Thursdays at the Brew Station

Isn't it great when your favourite coffee shop also happens to be a bar with an appreciation for great beer? We started out on Thursday afternoon at the Brew Station (my preferred latte, and possibly also preferred Americano, in Corvallis), with some study and coffee:

... and raccoon, of course. I finished Annie Proulx this morning, and now I'm reading this book for my bookclub, about a bookstore that stocks only good literary fiction chosen by secret committee, and the blackmail, bribery and assassination attempts that result. Ah, booksellers! Hopefully I'll finish it in time to make it to the monthly meeting.

 At 3pm on Thursday afternoons, the Brew Station hosts a brewery tour, where a brewery offers samples of their delicious wares and pints of said delicious wares (or what Americans call pints - in Australian parlance, we're talking about schooners plus a little bit) are $3. Once a suitable amount of reading had been done, we joined the queue for a taste of the Alaska Brewing Co.'s offering. I'm already a great fan of their amber ale, so was eager to try the porter, pale and summer ales on offer this afternoon.

This was actually full of summer ale, and it was quite tasteful

 While enjoying a drink, we spent some time planning our final road trip before we fly home to Sydney. I am epically bummed out that it is time to start thinking of such things, but I am pretty darn excited about this trip. I won't say too much now, but seven days, five states, a variety of different national parks and deserts, and presumably a bunch of weird roadside eateries? Count me in! I've never really been to "the interior" before, so I'm pretty excited to see what happens in the middle of this great and bizarre country.

As the trip planning moved along, so did the sampling

 The trouble with beer is that it often leads to tempeh enchiladas...

... followed by frozen yoghurt covered in chocolatey bits. And now I'm lying on the couch, watching Everybody Loves Raymond and nursing my belly.