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The family went to Nashville for my oldest’s 21st. Here are some highlights. Noelle We stayed at Noelle, a charming boutique hotel with friendly staff, unique music playing in the lobby, and luxe, art deco furnishings. The author relaxes after a long drive The Johnny Cash Museum I was a bit out of my element this whole trip because I have very little knowledge of country music. But I jumped right in by suggesting a visit to the Johnny Cash Museum. I enjoyed learning about his various influences and seeing the vintage guitars, but what really got me was the exhibit on Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.” Not being a Cash or Nine Inch Nails devotee, it was the first I’d heard it, and I thought it was quite powerful. ...

Kunze’s Technology Brewing and Malting covers many approaches to fermentation and maturation. I made notes below on a few that look useful in my brewery. All these methods are meant for use with a cylindroconical tank, which I don’t have. Temperatures below are converted from the Celsius ones Kunze provides (why I use Fahrenheit for temperature when I use metric for everything else is a different topic) and rounded to the nearest degree. Homebrewers can probably ferment a couple degrees warmer since we don’t have the middle-of-the-tank hotspots big breweries have. ...

Last weekend I was asked what I do to get the clarity in my beers. It made me happy for that to be noticed because I’ve taken a lot of steps to improve clarity (and foam, another topic) over the years. Clarity hasn’t always been very important to me, but I’ve come to believe a beer’s appearance is a big part of the overall sensory experience. Also, in competition, appearance undoubtedly affects most judges’ perceptions beyond the three points on the scoresheet. ...

We slept in, packed, and got to the park at 10:30. We went straight to Mille and waited about 10 minutes to ride; then we headed to the back of the park where people had been waiting outside SteVe since 10. Yet again violating my rule of not waiting for a ride that isn’t running, we got in the long, snaking line that had formed, and soon, the attendant allowed people to start through the gate. I told my daughter if I didn’t see a train with people in it before we passed the gate, I was leaving the line, and luckily, that requirement was fulfilled just in time. Once we got settled into the switchbacks, the line seemed pretty long, maybe an hour. But because we’d had the foresight to secure our phones, keys, and other items ahead of time, we were able to skip the lockers. Then, when we were waiting on the stairs to the station, we were able to pass a large group of people who wanted to wait for their friends who went to the lockers. In the end, we’d waited maybe 30 minutes. ...

I’m not sure we made the best use of the Fast Passes on this day, but they did save us a lot of time waiting for GateKeeper, Valravn, Gemini, Maverick, and Steel Vengeance. The latter two were still long waits, but Valravn and Gemini were walked right onto. SteVe suffered an issue while we were in line, causing us to wait an hour, and later, we waited for an hour or more through a Mille breakdown. We keep breaking my cardinal rule! Rain and wind kept a lot of rides offline as well. But it was still a pretty good day. ...

As hotel guests, we got in an hour early and rode GateKeeper and Millennium Force in short order. Then we headed to the back of the park for Maverick and Steel Vengeance. Unfortunately, we broke the cardinal rule not to get in line for a ride that isn’t running. We waited for about an hour while Maverick went through diagnostics before we were finally let in. We probably could have ridden SteVe twice in that time, so I was cranky. We had a small lunch and got in the then-hour-long line for SteVe. ...

For Fall Break, we took a trip to Cedar Point. It was rainy and cold, but we still enjoyed quite a few roller coasters. On the Thursday we arrived, we rode Magnum Rougarou (not me—this ride hurts my head) GateKeeper Valravn (front row) Millennium Force (back row) After Rougarou, we had dinner at the newly renovated Grand Pavilion Restaurant and Bar. Good concept well executed. They have a decent beer list. ...

Beachside camping again tonight at perhaps the best site thus far, right on the beach and spacious yet secluded. The hike here was shorter than yesterday, only about 8 miles. I can understand why people don’t like the Lake Superior Trail. If we weren’t here at the perfect time of year, the mud and bugs would be too much. A lot of it was pretty unpleasant due to the swampiness and near overgrowth. But at other times we enjoyed walking along the beach and through the diverse woods on paths of granite, basalt, and shale stones. ...

Breakfast of jalapeño, bacon, and cheddar grits. A 12-mile hike past Lily Pond and along Little Carp and its many waterfalls. Camping on the rocky shores of Lake Superior. ...

Mirror Lake ...