bee kind

i know what you're thinking, "holy crap! 3 posts in 2 weeks?!? what is she on!?!". don't worry, i'm not taking blogging speed. interesting (well at least to me) things have been jumping into my lap lately!

so yesterday during lunch at the picnic tables at the winery, i heard roberto (our cellarmaster) give a faint yelp. i looked over and saw a swarm of insects. as our jaws dropped, the buzzing noise became very apparent. and in front of our eyes, what appeared to be a brown oval shape began forming in one of the trees on the treeline. as the swarm steadily decreased in size, we realized that there must be a new queen and the bees were swarming to protect her and to start building a new hive for her. this was amazing to me purely because i'd never witnessed anything like in my life...the start of a new beehive. after maybe 5 or 10 minutes, the swarm was gone and was nestled in the tree as you can see below... apparently there are beekeepers you can call in sonoma when you have a new swarm of bees. they will come and safely transport the swarm so as to start the new hive in a safe environment. interestingly enough, bill wiebalk (our director of sales) is one of these beekeepers, so he drove over in full beekeeper gear (that he apparently keeps in his car) to scoop the swarm up as you can see below...so there you have it, that's how a beehive gets started. now i wonder how the new queen gets nominated...

indulgence weekend

i haven't had one in a bit and it's a longshot from an actual vacation, but i'll take what i can get right now!

our 1st indulgence was to hike the dipsea trail (starting near downtown mill valley) and the sun trail to the german tourist club, which you can see below.the dipsea trail was quite a workout for my glutes and quads, but with every step, i reminded myself that there was beer at the end. the german tourist club overlooks muir woods and is open to the public on weekend afternoons (for the most part). we were rewarded with amazing views (a camera phone doesn't do justice to the views so i didn't even try) and awesome german beer (is there any other kind? don't worry belgium, my beer heart lies with you as well). you can bring your own food, so we made ourselves some fresh kielbasa sandwiches with mustard and cheese.

it was great to get in touch with my outdoorsy side again and hopefully i will be getting my fill of the wilderness in oregon.

the following day was our 2nd indulgence but of a very different kind. jon and i treated ourselves to sunday brunch at the top of the mark restaurant in san francisco. it's standard fare for sunday brunch and maybe only slightly better quality than any other sunday brunch, but the views...360 degree view of san francisco on an actually sunny sunday morning! but wait, there's more, part of the all-you-can-eat brunch is a caviar station. so as you can see from the photo below, we topped our blinis with a heavy-handed serving of caviar! ah, life...

no news is good news...

...it's funny. i didn't realize that it's been almost 6 months since i've put up a new post. funnier still is that the last post was titled "i heart portland" only because the decision has been officially made and i will be moving to portland in the middle of july! it's been great in california and at paul hobbs winery, but i've decided that i want to go back to the cellar so that's what i'm going to do at penner-ash winery this harvest. wish me luck and adios california!

i don't even know if anybody is still reading this thing or checking in on this thing, but there will most likely be more posts once i'm in my new "hometown".

please come back and join me on my new adventure in the rose city!

(in case anyone was wondering, yes, i'm still with jon [gasp!] and he'll be joining me in portland in the fall as he starts chiropractic college)

i'll just leave you with my delicious lobster from canada (eh) that was only $7.99/pound in a great chinese grocery store on clement street in san francisco...mmmm...fiesty lil' one...