In the summer of 2015, we discovered the Shore Craft Beer challenges via a pamphlet my husband picked up for me at 3rd Wave Brewery. This is significant because not only does my husband drink very little, and drink no beer, he doesn’t even like beer. So it was purely with me in mind that he picked it up and said, “We should do this.” So we did.
Between June 2015 and December 2015, my husband and I spent days and weekends together driving to all but 2 of the breweries listed on that pamphlet. Okay, he drove, and I drank the beer. From Rehoboth to Crisfield to St. Michael’s to Salisbury, and everything in between we had an incredible time learning about the Eastern Shore, hanging out with our best friend (each other) and drinking beer (well, he drank soda. Once again, it was me drinking the beer). We not only completed the challenge and visited nearly every brewery listed in 2015, we made some stops along the way at breweries and places that weren’t listed. I convinced him to take a few sips.
Nope, beer still isn’t his thing. But spending time with me and and taking me to experience something that I love *is* his thing and our memories of those six months are still ones we talk about and appreciate. Only one of us might be a beer drinker, but we both loved the journey and the experience, and the Shore Craft Brew Challenge is just one more way we found to spend time together and stay in love. It’s been long enough that we’re almost ready to do it again, and maybe this time submit our visits to collect the official challenge “prizes”, but in the meantime, we visit many of our local breweries on a regular basis and hit up the brewfests!
