It was a busy week, so I’m just now taking the time to sit down and write about last weekend.
Saturday we ended up heading down to French Creek State Park to do a bit of hiking. It didn’t quite work out as we would have liked, as is often the case with these state parks sorting out our orientation on the map and then figuring out exactly where you’re supposed to get on trails was a little tricky and we wasted a lot of time time on unmarked mini trails. Once we got our bearings and got on a nice trail we were disappointed to find that it was poorly marked. We ended up turning around and heading back to the car.
In spite of these things, we spent a good half day at the park. It was nice to get back in touch with the woods even for a bit, and I got some pretty pictures.
After the park we headed up to Kimberton Whole Foods. We’d never been there before, and since it’s less than 25 minutes from our house it’s a nice alternative to the bigger natural stores in the area that are so much further away. Not really a great place to find exotic cheeses, but for the basics it’s great.
Then we finished up our day with a trip to Victory! The food was actually good too, which was a nice surprise (it’s been lousy lately). The beer was as good as ever, I started out with the V-Saison, which they had fresh on tap, and then moved to the old standard Golden Monkey. After dinner we sat at the bar and enjoyed some more beer before heading home, and Michael got a picture of me at the bar with my Golden Monkey.
Sunday we headed out to Chaddsford Winery for their annual Labor Day Weekend Jazz Festival. We packed up some of the goodies we got from Kimberton Whole Foods along with Michael’s famous salmon roll-ups. At the door you pay your $20 to get in and get a wine glass (to keep and use for tastings) and a little info about the event. We quickly met up with our friends who had reserved a big table and along with a bunch of their other friends had filled it with yummie-with-wine snack foods, to which we added ours.
And now to the wines! In spite of a friend of ours wincing when we said we’d hit a local winery event, there were actually some good. The event had tasting stations nicely spread out on their lot, the whites at tables outside and the reds were inside where they stored barrels and had the bottling line. I was really pleased with the setup.
Station #1: 2006 Spring Wine
I don’t remember what any of these seasonal or reserve wines were, unfortunately. This was a sweet one though, but not too sweet that I disliked it. I wouldn’t choose this wine, but I wouldn’t say no if offered.
Station #2: 2005 Pinot Grigio and 2006 Proprietors Reserve White
The Pinot Grigio was pretty good, the Proprietors Reserve was not.
I’m not really into whites so these not being to my taste was probably more due to that than an actual lacking in quality.
Station #3: 2005 Proprietors Reserve Red
This was my favorite of the day, not too heavy or oaky, just a nice clean red.
Station #4: 2005 Merlot and 2002 Merican – Cabernet Blend
The Merlot was my second favorite of the day, heavier than the Reserve but a good solid wine. The Merican was a favorite of our friends, there were a couple bottles of that floating around our table later in the day, it grew on me.
Station #5: 2005 Sunset Blush and 2006 Niagara
Total bust. These were super-sweet, fruity wines that I couldn’t stomach at all. There certainly is a market for this kind of thing though, I saw several bottles being consumed around the festival.
We had the option of taking the tasting tour as many times as we wanted, but were satisfied with the single trip around. Michael hit the store and picked up a bottle of the Reserve Red and Merlot to bring back to the table. The rest of the afternoon was spent eating, drinking, chatting with the people we met at our table and toward the end we even got a bit of dancing in!
It was a really fun time. Our friends David and Kathy have been going every year for 14 years and don’t plan on breaking the tradition anytime soon, so it looks like we’ll have friends to go with next year too!
As for the rest of this past week, the only notable thing was that we went to dinner with Michael’s friend Rebecca and her boyfriend on Thursday. They live out in West Virginia and were in the area for work, so Michael invited them out to Greater India. Michael dated Rebecca several years ago, lost touch for a few years after he and I got together, and recently started communicating again. I vaguely knew her in passing through communicating in IRC, which Michael invited her to while they were dating, and we’ve talked some on IM these past few months. I’d be lying if I said anticipation for such a meeting wasn’t a bit stressful (those irrational “oh no, how do I compare to an ex?!” thoughts), but it turned out to be an enjoyable evening.
Last night Michael ended up going out to a Men’s sweat lodge and I stayed in to unwind and let out all the little stresses of the week. I ended up ordering from the local pizzeria and settling down with a bottle of wine, my laptop and a few episodes of the West Wing. It was a nice evening.
This weekend is our only entirely free weekend of the month (and here I thought things would slow down in September!) so we decided to devote it to doing house stuff that we never got around to, and if we get bored of that we’ll drive up the street to the Green Lane Scottish-Irish Festival. We’ve never been to this festival, but it’s so close, admission and parking are free and it actually looks like it’ll be a lot of fun.