A well-known fact around here – but not so well known across the country – is Portland has more breweries per capita than any other city in the world. There are 30+ breweries in the city limits alone. This means Portland is a little piece of heaven for visitors who enjoy throwing back a cold one (which applies to about 100% of our friends and family).

So we had the adorable, freshly-transplanted LA residents Lizzy and Jason Tillman in town this past weekend, and it was a great opportunity to hit the local brew scene. They’re such a sweet, genuine couple who Jeff’s known since before his Michigan State days (he and Jason played soccer together), and I’ve known since their 2007 wedding. Anyway, they’re perfect buddies for hanging out and having a helluva good time.

One of our weekend activities included a brewery crawl around the town. We took the streetcar to Henry’s downtown, then walked our way home via Deschutes and Rogue, where Jason was treated to a chalice of an amped-up version of his fave, Dead Guy Ale. Now, the tricky part about Portland bar crawls is the beers can be twice, three times as boozy as our usual Miller Lite types. We’re not quite accustomed to that heaviness yet! (Even with my Brussels beer experience.) We stumbled home, and got a little hair of the dog the next day at Rams Head.

We rounded out the weekend with a visit to the Nike Employee Store and campus, ate some food in the cold mist at the downtown food carts, got our fill of euchre (and Miller Lite), had some sinfully good brunch at Tin Shed, and watched the Super Bowl in an empty Embassy Suites bar. Great times with some great friends – it made us realize how much we missed them and others!