The Friday Five, 5/26/23: 5 things I've been up to this week

This week has been super busy, as I've basically had two back-to-back trips: we went to Frankenmuth Saturday through Sunday, and then Monday through Wednesday I was in Chicago for a work trip, for the Sweets & Snacks Expo. 

My new Nerds friend and I

What I've been up to this week:

1. Overnight trip to Frankenmuth. My boyfriend and I headed to the Frankenmuth beer festival for the second year in a row, and I had booked a room at the Hampton Inn in Birch Run, also for the second year in a row, since I had Hilton points. The beer expo is always a fun time—each person gets six tickets, aka six tastings, and you can buy three more for $5, too, which we also did. The Cheese Haus's food truck and others are on-site too, so we had cheese curds and fried pickles, as well. That night, we headed to Zehnder's for dinner, one of my favorites, and the next day we went to Prost, another favorite, for lunch. We also hit up the Cheese Haus, the Fudge Kitchen, and Bronner's, per usual. 
2. Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago. Even though I've been a snack editor for seven years now, I've only been on our candy brand for less than a year, and this was actually my first time at the Sweets & Snacks Expo, which was a lot of fun—almost like trick-or-treating, since there are so many booths and everyone wants to give you samples. I also had a pretty busy schedule: I had ten booth appointments (usually a half-hour or less) on Tuesday, and five on Wednesday, and I attended one education session as well. 
3. Eating out. On Saturday, we stopped at Halo Burger for lunch before the beer festival—this time I got their regular quarter-pounder burger, and I liked it better than their mushroom and Swiss burger (it's hard to top Culver's in that area!). Their cheese curds and onion rings are also very good. Dinner was Zehnder's, and we had a lot of snacks at the beer fest, as well, and lunch the next day was Prost. In Chicago, I ended up getting Eataly for dinner the first day, kind of randomly—my boss and I were at an industry event but they only had light appetizers, and Eataly was around the corner. I also got some Stan's Donuts that first day, too, and Giordano's for lunch with my boss. 
4. Seeing movies. I saw Fast X last week and it was ridiculously over-the-top, as most of the Fast and the Furious movies are, so I liked it; I'd give it 3.5/5, with the caveat being I unfortunately fell asleep twice, for about 20 minutes each time, because I was super tired that day. I am seeing The Little Mermaid in 3D tonight and am super excited about that; I'm not a huge fan of the Disney live action remakes, except for Aladdin, but I've heard this one is really good. 
5. Attending the Oscars of the confectionery industry. My company puts on the Kettle Awards each year, and this was the first year I helped with it and also attended. The winner was the president of Spangler Candy, located in Ohio, and there were three nominees. It was kind of a like a "who's who" of the confectionery industry, as a lot of the attendees work for confectionery companies, and it was very nice; it also included a sit-down dinner at the end of the night. 

World Expo of Beer, Frankenmuth