Wow, I can’t believe this is the 200^th Sip Trip post. We’ve documented so many adventures since I started doing them, with the best still yet to come. Typically, I’ve been posting Sip Trips monthly, but an event we attended this week is being run twice more before the end of August and I want to get my thoughts out there to anyone who may want more info on it. So, here’s what we’ve been up to for most of the month:

Our first journey took us to the Langley Farmers Market, which was featuring a Craft Beer Crawl. In attendance from Langley’s burgeoning craft beer scene was Camp, Dead Frog, Smuggler’s Cove, Five Roads, Locality, and Farm Country. We bought tall can four-packs from four of the breweries, which has stocked us well for the last couple weeks. We also enjoyed some neat ice cream from Rolled West Coast, going with the Cookie Monster offering.

Following the market, we went for dinner at the newly-opened The Barley Merchant. I targeted a serving of Dead Frog Big Melon, Little Berries Watermelon Blackberry Imperial Pilsner, which was very good. It also paired well with my The Dirty Bird fried chicken burger with fries. I look forward to return trip to the eatery, which offers 50 taps of beer and ciders.

The event I want to highlight for this Sip Trips was the Sip n’ Dip (aka Sip & Swim) at the Otter Co-op Outdoor Experience waterpark in Aldergrove. $15.75 plus tax paid for admission and one drink ticket, with additional tickets costing $5 each. There was only 200 spaces available for the event, with registration opening a week prior. Folks should get there early, as you have to sign in and buy your extra drink tickets before entering. We picked up an extra six tickets, with me theory that we would go through a drink each half our portion of the two-hour event. I used my tickets on Trading Post Helles Lagers and Farm Country Everyday Ales. They also had two flavours of White Claw Hard Seltzers, a cider and wine available.

I thought the event was pretty well run, but three hours instead of two would have been great. As Mrs. Sip put it, three hours is not long enough for people to get too messed up and long enough for people to pace themselves better, not that I saw any issues with that over the course of the evening. A Triple O’s food truck was on site for those who wanted to eat. One issue was that only small “wallet size” lockers were available to those who wanted to secure their items. Other than that, I can’t think of any other problems.

Following the Sip n’ Dip, we went to the Townhall Pub in Langley for some late night happy hour treats. I had an order of Chicken Tenders with fries, while also sharing some of Mrs. Sip’s Pulled Pork Hushpuppies. It was a decadent meal, with multiple $3 highballs and finished with slices of Oreo Cheesecake.

That wraps this mid-month report. Despite our wedding anniversary coming up soon, I’m not sure we’ll get to do much for it, as Ma Sip is scheduled for hip replacement surgery the day after, along with Mrs. Sip celebrating a friend’s 40^th birthday over the occasion and going away on a girl’s trip. I want to wish Mrs. Sip a fun time away and Ma Sip all the best in her recovery.