Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season and I wish you and yours a Happy and Joyous New Year. We were down in SoCal for a week and have now returned-returned to my Secret Santa gift from Junior Junkie, a few lots of St.Louis Blues vintage card lots I picked up for a song and 4 boxes of cards I bought myself for Christmas. I thought I would work in some beer "porn" from our trip along with the first box I busted which was Panini 2013 Hometown Heroes. It was a beery Christmas.

Let us look at the Redbird from the box-A little White Rat to start with

And some great Mexican food from Casa de Bandini in Carlsbad, yes there is much great Mexican in my town which is 78% Latino. But man this was good. 

Some more Redbirds-no Yadi though and in no particular order. 

Following the fantastic meal we headed down El Camino Real and hit Pizza Port Bressi Ranch, also in Carlsbad, for a couple of pints. A tip for visitors wanting to hit one of the area Pizza Ports, this location is one of the easiest for parking and ease of getting to. Having already over the years visited the San Clemente, downtown Carlsbad, Solana Beach, and Pizza Port/Lost Abby locations this one is now my preference. Check out the fermentor made in to an aquarium. Apparently it was on the show Tanked. Strong American Pale Ale anyone?

Next some former Cardinals with their original teams-some of these may shock you. Again not in any order. 

Since our number one goal of our trip was to visit with family and friends and because Mondays and Tuesdays are days most microbreweries are closed Pizza Port was the only one visited in San Diego. So up to Los Angeles we headed to meet and stay the night with old friends. Nice having great friends who love craft beer-our first stop with them was Golden Road (now owned by ABinBEV) but it was still a great spot for beer-open air, indoor and outdoor seating and solid brewery only beer. Seasonal IPA flight anyone?

I will spare you all the myriads of inserts and parallels and end with the money shots-you receive three autos per box and this was a Redbirds hotbox!

First auto pulled, Jack freaking Clark! Booya  One of my favorite all time Redbirds. So then a few fat packs later this bad boy pops out! Are you freaking kidding me? Though I already have this auto-this was a good pull-two Redbirds would it be a threesome?

Nope, I pulled a solid catcher from the Os-Rick Dempsey.I swear I just pulled him from a Panini Cooperstown box. No that was Jim Rice.  But still a good run of luck.

Lastly we hit Highland Park Brewing which was a cool place, LA vibe, solid beers, OK food.  Happy New Year!