I love how willing my friends are to make asses of themselves with me. Last night we had a "Sweatpants Pub Crawl" down Lyndale Avenue. I'm a big fan of pub crawls, as some of you may have gathered. Drinking in sweats, though? Genius. And SO comfy! My outfit for the crawl consisted of gray men's sweats with cinched ankles (of course!) and a Daunte Culpepper Vikings jersey that I bought on sale at Sportaction in MOA. I thought I was getting a fabulous deal until I remembered Daunte is no longer on the Vikings. And it's totally not football season. This made it even funnier to me. It also made it funny to the people eating at Rudolph's BBQ. I couldn't stop laughing when I took my coat off, revealing my bright purple jersey. KP was wearing a fire engine red sweat suit. We both looked ridiculously out of place. I loved it.

I should say we looked out of place until these guys showed up:



Yes that's puff paint on the pink shirt. And yes, those are little boy's, glow-in-the-dark, dinosaur print, long john pajamas. I always love when my friends take theme pub crawls seriously.

The schedule for the night was Rudolph's, Red Dragon, Bulldog, CC Club, VFW, Herkimer, and Country Bar.

Rudolph's is one of my favorite bars. I usually walk over there from my place or friends who live near by. Mapquest says it's 1.47 miles. I'll gladly walk this when it's nice out, which is why I mostly go to Rudolph's in the summer. They have a great late-night happy hour from 10 to close M-F. 2 for 1's on rail drinks and tap beer. They also have good appetizer specials. Mmmm... burger buddies.

After Rudolph's we walked down the street to the Red Dragon. Before the smoking ban, the Red Dragon was unbearable. Now it's ok. I'm not a huge fan of the place, mostly because I had a bad experience with the Wondrous Punch. Basically it's an enormous shot you drink with a straw. Gross. But it does the trick if you're looking to get drunk. Fast. I decided Red Dragon was a perfect place to bring out my fake mustache collection. There's never a dull moment with days of the week mustaches.



I opted for the Sheriff. My personal fav.



This one had quite the adventure: into a glass of water first, then into CG's mouth. Ew. Wet, fake moustaches are never good.

Next up was the Bulldog. Now this is truly one of my all time favorite places. Any place that specializes in... you guessed it... hot dogs is ALL RIGHT by me. I especially enjoy their cheddarworsts and corndog nuggets. They also have 2 ciders here. Ace Pear on tap and delicious Strongbow in cans. The highlight of the Bulldog was seeing TB's baby wearing sweatpants. He also let us put a fake mustache on the little guy so he could be a part of the fun. Lucky for everybody the baby sleeps best with background noise. He slept the whole time. Lucky.

After the Bulldog we walked across the street to the CC Club. I always thought this bar was an intense punk/biker hangout. Turns out, it's not scary at all! It's always packed with the same old uptown hipsters you see everywhere else. I didn't stay here long, because I was on a mission. A karaoke mission.

I made the 3-4 block walk to the VFW by myself. I realized how late it was getting (11ish) and at the VFW that means you only have a short window for getting your name on the "list" to sing. I got in, signed up, and waited for the rest of my peeps to show up. Unfortunately, a big crowd must have came right after me, because they stopped letting people in at all. I waited for over an hour before I finally got to sing. Pub crawl schedule be damned! I sang Carol King's "I feel the earth move". And I rocked it. Since I was still in my football-esque ensemble, I kept doing this weird little dance during the instrumental breaks. Some sort of football shuffle. I thought I was being hilarious. So did one other guy who kept yelling "Go Daunte!" at me. It's good to have fans.

I should mention the future of VFW... I heard a rumor that the majority of the block will be razed to make way for MORE condos. More ugly, cheaply made, over priced, Uptown Condos. Boo. I'm not sure when this will happen, so in the mean time anyone who's able should make the most of this wonderfully trendy whole in the wall establishment. Also, there's a meat raffle on Saturday afternoons. Oh, meat raffles.

Since I stayed at VFW for way past the allotted pub crawl time, I missed Herkimer. I do enjoy Herkimer so I was kind of bummed. They have a great juke box and hardcore cider. The beer there is their own micro-brews, so be prepared if you show up expecting a pint of honey-wises. They also have pretty decent food.

Country Bar was the last stop on the list. I walked in, saw how packed it was, and turned around. That bar is fun, but only if you get there before 10pm. That way you can get a table by the karaoke, get your name in, and sing before it's too stuffed to move. I sang Hold On, by Wilson Phillips there once. The KJ held up my hand after and congratulated me for getting the "Cheesiest Song Award" of the night. YES! Probably because of the choreography I do when singing that song.

I'm not sure when I'll be back to the bars on Lyndale Ave. I have a feeling there will be crawls a plenty all summer long. Hopefully the next theme will be a repeat of last fall's highly successful, critically acclaimed "Long Shirt, Short Pants" pub crawl. I think you get the picture.