Party Time, Axecellent!

    When I started seeing Axe throwing places pop up two years ago, I was very skeptical of my abilities or need to embarrass myself. My only experience throwing an axe had been when I was a kid throwing a hatchet at a tree and watching it hit broad sided again and again, denting the tree and falling to the ground. So when some PNW Beer Moms expressed interest in going to the newly opened Bellingham Axe in the late winter of 2020, I burgeoningly agreed, not expecting to enjoy myself. But then Covid 19 hit and axe throwing, like everything, was put on the back burner for the unforeseeable future. Fast forward a year later and Matt Kinney the owner of Bellingham Axe reached out to me wanting to throw a private party for PNW Beer Moms, setting the course for the best meet up we've ever had!

    I'm always a little skeptical when someone reaches out to me, thinking okay what's their angle, why are they being so nice and giving? What do they want? So when Matt messaged me saying he wanted us to come have a private party, with no deposit, that he wanted to make it affordable, and that he had just opened a beer bar upstairs, I was seriously thinking, what's the catch!? When one didn't present itself, I thought, maybe he's an axe murder!? Turns out Matt is just a genuine nice guy, with a passion for throwing a good time and he's not an axe murder, at least not that that I know of, unless you mean his skills with an axe and murdering a cork target. 

    The day of our meet up, I about a half hour early. The historic building has been renovated with clean mordern walls and as I made my way down the stair to the basement, I was greeted by neon colored graffitied walls, colored lights and DJ equipment pumping out upbeat music. If it wasn't for all the axe throwing lanes and targets, you'd think you were in a hip night club. Matt's son, who helps run the place, welcomed me and pointed to the release form I needed to sign. After I signed away their liability of my stupidity and called my life insurance agent ( ha, just kidding!), he gave me a good lesson on everything I needed to know about throwing axes. He explained how to hold the axe at the bottom of the handle, how many rotations (just one) I needed to aim for, where to stand depending on the size of the axe and my strength,. It's a good thing I came early, because I needed plenty of practice before anyone I knew saw me.  It took me a good 20 tires before anything stuck. Luckily it was before my Beer Mom friends arrived. And when I finally stuck one, I could feel the difference and was on the road to figuring it out. 

     Matt got there about 15 mins after me.  He has a full time job at a refinery on top of running Bellingham Axe. Don't even try to understand his schedule. And although his son was very good at giving me all the ins and outs of how to hit the target, Matt stepped in and was a great coach. He was able to see what I was doing wrong (no surprise there) and give me pointers, which really helped.  After about another 15 more tries, I was getting the hang of it! And low and behold I hit a bullseye just as more Beer Moms arrived!

    It was pretty amazing having the whole place to ourselves. There was no waiting turns since we each had our own lane to throw in. The throwing itself, reminded me a lot of bowling, just with a sharp object, so even better. They even taught us how to throw knives!  Warning, there are some really good knife throwing Beer Moms in town! I mean these ladies where on fire! So I wouldn't cross them!

    

        As I said above, Matt is passionate about people having a good time. He is genuinely one of those awesome people that goes out of his way to make Bellingham a great place, even if it doesn't make him money, hence the other job. All we were expecting was to throw some axes and have a few beers, but Matt went above and beyond for us. He went all over the county collecting local beer and brewery swag for us and pitted us against each other with competitions to win brewery shirts and merchandise. I won a Stemma shirt for being the first to hit a blue dot, another mom was the first to hit a bullseye, and another for hitting all the numbers on the target, and so on! A little healthy competition amongst Beer Moms is good for the soul.

     When we went upstairs to to the bar to celebrate our new throwing skills, I found Matt had set out coasters and stickers from local breweries on the tables. He then proceeded to bring out an impressive amount of local beer for us to choose from.  And we all got to pick out and keep a glass from Fringe or Stemma, and take any stickers we wanted. Like damn! We were straight up spoiled. 

    

    It's then that I really got an idea of how dedicated Matt is to Bellingham Axe and our community. It is a labor of love for him and his son. He loves to throw a good time for people in Bellingham and it really shows. He takes it personally if you don't have a good time, and as he told us, if someone has a complaint, he wants a chance to fix it. 

    Well, no complaints here! So thanks Bellingham Axe and Matt for such a kick ass time, and making me look really, really good in front of my Beer Moms friends! I owe you. I look forward to showing up my husband on a date night soon and expect to see us Beer Mom again soon!