October 10, 2018

Spoetzl Brewery - Home of Shiner Beer

October 10, 2018/ Meghan Oaks

Two hours west of Houston, at the convergence of US-90 and TX-95, on the edge of Texas hill country, lies the tiny town of Shiner. One of the most well-known small towns in Texas, Shiner is home to Spoetzl Brewey - the makers of Shiner Bock (among others). Ask any Texan about Shiner and they will know it. In true Oaks fashion, we had wanted to make a visit to the brewery, something that falls right in line with all of our other brewery tours. Our trip to Austin for Memorial Day Weekend, provided the perfect opportunity to finally do it.

April 14, 2016

6 Things to do in Bruges, Belgium

April 14, 2016/ Meghan Oaks

Bruges, a small, midevil city in Belgium, not far from the North Atlantic, is a charming little city to spend a weekend in. There are canals, reminiscent of the ones in Amsterdam, that run through the city, a stunning center square watched over by a giant clock tower, twisting and winding cobblestone streets lined with houses hundreds of years old, lots of old, beautiful churches. All of this is accented with hundreds of chocolate shops, small cafes serving waffles or french fries (or both!), and pubs where the bar is lined with taps pouring fresh, but strong, Belgian beer.

March 30, 2016

De Halve Maan Brewery Tour in Bruges

March 30, 2016/ Meghan Oaks

People often think of four things when they think of Belgium - waffles, fries, chocolate, and, of course, beer. We ate plenty of the first three while in Bruges, and toured a brewery to make sure we got the full experience for the latter. In Bruges, there is a 150 year old, family owned, brewery that offers multiple tours a day in multiple languages. It's called De Halve Maan, which means crescent moon in Dutch. We opted for their "XL" tour which lasts twice as long as their normal tour and includes a sampling of not one of their beers, but four. It was an easy decision :)

February 24, 2015

Touring the Welde Brewery

February 24, 2015/ Meghan Oaks

This was another of those lazy, stay at home, relax and get stuff done type of weekends. We've been gone the last few weekends and while we love having those quick weekend getaways, it can make laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning more difficult to fit in. But that doesn't mean we don't have fun when we stay home!

January 12, 2015

Famine, Guinness and Pubs

January 12, 2015/ Meghan Oaks

After leaving Cork, we had a three hour drive ahead of us to Dublin. But before we made it there, we made a couple of stops along the way: the Rock of Cashel and the Smithwick's Brewery. The next day in Dublin, which was also New Year's Eve, was spent exploring. We checked out a famine museum on a reproduction of a famine boat and went to the Guinness brewery. Sorry if this post is kinda long, but as a reward for hanging in there, you'll get to see some pretty pictures!

One of my Facebook friends posted one of those articles that shows pretty pictures of things. The topic of this one was European Castles. Seeing as how we are kind living in Europe, I checked it out to see