Showing posts with label Wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wine. Show all posts

Trip of a Lifetime

I have to finally try to share the wonderful trip I had this last weekend. I know I have hinted a lil and such. Well we all know that pictures speak louder than words do any day. I will try my best to show you the amazing time I had.

First I want to let you know that this would have never happened without the amazing invite from Shaklee Corporation. They were adoring host to 10 bloggers for a beautiful spa weekend. And of everything that happened the very best part was the way I was treated. Not the have to be nice to you. But the genuine respect given to me that I have only received from my closest family and friends.

So, I flew out of Dallas, Texas to San Francisco, California.  The first neat part was since another blogger and myself had early flights we were treated to a sight seeing tour of San Francisco.  

Granny M said I had to see China Town, so of course, I did.  You know we never tell her NO!  The color explosion was perfect for my out going personality.  I loved it!
Being the massive bread eater that I am, it was very dangerous when our driver dropped us off at Boudin Bakery for a quick bite to eat.  I resisted and resisted and finally had a cookie.  Yes, just a cookie.  Yeah me!
Thankfully I had not eaten.  That helped me not get queasy when we went down the crookedest street in the world.  Turn after turn after turn after.....whew!  Well after that it was on to Shaklee headquarters and lunch.  I have to tell you so much there....that I think it will be a story unto it self.  Will say three things though.
  • 9 Strong Amazing Women Bloggers.
  • A company that believes and follows through on commitment to the earth and all of it's creatures.
  • Support staff that truly believe in helping each other.

We arrived at Solage Calistoga Spa that evening for dinner and to check in.  Oh my, we all need to move to a spa to live.  Beautiful is not the beginning of the description.  This was just the view from my private room.   Rooms that made you breath in relaxation.  Spa treatments (I had the mud bath!), wonderful meals and the most lush grounds ever.  Also I have to say there were good looking men everywhere.  Oh so easy on the eyes.  And if you paused at mud bath, dear heart, this was not a wallow around in the slop....it was a velvety smooth mud made from volcanic ash, natural spring waters and essential oils.  Better than the best lotions for your skin.  Top it off with a long soak in the tub and a musical massage.  Your body is humming contentment afterwards.
There were tons of amazing people we met.  Learned more in two days about blogging than I thought I could ever take in.  And was wined and dined til I felt like royalty.  A trip to Hall Winery was more than I ever bargained for.  Artwork all over the place.  I took tons of photos there.  Especially loved the sculpture of the two enjoying a glass of wine together.
This hall here with barrels of wine in the making leads to the tasting room deep into the wine cave.  Lined with nooks to show off some their art collection and built with ancient Austrian bricks.  I just expected a monk to come down the hall in his brown robes.
And then we tasted nectar of the gods.  Drops of love, poured into crystal and then touching our lips.  A religious experience to say the least.
Finally the grand finale.  Dinner at the Bottega restaurant ran by Chef Michael Chiarello.  You may have watched him on Top Chef Masters, the Food Network’s Easy Entertaining, Fine Living, and PBS.  Our meal consisted of some of the following.
  • Insalata del Bosco Organic greens, balsamic vinaigrette, sliced pear, candied hazelnuts, Pecorino
  • Organic Prosciutto "house cured," pasta fritta
  • Crispy Potato Gnocchi, baby vegetables, English pea-meyer lemon fonduta, & 11 month Valley Ford Montasio
  • Pan roasted halibut alla Barcaiola with creamy soft polenta & heirloom tomatoes
  • Olive oil carrot torta, carrot golden raisin salad, mascarpone crema
To die for food. And you may think this is silly but the creamy soft polenta will beat the best Southern Mashed Tators anyone has ever made.  I am still smacking my lips.

An amazing once in a life time trip in my opinion.  Opportunity to have experiences that leave my head reeling once I figured out how unattainable the products were that went into the making of this experience.  Thankful beyond words.
Oh, and not to leave out, my very favorite token from the whole weekend, my Cloudscape tumbler.  Thank you Roger.  I treasure the thought behind this gift.  It is greatly appreciated.

Monday Mayhem

The RHOK
The ladies over at RHOK have asked, what is your favorite lil' Road Trip? And invited me to link up to share one or some of your favorite places to visit close to your home.

Mine is the WOW tour.  WOW is the Way Out Wineries of Texas.  Since we have an award winning vineyard here in Comanche Texas let's start there.  Brennan Vineyards located in Comanche, TX has the tasting room in the McCrary House built in 1879. The McCray house is one of the oldest houses in West Central Texas. The new winery and event center buildings are only feet away from the tasting room.  My favorite is the Three White Chicks.  This is a sweet white wine that is perfect at the end of the day.  I can sip it and sit on the porch on a summer evening.  Nothing can be better at that time.  Pure relaxation.

The Way Out Wineries offer events throughout the year. In March there is a St. Patrick’s Day Weekend event. Later the Wildflowers Road Trip takes place. The first weekend of July is the Picnic Road trip. Most of the events require tickets.  Road trip winery events take place over the course of three days enabling wine enthusiasts to travel to all of the wineries.  Don't forget to get your Go Texan WOW passport too.  Lots of extras there for free!

My next favorite is Sister Creek Vineyards.  It is located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country in Sisterdale, Texas (Pop. 25).  The Muscat Canelli Reserve is better than the bubbly champagne in my book. You will find a white Italian style wine with residual sugar and slightly carbonated.  This is the perfect pairing with some fruit and cheese to enjoy with friends on a Sunday afternoon.  I can not think of a better wine to serve then.

Another fun thing was that Debra Ann Elliott of High Heels and Hot Flashes tagged me with  this writing meme/blog award called "7 Facts. So now I must tell you seven unknown facts about me and tag 15 of my blogger friends.
Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog.
2. Post seven random facts about yourself.
3. Pass on the award along to 15 other worthy bloggers.

Here are my seven little know facts:

1.  I am a pen pal to several people in prison.  I can not think how hard it is to be locked up and not have some sort of support system.  So I have different people that I write to on a regular basis.  Giving a outlook to life when they eventually get to go home.  It is very rewarding to have these friendships to build on.  The first thing I had to learn was not to judge anyone.  That accepting them for the person they are now is the key.  Gosh, I know we all have our past and I would not want mine all dug up either.
2.  I ran out of deodorant recently.  And since for a weird unexplainable reason we have 6 men's deodorant here.  I decided not to buy mine but use what was available.  Gosh, I smell all manly now!  EWWW!
3.  I bought me ANOTHER travel coffee cup.  Mine keep getting 'lost' by some man who lives here (eyeing Dear Hubby).  This one is looks like a paper coffee to go cup but is ceramic with a silicone lid. I am going to have to soak the lid...it taste like rubber.
4. My favorite thing to do at night is to curl up in bed with a book and a snack.  We are told not to eat right at bedtime.  But I will say I always fall asleep so happy and satisfied this way.
5. I love playing the Wii with my Dear Hubby.  Especially if I win.  Just so happy to be able to physically move and get him too.  Horrid I know but I have a bad competitive streak. 
6. When I get overwhelmed I do 1 of three things.  Clean/rearrange the house.  Color my hair a different shade.  Break old plates.  Yes I keep old sets of dishes just for this reason.  When I just can not handle life anymore and the stress is making me crazy, I take a few of these not needed dishes outside and bust them up.  Okay, I have to clean up the mess.  But it is so good to hear the crash and bang.  And still have not torn up anything of importance to me.  They say you should try throwing wadded up kleenex as hard as you can.  Just not any loud noise there for me!
7. I miss miss miss not having a houseful of kiddos here.  I miss not doing childcare.  I miss the income from it.  I miss the happiness of the kids.  I miss the order to a day when they are around.  I miss the laughter and awe.  I miss the cuddles and kisses. 

Now I am tagging the following blogger friends:



Oh and talking about kiddos let me share one more thing.  Princess Emma is a fan of Martha Speaks.  That I am glad of.  So many children's shows that I do not like but this is a great one for content and learning.  This week there are  new episodes of Martha Speaks. PBS KIDS will premiere 5 brand new episodes featuring everyone’s favorite talking dog beginning today, President’s Day, Monday, February 21, 2011 (check local listings). Join Martha and her friends as they explore the arts while learning words such as soprano, conductor, legend, dramatize, and more.

The fun starts with “The Opera Contest” and “Maestro Martha”. In “The Opera Contest,” a local opera company is holding a contest to get kids interested in opera.  In “Maestro Martha,” bad guys Pablum and Weaselgraft have a plan to turn a charity concert into a heist by using the power of music...very strange music.  On Wednesday, February 23, in “Martha Acts Up,” Mrs. Boxwood offers Martha a part in Alice in Wonderland. Martha is thrilled at her opportunity to become a star of the theater, but when she finds out she’s cast as the Cheshire cat, she’s horrified.  The week concludes on Friday, February 25 with the kids’ take on classic Greek myths. In “Myth Me?” and “TD’s Myth Take,” the gang turns a boring, rainy day into fun by acting out Greek myths.

In addition to the new episodes, join Martha and pals online at PBSKIDS.org/martha for new games, printables, and videos. New this season is a feature called Dog. In addition, kids can play with theater-associated words in the new game Truman’s Word Play. There is a Martha Speaks Facebook page too. We even have a coupon that you can post which enables your readers to get 10% off personalized Martha Speaks merchandise at Ty’s Toy Box.


Now last but not least at all....is my 30 Minutes for me for Sunday was....sat on the porch and had a couple glasses of wine.  It was so nice to sit and soak up some sunshine.  By the time my 30 minutes was up I felt as if I had had a refreshing nap.  Relaxed and ready to start in on the next project. 

So tell me what your doing for yourself every day?  Anything?  Come on....you know how important you are.  Just give in and indulge a little.  You won't regret it....I am sure.

Celebrating Instead of Crying

The clarification process can bring out the cl...Image via Wikipedia

I have a lil mix today. Sensing the sad in my life right now....loss of family member, I felt that an upbeat post would be best. So on with the show, right?

First off I want to tell you that I enjoy a nice glass of wine but I am very very picky. You see I am a sweet gal. No not like that, I like sweet things. So not too many red wines cross my path. More of a white dessert type wine. And my favorite is Fetzer VineyardsValley Oaks Gewurztraminer. Now I may not be able to say the name of this wine well but I sure can sip it. Top that off I found it was a 'best' wine in my book Good, Better, Best Wines-A No Nonsense Guide to Popular Wines. My handy dandy go to book for getting a wine to go with a meal or occasion. Nice pocket size and easy to use. Also the wines in this book are all under $15 so very very affordable. Worth having as a resource to finding the wine you are looking for. You can see a book trailer here http://www.wine-tribune.com . Thanks Abby for sharing this with me!

Next I want to tip my hat to one very smart lady. Jessica has put out HINT water. Now we all enjoy having water to keep us hydrated and healthy. And of course we would like a lil flavor from fruit and such. Then no one wants any sugars or such dirty-ing up their water either. But Jessica knows that we also would like to have a lil 'adult' water. So she took that into mind and made up mixed drinks using HINT water as a mixer. Fantastic. Now we have a great tasting drink and cut the sugars out of other mixers. She is one smart cookie. I thank her for sending me a few bottles to try for myself.

Here is a couple of ideas from Jessica:

Healthy Mama for the summer time.
1 part vodka
1 1/2 parts HINT watermelon water
1 slice of watermelon
Ohhhh, cool drink that is just sweet enough.

Sweet Mama for us GRITS (girls raised in the south)
2 oz pomegranate vodka
6 oz HINT pomegranate-tangerine water
2 mint leaves (yes pop them off of your own lil plant in the window sill)
dash of honey syrup
This is a front porch sipper if I ever had one.







San Saba House

Here is the house in San Saba Texas that we stayed at this weekend with Nessa. It is a beautiful home and made my soul sing. I wish I could have taken all of my blog friends with me and had a great weekend sitting on the front porch drinking wine and yaking.
This is the children's bedroom. What a quaint iron baby bed that is there. Of course all of that lovely sunshine made me happy.
Here I am in the room that appealed to me the most. The front parlor with all of the roses, lace and sunshine made me feel so relaxed. I am not one of the formal ones there, nope curled right up with a book!


This is the downstairs bedroom that was the "servants" quarters. Don't we all wish we were servants here!


The front entrance hall with a massive staircase. Here is the setting for a bride to be coming down the stairs to meet her future husband. Think I need to get a second wedding soon?

The front "mans" den had all the right touches. It would be a great place for the fellows to talk about the fish that got away or how beautiful that deer was that they could not bear to shoot.

Oh how I love a large claw foot tub to soak in. Yes I did sit here and dream away some time. Bath time ladies is not for getting clean but for relaxing.

And my dream country kitchen! How I could spend my days making cakes and cookies here. But wait, that is an original oven from the 1900's without a thermostat.

This was a great home to visit. I would adore living here. Heck I would even be the "hired help" for a fantastic bed and breakfast. Think I can get a job from the owner????




































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