CELEBRATION OF LIFE...A MILESTONE

Over the Labor Day weekend, we joined together with family and dear friends to celebrate a remarkable woman on the occasion of her birthday! Every year is special and worthy of recognition...but on those milestones, we kick it up a notch! Linda's husband, Ron, and daughters, Kimberly and Tristan (along with their husbands, Mike and Phil) went to great lengths to put on a fabulous spread...they really did it up right! We thoroughly enjoyed an evening with special friends! Happy Birthday, Linda...may you celebrate many, many more!!

We slipped away briefly to take a few family shots. What a precious family they are. The kids were all a little sugared up and not really wanting to be pulled away from the party...but they cooperated and had fun with it.

Grape Stomp 2010

I first heard about this annual October event in late September. Local wineries are showcased and their wine made available. I decided it was worth the effort to check it out; a drive of approximately 1 1/2 hours from my home to the historic town of Murphys. The competition is a day-long process, the winner of each heat advancing to the next level. Participants travel from great distances to compete; I met teams from Southern California and as far away as Oregon. They come in costume with cleverly-devised names such as: Cheese & Whine, Gen-U-Wine, Grape Nutz, Our Way or the Chardonnay, Pressed for Time, Que Syrah Syrah, The Grapes of Laugh, Vino 911, Syrah Sisters, Zinful...to name a few.

The rules are simple: 2-persons to a team: 1 stomper, 1 swabber (or mucher); enter competition at your own risk; 25 pounds of grapes, 3 minutes; judging based on amount of juice in weight in bucket.

I so much enjoyed this event, I think I will make it a yearly trek.