every once in awhile

You know how sometimes it’s just nice to have a little fun?  Let it all go and just sample a few 100 different types of wines?  Well, that’s what I did this past weekend and it was a lot of fun!  Every once in awhile that is . . .

Prior to the wine tasting event I made sure to get a good chunk of school work done and it served as a very good motivator.  There’s nothing like having good things to look forward to, whether it’s a wine tasting, seeing my family, or getting to go on a long bike ride, to make me get things done in order to fully enjoy the occasion.  I still have tons of school work to do mind you, but I still made progress at least! 

Saturday afternoon we headed over to the Hilton and made it to the Lee’s Wine Experience around 5pm.  We also decided to get a room there so we wouldn’t have to worry about driving home.  There were about 1,000 wines for sampling!  They gave quite the pour just for a sampling too!  Of course we couldn’t make it to every table, or else risk alcohol poisoning, but we did make it to quite a few.  Here Chris was sampling the Hilltop J. Lohr Cab . . .

  

We both were feeling it by about the third sample since we haven’t been drinking all too much lately with biking and its detriment to performance.  The only bad thing about a big tasting like that is it’s very hard to judge just how much you’ve had.  At each table I made sure to have a tiny sip and if I didn’t like it into the tub it went.  I feel bad wasting, but you can’t drink everything.  Guys were walking around with giant garbage cans full of wine that people had dumped after tasting.

 

There were so many people there and they didn’t have too many munchies to go around.  As the crackers and cheese were re-stocked, everyone swooped down like vultures and you had to elbow your way to get anything!  Well, it wasn’t that dramatic, but when you have a room full of people that have been drinking and need some carbohydrates, watch out!  :)

It was a lot of fun and we found several wines that we really enjoyed, the best one being a Pinot Noir from Chile called Ritual.  Recently, I’ve lost my faith in Pinots because they all are just lacking and taste like dull, dead trees to me.  This one was perfectly balanced and interesting with subtle oak and bright berries.  We want to order some of this for Thanksgiving.  Another really interesting wine was Bodega Norton Reserve Malbec and I always love the Twomey Merlot.

Towards the end of the tasting you could tell everyone was a little less subdued, people were dancing, laughing and everyone wanted to talk up a storm!  It is so interesting to me how powerful alcohol is, myself included (that’s another post).

After the tasting we went to dinner at a place called the Grand Lux Cafe It was really yummy, but I could barely eat even 1/2 of my dish.  Chris got the big burger since we only really get those every once in awhile.

I got the yellow tomato pasta pomodoro with chicken meatballs, it was delish.  I’m a big pasta lover as you know!

We didn’t have dessert but grabbed some gelato while walking around.  It is fun to play tourist even though we live here! 

I think I could count how many times I went to the strip as a kid on one hand.

And look they had kabocha on display!!!  I wanted to steal it and take it home to bake :)

I feel so old saying this but by 11 o’clock it was waaaay past our bed time and we were tuckered!  I can hardly stay up past 9pm anymore.  The next day I didn’t feel too bad, but definitely not chipper, but you know what, every once in awhile . . . it’s just fun :)

What’s something you like to do or indulge in every once in awhile?