The Brown's do NorCal

Warning: This is one long post!

Marc and I both work jobs in which the season is very important. Because, honestly, who really wants to play golf in 113 degree temps, and who would want to bring their meeting/convention to this heat as well?! Since, Marc and I decided to have our wedding smack dab in the middle of our busiest work season we only were able to take a small 2 day trip to one of our favorite locations, Newport Beach. Plus we really do want to get into a house one of these days, and saving our money and putting it towards our house fund was more important. However, we did decide that we would take little extended trips this summer to make up for not going on that dream honeymoon. Our first extended trip was Sonoma, CA!

We can't take all the credit about this trip, as it was prompted by Marc's cousin, Cory and his Big Day! We were quite excited about this trip for a couple reasons...an extended vacation, time spent with Marc's family, oh and time spent together! Since Marc's Dad is an only child, Marc has second cousins and great aunt's...who I only got to meet briefly the day of our wedding, so I was really looking forward to getting to know his family on this trip. We decided that we would make this trip a ROAD TRIP. Marc found a great deal on a rental car and the morning of June 11th our trip began. We left at 5:30am - yes AM, I did pretty good at getting up and wasn't too grouchy (for those of you that don't know, I am sooooo NOT a morning person). Our rental car ended up being a new Mazda 3, which went fast and was very comfortable. We had our Sirius Radio hooked up, and our plug-in the for Pod, coffee in hand and the road to Nor Cal ahead!

We made great time and arrived at our final destination at about 1:30pm...we were greeted in the parking lot by Marc's family, who had also just arrived and planning to go across the street for lunch. I met his very sweet cousin Tammy, her husband and two kids, and his other cousin's Kathy, Louie (who happened to be a crack-up), Debbie and Kiley and her little baby, Isabella. I actually did know his cousin Matt, who also joined us. Let me tell you his family is AWESOME! They were all down for a good time, super laid back and just full of laughs. We all got to know each other over some beers, overall a great start to our vacation. We regretted not continuing the night with them at the dinner rehearsal, we were told we missed a good time. After we checked into our room, we took a nap and woke up too late to join the group and the festivities...we did however, have a 'blast from the past' dinner outing! Marc's parents used to own a couple Straw Hat Pizza restaurants in Palm Springs and it just so happened our hotel was right across the street from a Straw Hat Pizza! We couldn't leave without having a bite to eat to see if the product has changed since his parents owned them. Marc said the pizza still tasted the same and the decor was just more up to date. Of course, I had to make sure to get a picture of Marc by the Straw Hat sign.

Saturday, was a fun filled day! We started with a VIP Beermasters Tour of the Budweiser Brewery. With the tour being at 10am, we were the only two people on the tour, which made it more VIP and informational. We actually went behind the scenes and witnessed the process of the "King of Beers". It was a lot of information, but very, very interesting. One fact that surprised us, is that Budweiser Factories recycle 99% of the waste they create. It was quite impressive all the different ways/things they recycle, and most of their waste gets donated to local farms and parks. Here are some pictures of our tour.



The mixture from the mash tanks is strained, separating a clear, sweet amber liquid called wort from the spent grain husks. The tanks were very hot, and HUGE!



After the mixture from the mash tanks is strained, the wort is transferred into brew kettles and brought to a boil. Natural hops are added and the boil continues. We witnessed this process in action and it was like waterfall of beer spewing out into the tank, I really wanted to jump in!

Fermentation Process: Yeast is added to the cooled wort in the primary fermentation tanks. It can take up to 6 days for the yeast to convert the fermentable sugars to carbon dioxide and alcohol. During this stage of the brewing process, the wort becomes beer. We actually went into the control room (I couldn't take a pic) and there were a plethora of screens with calculations and recipes to make sure every tank had the correct recipe. I called it the "Beer Traffic Control Tower".



Lagering Process: Once it's declared beer a layer of beechwood chips is spread on the bottom of the lager tanks, the beer is transferred into the tanks. A portion of freshly yeasted wort called Kraeusen is added. Lagering is part of secondary fermentation in which the yeast settles on the beechwood chips and works until the beer is completely fermented. As secondary fermentation occurs, the beer is naturally carbonated and its final flavor develops - resulting in a smooth-tasting beer and we were made aware that this process is unique to Anheuser-Busch. Our tour guide actually said that if the guys had a night shift they would most likely get assigned to cleaning out the tanks...it was a pretty nasty end result, take a look. I'm pretty sure this job was featured on Dirty Jobs!



After the Lagering process, the beer is chilled, stabilized, and filtered. Following the chill proofing, the beer is stored in settling tanks at 32° for 2 days to complete settling. At each step in the process, the beer is tasted by a Brewmaster to ensure consistency and drinkability. After the final filtration, the beer is held in a filtered beer tank for a final quality control check and Brewmaster tasting. That's where we came in and became official Brewmasters! We were in the 32° room with the tanks and tasted a freshly, brewed ice cold beer. It was so light tasting we thought it was a Bud Light, but to our surprise it was actually a Budwieser! We also scored these custom tasting glasses that have a lasered Amheuser-Bush emblem on the bottom, which created continuous bubbles that filtered the beer for a fresh taste every time. Let's just say it was Beer Heaven!

Do we look like Brewmasters!? haha

We ended the tour with more Beer Tasting of course, and even got nifty certificates, certifying us as Offical Brewmasters!

What was next you ask?? Cory and Stefanie's wedding! It took place at the BEAUTIFUL Cline Cellars, the ceremony was in front of this gorgeous tree and the sun peaked through to make it oh-so fairy-tale like.



We celebrated with the Mr. & Mrs. in the Cline Barrel Room - which was just absolutely stunning! It was a darn good time, so much so that the Groom was the DJ and got on the mic and sang "Ice, Ice Baby". Haha! We wish Cory and Stef lots of love and a happy marriage. :) Here are some fun family photos and moments of the lovely day.

The handsome groom, patiently waiting...

LOVE this shot!

To conclude our trip, Marc decided to take me to see Monterey and Carmel, two places I have never been too! Once we got to Monterey we took the 17-Mile drive to Pebble Beach. The 17-Mile drive has about 20 view points to stop at and take in the beauty that surrounds you. Every stop had a little history story to it. The drive takes you through Pebble Beach, and it just so happened to be the opening weekend for the U.S. Golf Open. Marc was on cloud nine! We actually had to stop and let some Pros cross the street. We stopped in Carmel and had lunch at the Hog's Breath Inn, yummy food! We actually have a Hog's Breath Inn, in La Quinta but we wanted to see what the original restaurant looked like.

Marc in front of one of the courses, we had to trek to get this shot!

Hog's Breath Inn - doesn't it look like something from Disneyland?

We took the coast all the way home, which was full of amazing views! It of course looks much better in person, but here is a taste of what we saw.

These photos were actually all taken with my IPhone.

We def. want to go camping in Big Sur and stop and take a tour of Hearst Castle next time. It was a very long trip back home, but it was worth every minute.