My Weekend Playing Tour Guide

Now that I'm back amongst the living, I can recap my fabulous weekend!!

My co-worker Steve was in town from the UK. The original plan was that we and a couple other co-workers would all go wine tasting in Napa on Sat. He purposefully got a hotel in WC to stay nearer to me and another co-worker, Chris. Unfortunately, Chris had to go out of town unexpectedly for a customer visit and had asked that since I lived the closest, if I would take over entertaining Steve for the weekend. I said sure! Besides, after all the favors Steve has done for me (draw system diagrams that I needed yesterday, gather brochures in the UK office and ship to wherever, etc.), the least I could do was show him around (and finally owe him all those beers I said I'd buy him).

Friday: 
He got a cab to the office and I drove him to his hotel. Which is conveniently located across the street from one of my favorite pool hall bars - Masse's! Brian and our friend Nathan met up with us and we played pool and drank beers for a few hours. Then, the boys decided we had racked up enough hours on the pool table and decided to head over to BJ's for a little food and, of course, more BEER. By about midnight, I dropped Steve off at his hotel and I had to drive Brian and Nathan home, 'cause BJ's just has the best beer and well....they couldn't drive home.

Saturday:
Wine tasting!! I had recruited my wine-connoisseur friend, Shannon, to help me look like I know my wine. She, of course, was ready bright and early with her GPS in hand and list of places for us to go. 

We started off the day at Mitchell Katz. Holy wine goodness. Not only did they have the best wine of the day, they served the most (two of the best traits, IMO). It was unanimous: the Fat Boy was the best of them all. But none of us could part with the $40 price tag for one bottle - at least for now. We realized real quick that we were going to have to pace ourselves if this was only our FIRST stop! It was all too good to just taste. I'm going to have to go there again.


Next up was Ruby Hill. This place offered two different menus: silver and gold. The silver menu consisted of wines made in stainless steel vats. The gold menu consisted of wines aged in oak barrels. (get it? silver=stainless, gold=oak...clever, they are) We all opted for the gold menu (actually, as soon as the lady said stainless, Shannon immediately flipped the menu over and was going for gold. Hey, she knows what she likes!). Their zin was really good, but honestly, I don't think any of us were especially "wowed" by their wines. Or maybe we just couldn't taste anything after tasting so much after the first place. Also there, was a Cookie Lee function. Shannon and I decided to go take a peek and see what they had to offer. We grabbed a bottle of water and met up with the boys. Where they proceeded to tell us that we had crashed a private event. When Shannon and I walked into the room, the boys followed us in. And immediately got kicked out. Well, duh. Cookie Lee is like Mary Kay, but with jewelry. What guy would be interested in that? Yet here we are, stroll right on in and steal their water. OMG. Arrest us. 


After Mitchell Katz and Ruby Hill, it was definitely time for lunch. So, we headed out to Wente and had lunch in their restaurant. Where we all dined on fancy....hamburgers and soda. Yeah. We're klassy like that. But it tasted damn good. We were all famished! After we ate, we noticed that it was getting late and that we only really had time for one more winery left. The big debate was: do we stay at Wente and go to their tasting, or do we go to another winery that Shannon had marked for us. Decisions, decisions. Ultimately, the other winery won out, so off we went.

Rios-Lovell came highly recommended by Shannon's hubby. And no wonder. Being that Herb is a port guy, it came no surprise that the best wine they had was their port. And this coming from someone who doesn't even like port. I will say, that I learned why I don't like port. I believe most of the ports were tawny ports - one made from brandy. But there is another kind of port - one made from zin. The one made from zin seems to be less syrupy tasting to me, much less sweet. Who knew that there would be a port out there that I would like? All in all, a good end to the day. We headed home.


We dropped Steve off at his hotel to let him relax for a few hours. Shannon had a party at her house later that night and we were going to drag Steve out with us. Around 7, we picked him up and showed him the gloriousness that is called BevMo. We picked up some beer (after a day of drinking wine, we all needed a switch) and headed over to Shannon's. We feasted on pulled pork sandwiches and other potlucky foods and chatted for a bit while everyone showed up. There was a table with a couple of Jenga games, so we sat and started playing. Brian decided to step it up a notch and double stack the games. I don't recommend it. It's not easy. And then we got super talented and played double stacked Jenga while playing yet another game: What's Yours Like?. I need to get this game. It's perfect for large groups, has a ton of sexual innuendos and is completely mindless. Well, unless you're the person trying to guess the word. I can't wait for the next game night....this game must be played! And then, when that wasn't enough, we played Rock Band. There's nothing more fun than pretending to be a rock star. Steve wasn't really into that and it was getting late, so we decided (since we were the last people there) that it was time to leave. It was a ton of fun and I hope that Steve enjoyed a little taste of America.


Sunday:
Apparently, Friday and Saturday were too much for me. What I thought was just allergies, turned into a full blown cold by Sunday afternoon. Brian and I were in the grocery store and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to lay down. I spent the rest of the day lying on the couch catching up on some Netflix. 

Monday was much, MUCH worse and Tuesday I stayed home from work. Wednesday, I should have stayed home, but I had some important meetings I couldn't miss. Today was better and I was able to make it through the day without my trusty DayQuil. And look. Tomorrow's Friday. That's a good sign, right?