1) Am-Jac Christmas Tree Farm -> Cut your own Christmas tree🎄 for a fixed fee of $55 regardless of the sizes; cash-only! Saw available for rent at a free of charge! 2) German Christmas Market of New Jersey @ Sussex County Fairgrounds -> Heavy traffic getting to the fairgrounds!! Ran out of time to have Felix ride a pony and take pics with the Santa 🎅/🤶, but tasted Weisswurst, Bratwurst and Frankfurter 🌭 together with Weihenstephaner Festbier and Glühwein. Ah how I always love the good Weisswurst! How come it doesn’t get much of a market share here in the US is a true mystery to me. As much as I like exploring all the vendors and their little arts and crafts, it was much too crowded for browsing for my taste. Made perfect sense to have the vendors inside the barns in case of the inclement weather, but no so much in terms of the pandemic 😷, especially omicron variant is quickly picking up its momentum. I had my mask on the whole time when social distancing couldn’t have been maintained. Gotta save my own life, or who would, right!? 3) Hoppy Tr’Ale – Muckraker Beermaker (4.25/5) -> Recommended by my best beer buddy, Alan, I finally managed to visit them for the first time! The taproom, when you step in, looks rather small, but stretched out on the back! Cozy little atmosphere, and their brews are fresh loaded with locally sourced fruits like peaches, nectarines, blueberries, etc creating subtle, refreshing, fruity sour ales. Reasonably priced for barrel-aged brews like theirs. 4) Jersey Spirits Distilling Co. —> Quick tasting (Victoria) & takeout as their business was quickly coming to an end for the day. 5) Hoppy Tr’Ale – Magnify Brewing Co. (3.75~4 / 5) —> Quick tasting (Heeday) & takeout as their business was quickly coming to an end for the day. Super convenient that the brewery and distillery are located right next to one another. They are not the same owner as I had predicted. Their signature IPA had just kicked and being almost at the COB, I didn’t ask her to start a new keg just for the sake of tasting. Their IPA production seems so small to a point that they are serving only in-house. Besides the IPA, they had four different styles of Stouts, three of which I tried. I was sold for the Dulce de Leche one… the other two featured acquired tastes. One had odd minty finish and the other has this soy saucy aroma and very thick velvety texture, which is actually picking up the market share, yet I just can’t get into… 6) Cricket Hill Brewing Co. —> Skipped; ran out of time! 7) Casa d’Paco (4.25/5) —> Recommended by my former colleague Darío from Bilbao 🇪🇸, we visited them with high hopes. They surely met our expectations, but at the same time, we wouldn’t rate them as highly as we do Curate in Asheville, NC and Barcelona Wine Bar in Washington, D.C. two of which are my favorite tapas bar here in the US. Nevertheless, good little neighborhood restaurant I’m sure we would return every now and then. The $5 valet parking solves the nightmarish parking situation in that neighborhood.

Road Trip

Road Trip, New Jersey, NJ, Am-Jac Christmas Tree Farm, German Christmas Market of New Jersey, Sussex County Fairgrounds, Hoppy TrAle, Muckraker Beermaker, Jersey Spirits Distilling Company, Magnify Brewing Company, Cricket Hill Brewing Company, Casa d’Paco, Tapas

Hudson County, New Jersey, United States

time : Dec 4, 2021 11:14 AM

duration : 11h 51m 50s

distance : 141.3 mi

total_ascent : 4029 ft

highest_point : 1165 ft

avg_speed : 14.1 mi/h

user_id : NomadHeeday

user_firstname : Heeday

user_lastname : Nakahashi

1) Am-Jac Christmas Tree Farm -> Cut your own Christmas tree🎄 for a fixed fee of $55 regardless of the sizes; cash-only! Saw available for rent at a free of charge! 2) German Christmas Market of New Jersey @ Sussex County Fairgrounds -> Heavy traffic getting to the fairgrounds!! Ran out of time to have Felix ride a pony and take pics with the Santa 🎅/🤶, but tasted Weisswurst, Bratwurst and Frankfurter 🌭 together with Weihenstephaner Festbier and Glühwein. Ah how I always love the good Weisswurst! How come it doesn’t get much of a market share here in the US is a true mystery to me. As much as I like exploring all the vendors and their little arts and crafts, it was much too crowded for browsing for my taste. Made perfect sense to have the vendors inside the barns in case of the inclement weather, but no so much in terms of the pandemic 😷, especially omicron variant is quickly picking up its momentum. I had my mask on the whole time when social distancing couldn’t have been maintained. Gotta save my own life, or who would, right!? 3) Hoppy Tr’Ale – Muckraker Beermaker (4.25/5) -> Recommended by my best beer buddy, Alan, I finally managed to visit them for the first time! The taproom, when you step in, looks rather small, but stretched out on the back! Cozy little atmosphere, and their brews are fresh loaded with locally sourced fruits like peaches, nectarines, blueberries, etc creating subtle, refreshing, fruity sour ales. Reasonably priced for barrel-aged brews like theirs. 4) Jersey Spirits Distilling Co. —> Quick tasting (Victoria) & takeout as their business was quickly coming to an end for the day. 5) Hoppy Tr’Ale – Magnify Brewing Co. (3.75~4 / 5) —> Quick tasting (Heeday) & takeout as their business was quickly coming to an end for the day. Super convenient that the brewery and distillery are located right next to one another. They are not the same owner as I had predicted. Their signature IPA had just kicked and being almost at the COB, I didn’t ask her to start a new keg just for the sake of tasting. Their IPA production seems so small to a point that they are serving only in-house. Besides the IPA, they had four different styles of Stouts, three of which I tried. I was sold for the Dulce de Leche one… the other two featured acquired tastes. One had odd minty finish and the other has this soy saucy aroma and very thick velvety texture, which is actually picking up the market share, yet I just can’t get into… 6) Cricket Hill Brewing Co. —> Skipped; ran out of time! 7) Casa d’Paco (4.25/5) —> Recommended by my former colleague Darío from Bilbao 🇪🇸, we visited them with high hopes. They surely met our expectations, but at the same time, we wouldn’t rate them as highly as we do Curate in Asheville, NC and Barcelona Wine Bar in Washington, D.C. two of which are my favorite tapas bar here in the US. Nevertheless, good little neighborhood restaurant I’m sure we would return every now and then. The $5 valet parking solves the nightmarish parking situation in that neighborhood.