up at an after hours bar someplace in the Chicago with a skeleton crew of about six of us. Everyone was a mess, including me. I was super tired and drunk so my brother and I left a couple diehards and cabbed it back to the hotel. We got back around four so I was pretty mad when Billy started thrashing around the hotel room at seven. I was pissed but I knew he wanted to get home so we woke up and drove back. I was home by noon which was nice because I could rest the rest of the day. It was a good time.

A Baptism, St. Patty and Beer

Hey there Patty! St. Patty’s landed on a Friday this year which makes for a guaranteed crazy day. After work I headed over to the Milwaukee Ale house to meet a couple of the guys that had the day off. The Badgers were playing in the NCAA tourney and got their butts spanked. Never-the-less, that didn’t prevent Luedke and Wians from having a few. We stayed at the Ale House for a bit to have some happy hour pints and shoot some darts. After a couple hours there we went to meet Jocelyn and the Delahunts at Flannery’s. I was bound and determined to get a sampling of the world’s largest rueben at the Wicked Hop. On the walk to Flannery’s I stopped and paid my $5 for a slice and was it huge. I gnawed on the thing the entire walk to Flannery’s and I barely finished half of it. I never throw away food but I was stuffed and out of time so once I got to Flannery’s I had to throw some of it away. Once in Flannery’s I joined the “happy” crowd. We stayed there for a couple hours sampling the Jamison and Guinness. After Flan’s we went to My Office for the smaller crowd ambiance and a couple more festive St. Patty’s drinks.

I woke up on Saturday a little groggy from the night before but nothing to severe which was good because Saturday was the Riverwest Pub Crawl. I went on this last year with Luedke and Anna and it was a blast. This year Jocelyn and Erica came along. The crawl started at Onopa and we had good weather again although it wasn’t quite as warm as last year. There are really too many details to describe this event packed day. We snaked our way through the Riverwest area of Milwaukee drinking beers at the nineteen bars on our map. A couple of the bars have food to eat. One thing that every bar does have is an interesting cast of characters because Riverwest is a very bohemian area of Milwaukee. The five of us had a great time. From one until about ten we ventured around the neighborhood. At our final stop, The Squirrel Cage, Luedke, Anna and Erica took a cab home. Jocelyn and I probably should have as well but we decided to walk home. We thought that the walk would sober us up. The problem is you don’t really sober up if you stop at bars on the way home. It was a very long walk home and we stopped at The Nomad on way home for a beer, some rest and warmth. After a drink we headed to Mykano’s for a gyro to soak up some of the toxins in our stomachs.

Sunday was a pretty rough one. J and I had to drive to Sheboygan for my nephew’s baptism. We weren’t in the best of shape but we made it. Sitting through church with tons of crying kids was really the last place I wanted to be. After church they had the baptism. When that was finished we went to Rich’s house to eat the leftover food from my bachelor party. We didn’t stay long. All the noise and people in that little house was pretty nauseating so we headed back to Milwaukee and enjoyed the rest of our lazy Sunday.

Bachelor Bore

On Saturday I had the first of my two bachelor parties. This party was for my uncles and Falls friends because I knew that most of them wouldn’t want to make the trip to Chicago for my main one. I pretty much repeated the beginning part of my previous weekend. I went to Rich’s, helped my mom make some of the bachelor party food, packed it up, drove it to the VFW, and set it and the music up and waited for the people to show up. A majority of my uncles showed up, some cousins, and some Falls friends. A bunch of Rich’s friends also showed up, I guess it was his bachelor party too. We sat around, drank some beer, shot some dice, and ate some food. It was pretty close to the tamest bachelor party I’ve ever been to; sad part is it was mine. A bunch of people took off back to Falls but I stayed in Sheboygan. My buddy Fudge stuck around so at least I had one person to hang around with. Rich, some of his buddies, Fudge and I went to Hops Haven. We stayed there the rest of the night and had a couple beers and smoked some cigars. It was the world’s tamest bachelor party ever. I’ve been to sweet sixteen birthday parties that were more exciting. Oh well, I have one more shot and I really wasn’t expecting too much craziness from the Fallsenites.

A Sheboygan Quickie

This weekend was pretty low key and it was much needed. After a couple crazy encounters with the Marti clan I was able to sit back and relax with my own clan. My cousin Lisa and her husband Jeff were having their 25th anniversary party in Sheboygan on Saturday. Lisa had asked me if I would supply the music and I was happy to oblige. I headed up to Sheboygan Saturday afternoon by myself because Jocelyn was having her bachelorette party in Madison. I went to see my new nephew and run a couple errands. The party started around sevenish at the Sheboygan VFW. I set up the tunes and let them play while we had some classic Sheboygan buffet. The rest of the night I sat around with my aunts and uncles and talked. I didn’t feel like staying over so at eleven I packed up my equipment and headed back to Milwaukee. I called Luedke and a bunch of other guys to see what they were doing but by the time I hit the lights of Milwaukee I was ready to hit the hay. I sat on the couch and fell asleep almost instantaneously. I knew I would need the rest while I could get it with the upcoming weeks.

Getting My Milwaukee Culture

Back to back weekends with the Marti clan, a dangerous yet eventful endeavor. When we were up North last week Paul had mentioned to me that he was going to the Food and Froth festival at the Milwaukee Museum on Saturday. The festival consisted of 200 beers and a bunch of Milwaukee area restaurants positioned throughout the exhibits for sampling, both culture and beer. Jocelyn was going to go to Chicago so I thought that meeting up with Martis would be fun. The festival started at seven so I walked to the museum at about quarter after six. When I got there the lobby was packed with people waiting to get in with their sampler glass. Once the gates open I strolled around the streets of old Milwaukee and the Sahara desert sampling beers. The Martis were running late and I met them at about half past. The group consisted of mister and missus Marti, Paul and his wife, Craig and some of Paul’s friends. The event was very cool. It was fun to stroll through the museum and drink some samples. The event museum was packed and I had heard that the event sold out. We drank and sampled until ten when the event shutdown. So after twenty plus mini beers we decided to go to Wolski’s. It took us about an hour to get out of the parking structure. By the time we got to Wolski’s everyone was geared up for a beer. The group got crazy and had fun and those are the most details I can tell you. I walked home from Wolski’s at an unknown time and got home at an unknown time. I’ll definitely keep my eyes open for this one next year, it was great time.