It has been a day.  Let’s see, where do we begin.  We embarked on our trip to Paso Robles today getting an early start for an early flight.  One of the things that we weren’t counting on when we made reservations with our friends way back in April was not being on the same flight.  We bought our seats at the exact same time and last night, we found out that the friends were flying out at 6 a.m. and going to Los Angeles and then on to San Francisco.  Our flight was scheduled to fly to Houston and then on to San Francisco.  Frustrating?  You bet, but not the end of the world.

After a short night and an early ride to the airport; we were ready to go by 5:00 a.m. this morning.  They left on time and we left on time.  We got to Houston and immediately looked for the board with departures for our trip to San Francisco.  And, there it was…in red letters – CANCELLED.  The frustration of having completely different flights than our friends just took another turn for the worse.  We stopped at United Airlines customer service and this is when you know that others have bad days too – who didn’t know that the flight had been cancelled.  The options that she was offering us wasn’t sitting well with us (leaving Houston at 6 p.m. just wouldn’t do) and so she offered to put us on a flight to San Jose and offer shuttle service to San Francisco.  At the same time, our other friends in Arlington were dealing with their own nightmare in trying to join us in San Francisco – ending up in Denver before eventually getting to San Francisco.  We did met a couple of neat people in the van on the way between the San Jose and San Francisco airports – best wishes to newlywed’s from Florida – hope you have a wonderful time in Napa and places in between . . . let us hear from you and what wineries you visit.  Our new friend who lives in San Francisco and shared online marketing strategies – thanks for the advice on our blog!

Long story short, we were reunited with both of our friends and began our quest to try a variety of wines during this week.  And once we got our vehicle, we immediately headed south towards Monterrey – what a beautiful drive – photo below won’t even do the beach justice – where we stopped at Bonny Doon Vineyard to try some of their old-world style wines.  The wine for tonight was a 2006 Ca’ del Solo Nebbiolo and what a wine it was!  Lots of dried fruits, nuts and herbs that all yielded an incredible intensity.  The wine is lighter than ones we traditionally try, but it was beautiful with loads of taste and exceptionally smooth on the palate.   We could only imagine how good this wine could be with food!  It was a great sampling to start our California trip.  Lauren was working behind the really cool concrete counter – she reminded us alot of our own daughter #1 – great personality and made our visit an enjoyable one.  (Lauren – will get your photo up in the morning _ trouble with the computer!!)   If we lived in Monterrey we would spend lots of time here – it’s a fun place with a twist on aliens . . .  they even have a Roswell Happy Hour.

Why airlines insist on cancelling flights without notice is beyond us.  We understand when lousy weather dictates cancellations, but that wasn’t the case today.  And when all you hear about from these companies is how great their customer service is, well I think when you catch someone on a bad morning, you wonder if the training is working!  Regardless, our customer service person rallied to help us–ultimately allowing us to be here and enjoy our first sampling.  The day was made complete with a comeback miracle by the St. Louis Cardinals  –  WOW!!!  This turnaround was a great reminder that you never quit and as Yogi Berra said “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”  Bring on the Giants . . . but first, bring on a pillow – it’s been a long day!

We hope you’ll look for it where you shop and when you buy this 2006 Nebbiolo, please remember to enjoy it responsibly and recycle whenever possible.