14 November ‘08
Friday
I was up and out early yesterday. The sun was shining and they promised it to be at least 75 degrees before the day was out. As I sat in my lawn chair, coffee in hand, it was almost hard to imagine the many days of wet that we had been through the last couple of weeks, that was until I looked up and saw how terribly dirty the car and motor home were. It was then that I knew what direction my day was going to take. Unfortunately it all had to be done with a “bucket only wash”… Having worked my way through the “wash”, taken a short nap in the sun, I tackled setting up the HughsNet Internet dish. I must have had a lucky 4 leaf clover in my hand…the signal was obtained in about 3 minutes, a record for me. I had planned to run over to Benicia to see the crew at Advanced Elements Kayaks but that will have to wait until tomorrow now. For the second day in a row, I was out early in my lawn chair, having my coffee and enjoying the warmth of the early sun on my body….mmmm good !!!
Today we did make it to Benicia and we did see the crew at Advanced Elements. I’ve now got a re-stock on catalogs and a dozen new hats to offer as gifts to those that just happen to ask (did you hear that Bruce ????). I really enjoy going to the warehouse/office, but I enjoy hitting the water more, but that will have to wait one more day. The rest of the day was a stop at Costco in Concord and then a run to the Napa/Sonoma wine country to do a little exploring. The last time we were in this part of the wine country, was when our youngest daughter was 8 years old…today she’s (well let’s just say she’s over 38). Our first stop was to visit the “Visitor Information Center” in Napa. We were able to pick-up a map of all the wineries and get a couple of passes at the Lunde Winery for free tastings and a tour of their wine cave.
It was a short tour of the cave but the tasting was more than expected and of some very good wines.
The drive through the wine country was really pretty. The leaves of the grape vines ran from light yellow to gold, pink, and dark burgundy, and with the contrasting hills…it was spectacular.
Our drive home was a little bit unusual for us. We had become entangled in “rush hour” traffic… Our life-style normally keeps us out of this phenomenon, but there was no way out of this one. It took us 2 hours to go approximately 25 miles and that was done mostly in the dark, thanks to daylight savings time… I really don’t like losing the daylight so early.