This story began with a coupon book full of a year’s worth of deals at a brewery. This was no ordinary coupon book, though.
See, back in Bethesda, Maryland, Tracy and I used to meet friends Bob and Ben after work occasionally for a beer. One day, Bob and Tracy bought Ben and me special brewery coupon books for Valentine’s Day that were a huge bargain, and I mean huge, like free beer and food—as long as we showed up to our neighborhood brewery once a week. And how hard was that? We could all walk there from our houses and from Ben and Tracy’s Metro stops after work.
So, voilà, there we were at our favorite window table—sharing trays of made-to-order nachos and “hop bomb” beers in giant club mugs—every single Friday for a year. That’s worth repeating: Every Friday for a year.
We all four hashed out and celebrated a lot of life changes in that year, notably Bob’s latest book being published, Ben’s upcoming retirement, me losing my sister and mom, Tracy and me getting married.
This week it’s been our pleasure to celebrate, in person, Bob and Ben’s new getaway condo at the beach plus Ben’s much-anticipated retirement. We’re visiting them in Delaware, from the lovely Cape Henlopen State Park.
This is an interesting place. The town is Lewes, which calls itself the first town in the first state in the U.S., and the beaches here are the first government-protected public lands, established back in 1682. The campground is tucked under pine trees, surrounded by sand dunes and marshes, with bike trails running everywhere and beaches in several directions.
The area was used as coastal defense grounds during WWII, so odd underground munitions bunkers seem to pop up out of nowhere among the pines, plus brick look-out towers. Secret weapons testing happened here during the Cold War, too.
There’s a lighthouse, a ferry to New Jersey, and a funky little downtown.
All of this stuff is mere background, though, for our week-long happy hour with Bob and Ben.
We’ve been to a Viking-themed meadery.
We’ve been to a hammock-strewn brewery.
We’ve walked together along boardwalk nature trails.
We’ve enjoyed the sunset from their back porch. We’ve played dominoes and Firefly. We’ve eaten crabs and shrimp and tomato pie and, of course, nachos modeled after the famed ones from our Valentines’s Day coupon book-enabled happy hour.
In essence, it’s been a whole lot of happy in a lovely, happy week. Cheers from Lewes, Delaware!
Hopefully there aren’t old grenades popping up out of nowhere among the pines. I’d be leery where I stepped.
Beer every single Friday at the same place for a year? That’s a tradition I could get behind (as long as there are sours on the tap list).
The brewery slowly limited the beers available to us, if I remember correctly, because they were basically giving them away. No sours. Still, it was a sweet deal.