Polar bear club

Today was the Grizzly Peak's special "Polar Bear" Mug Club Monday, where the beer was 25 cents each, and the appetizers and pizza were half price. Who could really say no? Well, I wasn't the only one. Officially starting at 4PM, I arrived at 4:05PM to find the entire outdoor seating area completely filled, and a line already starting to form.


Without any open seat at 4:05, I decided to wait for someone in the original group to take off early. Almost an hour later, the first seat opened up, and I jumped at it, not being a member of a group. However, about 30 minutes later, I still hadn't had the opportunity to order anything - much like my recollection from last year's event. As I sat there, slowly cooling down and seated at the brisk and breezy Ashley Street-end of the long table, I thrummed my gloved fingers on the table. Eventually, I got a beer - a warm-up ale - and put in an order for some pizzas. By the time I got some porter, the pizzas came, quickly cooling, in front of me.

After finishing my two pizzas and polishing off my ever-colder porter, I walked shakingly into the Peak to warm up with a properly warm beer. Sitting at the bar with feeling slowly trickling into my toes, I ended up chatting with a few older regulars about commuting in town on a bike, and we determined that cycling in Ann Arbor is actually not too bad, since Ann Arbor drivers expect to actually see bikes on the roads, and therefore know to drive slowly around us and - thankfully - not hit us.

Anyway, after finishing up a dark coffee beer, I worked up the warmth to cycle back home.