Great American Southwest Road Trip Pt 4 - Breweries

after hiking, exploring, being on the road all day, there is nothing like finding a good brewery for refreshment and sustenance.

here we are at Moab Brewery after a day at Arches National Park.

this was the site of darin's favorite meal on the whole trip. what is it you ask? what else...nachos! the thing is, they used this delicious vegetarian chili as the beans and served it with a beer cheese sauce. now cheese sauces are never darin's thing but for some reason he went nuts for this one.

we like breweries cause they're usually hoppin places that are kid friendly.

the kids like Moab Brewery cause there's fresh homemade gelato for desert!

joey had the good idea to buy a glass from each brewery we went to.

now i am jealous of his little collection.

look how smug he looks about it.

this next one was my favorite: Eske's in Taos.

the beautiful building is over 80 years old.

but best of all, they use spicy green chiles in everything, including one of their brews!

 and my favorite meal of the trip served with "wanda's famous green chile stew" veggie style of course!

ridiculously excited. we switched beers right after this, cause i ordered the ESB which was good, but darin's green chile ale was better to me, and too spicy for him. perfect trade!

eske's was smaller than we expected but having three rambunctious kids in there was no problem whatsoever. the place was super friendly. we even got to look at the bartender's gorgeous handmade silver jewelry.

then bella enjoyed signing their guest board.

"i love it here. ya bella."

when you're on the road you need salad every day. fresh perfect salad with homemade dressing, served with a rustic freshly brewed ale. that's my kinda dinner, and the burrito!

i love dinnertime with the little fam.

page from my scrapbook.

 happy campers.

 and speaking of which...this is the "happy camper IPA" from santa fe brewing company. thought i'd throw it in even though we didn't get to go to the brewery, just cause we loved their logo so much, and the beer was great. and we were indeed happy campers.

last but not least, Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff. a town that we loved for its friendly, fun vibe which started right here at this brewery that was super packed even though the road outside was being torn up.

our last real night on the road.

here are the beers we ordered:

railyard red

r & r oatmeal stout

brambleberry ale

hopshot i.p.a

can you guess whose was whose?

welp i can safely say that now i want a beer.

i will also add that even though each of these little breweries was fabulous in its own way, nothing beats northern cali breweries. i mean we've got Russian River, North Coast, Eel River, Lagunitas, Lost Coast, Mad River, Bear Republic..the list goes on and on....

anyway so cheers to all breweries, and cheers to home!