Gainesville Never Disappoints

While Brett was here, we wanted to make time to go to Gainesville if at all possible.  He had been to Relish, the University of Florida and had seen the home of Tom Petty before but had never visited Swamp Head, and we really wanted him to experience our new favorite brewery.  I had found out earlier in the month that his visit would coincide with their 17th anniversary, so we all decided to make it a priority and invited Uncle Phil to join us.

From past experience, we knew that "Swamp Fest" would be busy with limited parking.  Thus, we left early and were one of the first groups to arrive.  I felt a little silly as they were still setting up, but in the end, we were all very happy as we got a great seat and a close parking spot in the main lot.  Brett liked the brewery very much.  He tried several of their offerings and bought a four pack of their newest brew to take home for he and Andrew to share. That wasn't his only souvenir, and he ended up with a nice mug commemorating the event.  The best part wasn't the beer, however. It was sharing something with Brett that we had come to love and finding out that he enjoyed it just as much as we did.

We dropped Phil off at home after Swamp Fest and headed to Mellow Mushroom for lunch.  It was the one restaurant that Brett hadn't gotten to on his last visit and was a priority for this one.  The food was delicious, and afterward we all enjoyed a walk to Grandpa Joe's before leaving downtown.  Our next stop was Blessed Trinity for mass.  The homily was on point with great advice for loving one's enemies, something that we all agreed was a lot easier said than done.  We all appreciated the reminder and talked about mass most of the way home.  The three of us then stayed in the rest of the evening listening to music, playing Ticket to Ride and watching some of our favorite television moments.  It was nice to have such a relaxing evening after an incredibly busy day.