Yes, I know its been a long time since we traveled to Martinez, I've completely sobered up, and I've been meaning to write - I really have...I've been experiencing a bit of blogger's block, though, and I think its because although I only drank one martini (a lemon drop - it was pretty good although very strong but the rim of the glass was coated with sugar! The bar had good sandwiches, too...) I put away a whole lot of wine. Here's what happened:
Jeneva, Harald and I, thinking we were leading a much larger group, headed out from the bar toward Main Street to get our glasses and join the Wine Stroll. When I turned around to reconnoiter with the group, I discovered that nobody else was coming with us. Since Jeneva and Harald are two of my very favorite people in the world, this was fine but a little surprising mainly because I really don't think martinis taste all that good...Apparently that was not the majority opinion.
Wine glasses were sold in an art gallery that had some really pretty watercolors and photographs adorning the walls. I got a watercolor still life and Jeneva got a beautiful framed photograph of Yosemite in addition to our glasses. We were tutored on Wine Stroll procedure, ergo - any store displaying purple balloons was a participating store. Each participant served a taste of wine and some hors d'oeuvres.
By the third or fourth store, we had figured out the system - the wine was kept in the back of each shop. This necessitated a thorough examination of all the very cool merchandise by lots of progressively drunker and drunker shoppers. It worked! The shops were awesome and doing a land office business. I totally want to run a store there, now!
Early on, we also noticed that the wines were paired with shops that suited them. For example, the sweet shop served a port. They also gave out samples of their caramel apples. We bought some. We figured that there was no reason to check out the store that was serving Two Buck Chuck, but we kind of just wanted to poke our heads in and say..."Really?"...
The only problem with tasting wine this way (20 small sips - one after another) is that you get really drunk and you can't read any of your notes when you get home. Plus you might try to sing along with the couple from The Lawrence Welk Show in the clock shop and get shushed. And when you meet everybody back at the bar for recon before you go home, you might think it was a really good idea to order two orders of onion rings and eat most of them yourself...sparking a bout of heartburn that could torch a barn.
All in all, it was a really fun HEAD trip and made me appreciate what a cool little berg Martinez is! That and the pre-cookie walk we did with the Westendorfs today made me excited for our next outing - The Italian Christmas Cookie Walk on December 10. It's a lot of walking and you'll need a bag to carry your pastries in, but it is gonna be FUN!!! See you there!
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