baseball, burgers & beer in lawrence, KS

a few weeks ago, my family make the trek south for my brother's baseball tournament. this kid has been swinging a bat since he could walk, so not only was it awesome to see him play closer to us (since his games are typically back in nebraska or other nearby towns), but such a cool experience for these kids to get the chance to play on the KU campus. plus, they won all four of their games - not bad, huh?

being in lawrence most of the weekend was like being thrown back into college again. between driving past greek row and seeing laughably cheap drink prices at the local watering holes, it felt so nostalgic! i wish we had more time to explore, but we did make it to a few local stops. on saturday, we took my family to 23rd street brewery for lunch. i just love the atmosphere of this place. it feels so open and there's so much to look at. even better, they have great food and a ton of beers they brew in-house! a few of us got the bitter professor IPA which i could drink again and again. highly recommend a trip here!

the interior of 23rd street brewery. so big and open!

we stopped into dempsey's burger pub on saturday night and while we didn't have time to stay and eat, i felt like we were able to still get some of the irish bar charm the place had to offer over a few beers (mine was shiner prickly pear...still deciding on that one). my lawrence friends love this place so i'm definitely putting it on a future trip to-do list!

we were back in jayhawk country sunday and andrew and i practically forced the group to go to the burger stand at the casbah because holy SMOKES this place is amazing. andrew and i ate here for the first time about a month ago and could not wait to return - and it was so worth it! i've had both the spicy fire burger and most recently the black and blue. both were very different in taste - but uniquely delicious. a crowd favorite at our table was the sauce bar featuring yummy dippin' options like: marshmallow (excellent with sweet potato fries), avocado ranch, guinness mustard and tons more. it was so fun to take our onion rings and ahem, bacon cheddar fries, for a spin in all of them! calories don't count on the weekend, right?

nothing gets in the way of boys and football. nothing.

contrary to the above paragraphs, we didn't JUST eat and drink while in lawrence. to ward off our post-burger stand food comas, we walked up and down mass street to see a few of the local shops. i was really surprised how many cute and unique little boutiques and stores lawrence has! my personal favorites were ACME, a shop that prints and sells t-shirts and tote bags and shark's surf shop, who has a ton of cool beachy clothes and pretty much any sandal your heart desires.

the t-shirt wall had us rolling with some of its witty designs. not pictured: camp firewood tee. long live wet hot american summer!

thanks for the good stuff, lawrence! we'll be back soon! those burgers aren't going to eat themselves.