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Melissa's friend Aimee lives in Ambler PA, a nice quiet borough a
little north of Philadelphia that was incorporated in 1888. Her house was built in 1910. She went out of town for several days and let us
use her place. There was no need to leave us a
key -- Ambler is so safe that Aimee never locks her door. We took Foo (Melissa's dog) and Walter (Melissa's cat) with us.
Saturday August 29.
We arrived at 2:20 on a gorgeous day, got Walter and Foo situated, and went to
Imprint Beer Company, arriving at 3:20.
It has a game room, and Melissa was happy because it has a pinball machine.
This place is highly rated for its smoothie sours, called Schmoojees. We got 4 of them:
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We bought 6 beers to go, then at 4:50 we stopped at Ten7 Brewing,
which was low-rated but it was on our way back to Ambler. It opened in October 2018. We tried:
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We returned to the house, hung out for a few hours, then around 8:00 we walked to downtown Ambler,
which was bustling on a Saturday night. There are 3 breweries along the main strip (Butler Ave),
as well as a
fourth one about a mile away. We had visited all of them a few months prior. Tonight we visited the ones
on the strip. The first was Forest & Main (whose
production facility is half a mile away). They don't do flights, but they let me try the following
two beers, the latter of which we drank a glass of:
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Shortly before 9:00 we went into Twisted Gingers
(which has another location in Manayunk). They don't do flights so we got a half pour of:
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The place is located next to a small food hall.
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At around 9:15 we stopped at our favorite place of the night,
Tannery Run Brew Works, which has a nice food menu.
We got poutine and a salad, and had
a nice conversation with Tim, who is both the owner and the head brewer. He had been brewing
for 25 years, and started when he was 20. The beers we tried were:
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We walked back to the house, had a Schmoojee, and crashed.
Sunday August 30. We went to Asbury Park, New Jersey,
which has a boardwalk and many attractions.
Melissa is into pinball, so I would visit some breweries while she played. At noon she dropped me at
Bakes Brewing, which is 15 minutes south of Asbury Park, and went to
Silverball Retro Arcade. Bakes is highly rated due
to its outstanding hazy IPAs. They let you order only two samples at a time. I got:
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I walked past some old-style houses...
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...to North Jersey Coast Rail Line's
Belmar Station and rode to
Bradley Beach Station.
There were lots of young ladies riding the train for some reason. It's a good thing I bought a
ticket because a conductor came around checking tickets.
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I walked a block
to Erratic Fermentations, which is located in
Bradley Brew Project's old location. Bradley Brew closed in October 2025, and Erratic opened there
in April 2026. I sampled:
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Then I rode to Asbury Park Station and walked to
Wild Air Beerworks, arriving at 3:00. Several local bands were
playing throughout the day. This place doesn't do small pours during live shows, so I got a glass of:
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Then I walked to the beach, pausing to take note of one lot's parking rate.
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When I got to
Silverball I would have had to pay to
get in so most of these photos were taken by Melissa from inside.
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We went next door to a bar called Low Dive and got some
Kane Head High IPA. Note the bottles embedded in the bar.
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Then we walked along the boardwalk.
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Melissa drove us back to Ambler while I dozed.
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Monday August 31. We had planned to hike at
Valley Forge National Historical Park in the
Mount Misery / Mount Joy area, but we didn't, partly because we were tired, and partly because it
had rained overnight, which would make the trails muddy. Ah, who am I kidding? We're old, and
the previous two days had wiped us out.
After a relaxing morning we walked to downtown Ambler at around 2:00.
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We stopped at a carpet store called
D'Agostino Carpets, which has lots of
old paraphernalia.
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At 3:00 we went into a nice little pub called
Bar 31, so called because its address
is 31 Main Street. Also, there is 31 cents worth of coins embedded in the sidewalk out front.
We got a Fiddlehead IPA.
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We stopped in a few stores and walked back to the house around 4:00. A little after 6:00 we drove to the home of
Melissa's brother and his family and had a Greek dinner with them. After we came back we drank a
New Trail Double Broken Heels and turned in.
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Tuesday September 1. Still cloudy and humid. About half the house lost power overnight due to a storm.
Most of the outlets and light switches, the stove, and the microwave were out, but the fridge and
the water heater still worked. Around 11:00ish we went to the
Baklava and Biscotti Bakery
and got several pieces of cake, baklava, kataifi,
and portokalopita. Everything was well made.
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Then we dropped the uneaten pastries at the house so they wouldn't heat up in the vehicle and went to the
Plymouth Meeting Mall because it contains
Uncle Joe's Arcade, arriving
at about 12:30. It has
a dozen pinball machines. They cost 50 cents to a dollar per game, depending on how new and elaborate
they are. There are also several games where you can win tickets to exchange for prizes, kind of like
Chuck E. Cheese.
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The mall has a Dave and Buster's, and I'd never been to one, so we went in shortly before 1:30.
The upstairs is a restaurant/bar and
all the games are downstairs. The lights and sounds were reminiscent of Las Vegas. We got some
soft pretzels at the bar.
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When we left the mall it was getting hot and sunny.
On the way back we stopped in downtown Ambler to get a gift card for Aimee and pick up some craft brews.
We relaxed the rest of the afternoon, then met Melissa's brother and his family (minus his son Dimitri, who was working) at
Los Sarapes, a Mexican restaurant in Ambler.
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We returned to the house and had a relaxing evening with a few beers.
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Wednesday September 2. An overcast morning. We packed and left a little after 11:30. About halfway into our drive we went through
torrential rain. We got home by 2:00 and the four of us unwound from our adventures.