Birthday Wine Tasting

We went wine tasting on Saturday - when temperatures peaked around 105 in the valley. A bit too hot to be tasting - but we piled on the bus and headed north to napa. The bus, again was stocked with beer, champagen, bagels, cream cheese, bottled water and great music. I finally got to meet kevin's new girlfriend - a total sweetheart named julie. There were a lot of people i'd never met as well - newcomers to our little outings - so the group was an interesting bunch.


We headed north to Healdsburg - drinking mimosas and catching up. Our first stop was Roshambo winery (pictured above). A very slick, modern location with a gorgeous view and mediocre wine. They did, however, have the best swag and a very cool vibe. We hung out, tasted, enjoyed a great catered lunch and the sun. The wine was really awful, so we were glad to leave and head on toward Armida - a completely different feeling than Roshambo. The tasting room was small and crowded and the staff were a bit too stiff. We asked to taste their famed 'Poizin' zin - they're response - um, there isn't an unopened bottle. Please. The wine we did taste was fair, not fabulous and their attitude put their average wine on my list of what never to buy. We boarded the bus - which at this point sounded close to death (fun birthday, yeah, i know...) and was incredibly hot considering we had a good air conditioning system. We headed to rabbit ridge. At this point it was around 105 degrees out. I was done tasting, opting for water and a cold beer instead. The tasting room was a little to homey and country for me - too much kitsch and crap around. I didn't taste the wine, so i can't compare to the others, but i did notice serveral people coming out with several bottles in tow.

We again boarded the bus to head home. It was hot. HOT. Our bus had officially turned out to be a piece - the fan belt broke - leaving us air conditioning-less - and with the windows unable to open - the ride home was dreadful. Truly. About a 110 degrees. It, of course, got worse, we lost most of the power to accelerate and it took us nearly double the time to get home. I, at one point, had my phone out to call a cab because we really did not think we would make it up the hill from Sausalito to SF.

Fun fun fun. So, we finally peter to a stop in front of kevin's apt and we all pile out. I probably lost about 5 lbs in water weight from sweating so much - and i felt like a giant salt like...

Some how - we decided to go to dinner - without changing - to Havana - a great and very authentic cuban restaurant on Van Ness in SF. We had a table of about 12 people - lots of cocktails and even more delicious food. It was awesome. However, I was exhausted and i just wanted to go home after we finished our main courses. Soon after we said our goodbyes, i flagged a cab and headed home. Exhausted, hot and salty.

Happy birthday to me.