Bachelor Party

So this past weekend was my bachelor party. I must say that I had a good time and I even remember about 90% of it, which is pretty good for me. We spent the day Saturday in Grand Rapids, but me and a couple of my friends left Friday evening, stopping in Kalamazoo to take in the grandeur that is Bell's. We crashed at my buddy Adam's house near K-zoo so we were able to sleep in a bit before meeting everyone else at the hotel in GR since it was only about 30-40 minutes of driving by that time.

We all met at the Courtyard Marriott, a stone's throw from the local arena and downtown area of Grand Rapids. John had procured an 8 passenger van from work so we all piled in an made the drive to Holland. Starting our tour of western Michigan microbreweries at New Holland Brewing Company, most of us got some grub and tasted a variety of their offerings. I got a sampler of six different beers, and would have to say that I thought the "Dragon's Milk" was the best one. A dark stout with a milky aftertaste. Very good indeed.

Then we made our way back to GR to meet up with the a late arrival and were back off to Schmohz Brewing Company. No samplers there, so I tried their stout. It was probably one of the more interesting ones that I've ever had. It seemed to almost have a hint of citrus in it that made for a somewhat weird aftertaste. I can't say that I really liked it, but it wasn't terrible. I tasted the cream ale they made, and that was pretty good. The venue itself was a little weird. There were the standard bar games and the Wings were on (not to mention free popcorn and peanuts), but there were almost as many kids under the age of 15 there as there were beer drinking patrons. This weirded us out a bit so we moved on to the next place.

The Hideout Brewing Company was probably my favorite place. They had three stouts on their menu and I tried two of them, both very good. I also had their pilsner which was delicious as well. They had bar games upstairs, fooseball, shuffleboard, darts. Mike and I played Adam and John at fooseball and came out victorious. I would assume we spent a couple of hours at the Hideout because when we left we headed back to downtown GR for a bite to eat and the hockey game.

We went to eat at a place called Hopcat, which has 44 beers on tap. I had an O'Hara's red. It's an Irish microbrew from Co. Cavan. I had had their stout a few weeks earlier at a bar in Chicago, but before then I hadn't had either since my buddy Joe's wedding, which had both. I got some delicious mac and cheese for dinner. By the time we were all fed the game had already started, so we quickly made our way to the arena to catch the rest of the game.

It was the Grand Rapids Griffins versus the Rochester Americans and the score was tied at 1 in the first period when we got there. By the time the game was over, the Griffins had won 8-4. After every goal, once the arena died down and it was sufficiently quiet, my buddy Bill would yell "OH MY GOD!" as loud as he could. It was really funny, especially after 10 goals.

After the game we went to Founders, where there was a live blues band playing. I had the Russian Imperial stout there, which I was kind of disappointed with, and I think I had the scotch ale as well, which wasn't bad. We stayed at Founders for a while before heading back toward the hotel. Now there was a typical bar/nightclub across from the hotel that we went into for some reason. We stayed there for a few rounds of Labatt's Blue, but once John started to fall asleep we headed back to the hotel. At least that's how the story goes.

It's at this point that my memory starts to fade. I remember there being a hotdog vendor outside the bar, but that's about it. I don't think I got one since I'm not a big hotdog fan. My buddy Joe had brought a bottle of Jameson (the only whiskey I'll really drink) and apparently once we were back at the hotel we cracked open uncle Jaimoe and it got MIB'ed. Bill tells me that I proceeded to order pizza and buy a bunch of candy bars (which I found the next day in my backpack).

I woke up the next morning and I believe I was still drunk. Most of the bottle of Jaimoe was gone, and I hope that I didn't drink most of it, but judging by what happened Sunday it's entirely possible. I think Bill said I threw up the night before and that was a theme that continued for the rest of the day. I slept almost the entire way back to Chicago (stopping to vomit in the sink of a McDonald's bathroom of course) and couldn't even hold down gatorade and water for most of the day. Oy vey!

Fortunately I woke up Monday feeling about 90-95%. Needless to say I had a really good time this weekend. My brother did a great job of putting everything together and it was great to see all my friends and to hang out. I could have done without the hangover, and I was almost there (evidenced by my memory surviving intact so late into the evening), but as the song says "Whiskey You're The Devil." In reality though, it was everything a bachelor party usually is and should be and I was glad it went off so well.