Northeast Blogger Winter Gathering...

Two weeks ago I hinted at a second Northeast Blogger's meeting, a winter get-together ideally at a brew pub or other such venue. While it would be nice to have a second shooting get-together this year, I'd like to have an event where we can meet and talk without having to stop and bayonet teletubbies first... In all seriousness, my biggest (only!) regret from the summer get-together is that I didn't get to chat with everyone nearly enough. There were so many fascinating and wonderful folks at the Bloggershoot that I would dearly have loved to have spent hours chatting with, but things like shooting Class III weaponry and classic firearms kept getting in the way...

That said, I proposed a brewery/brew pub type venue somewhere in the northern MA/southern NH area. That seemed to work pretty well for most folks, so now I think it's to nail down a time and location. I would guess that a Saturday night would offer the best chance for the most folks to make the event, but would be more than happy to entertain pretty much any day of the week if that's what folks want. Heck, I've got to burn four more vacation days by the end of the year, so if we can get enough people interested in a mid-week lunch event I'd be up for that, too...

So let's see if we can't nail down some specifics!

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Location:

We have several suggestions on the table for a location:

Murphy's Taproom in Manchester, NH

Martha's Exchange in Nashua, NH

Lowell Brewery in Lowell, MA

Tap Brew Pub in Haverhill, MA (Okay, this one's all mine, because it's like five minutes from my house - I will offer sofa/floor space to anyone that wants to crash after a night at the Tap should we choose this location).

There's also the Portsmouth Brewery in Portsmouth NH, but the handful of times I've been there they've been wall-to-wall packed and parking is a PITA.

I'll even toss in Boston Beer Works for my homegirl Lissa, but it seemed like the general consensus was that people wanted to avoid Boston if possible...

One more: Red Hook Brewery in Portsmouth, NH as suggested by Wolfwalker. This is another decent choice, as it's right off 95 for those coming North or South and very close to 101 as well for those coming west...

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Possible attendees:

JD
doubletrouble
Liberty
Marko
MedicMatthew
wally
the saj (dependent on location)
scotaku
Lissa
Bruce
Paul (dependent on time)
weer'd beard
Ted
TOTWTYTR
wolfwalker
angus lincoln
zeeke42
MeatAxe

Have expressed interest, but not explicitly said "IN":
brad_in_ma
thefaz
tjp

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Okay. Once we start hammering out the date, time, and location, things will fall into place. I would be happy to make some calls to prospective establishments to find out how large of a group they can accomodate (ideally we want a separate room if possible). I would guess at this point getting something going before Thanksgiving would be difficult (hmmm. How's everyone set for Friday night after Turkey day???); possibly before Christmas; ideally before New Year's - I've got lots of time off between Christmas and New Year's and would wager many others do as well.

We can make this work. We can make the non-Northeast bloggers jealous... *g* I want to add a whole bunch of new folks to the list of "Bloggers I've met. One last thing: the more the merrier. If there's anyone I overlooked, or who didn't comment on the last thread, chime in and let me know (also if I've inadvertantly forgotten to link anyone)... This time, the list is wide open, as there are several venues listed that can accomodate groups of pretty much any size.

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That is all.