A Weekend in Wine Country

Ellyn and a group of her friends, who have been celebrating their birthdays together about every 5 years since their 50th, decided to get together in Napa, California this year for their 60th.  Several of them are wine collectors and they planned out tours of several wineries and even a dinner in a wine cellar.  It was a great weekend of food, fun and laughter, which can't be helped when this group gets together.

Nina, Moss and Peg talk wine.

We drove the RV up to Napa and parked in the Expo Center RV Park. We met up with Brian, Nina, Moss, and Peg for a picnic lunch and the first wine tastings. We are not big fans of wine, but we went along and enjoyed the company and watching them analyze what they were trying. Nina brought the picnic supplies and we kept leftovers and later meals in our RV fridge. The next day was two more wineries and the arrival of Henry and Harry. Geoff baled on the second winery, after a quick lunch in the parking lot, as he had had enough for the day.

On day three, we visited Porter Family Vineyards, owned by a former boss of Geoff's from IBM. It was a repeat visit for us, but our friends had not been there before and Tom gave us a really nice tour. We had a tasting in the cave and then got to sit on the veranda behind the house and look out on the wonderful view of Napa Valley. The final evening was dinner and wines in the wine cellar of Louis M. Martini and the sharing of a wine from 1960.

1960 Barbera

Sunday morning, we all got together again for brunch and then the final send-off.  We stayed around for an extra day so we didn't have to worry about having to pack up and move the RV while saying good bye to our friends. Monday, back to Pacifica and hopefully getting the transmission problem with the RV fixed.

R & R in CA, Part 1

Simba, after a hard day of playing.

We have been in Pacifica, California now for about 3 weeks and have been enjoying the company and hospitality of Ellyn's sister, Laura, and her husband, Jay. They live only about 2 blocks from the RV park so we have been able to bother, I mean, visit with them a lot. We have also gotten to have some fun with their 3 cats. The newest is Simba, who is really still just a kitten, but nearly as big as the other two, Tabitha and Yoda.

One of the first things we did with them was to attend Fogfest here in Pacifica, which actually happened on a foggy day, an apparent rarity, even though Pacifica is right on the ocean. It was a day of music, food, and craft booths within walking distance of their house.

We have also gotten to see Ellyn's father, Jerry, and his wife, Liz, a couple of times. We went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA with them, where Jerry gave us a tour of all the things he got to work on over his years in technology. We also went to their house for "break the fast" after Yom Kippur.

We attended the Beth Israel Judea synagogue for High Holy Days, where Ellyn's friend, David Morgenstern, is the Cantorial Soloist. We really enjoyed his singing, as well as all the music in the services, and their new Rabbi, Danny Gottlieb.

Laura and Ellyn on the Russian River

This past week, we took Ellyn's sister out on an RVing adventure to the Russian River about 2 hours north. The weather was rainy when we left Pacifica, but it cleared up nicely for the two days we had to relax. Ellyn and Laura went out shopping and exploring the first day and then we all went out for lunch in Bodega Bay and then back for kayaking on the Russian River. On the way back to Pacifica, we stopped off in Santa Rosa to visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum.

Now, we have about three more weeks here until we start our journey towards Florida.