wine country weekend

Once a year my friends, Jane and Dovie, come up from Palo Alto for a day or two in the wine country. We always have a great time, but this year was especially wonderful. We were celebrating Jane's retirement-- from the day before. We were distributing my new cards/fliers to wineries that have wedding venues. (If interested, see: www.gaylepickrellministry.blogspot.com)

We were "catching up" after our year away. It was a lovely time. The rain held off all day Saturday, and we were some of the few people going into several "out of the way" wineries. We had great interactions with the winery staff at each stop. At one winery, my friend and a former priest, Tony, who now pours wine several days and drives a bread truck a couple other days (what a great eucharist metaphor!) is always a joy to spend time with! (middle photo)

On Sunday, when it was raining non-stop, we went on a cave tour at Gloria Ferrar Cellars in Sonoma and learned more about making "sparkling wine" -- or champagne, but they can't technically call it that. John joined us that day, and as you can see, our last stop added a bit of "flair" with our drunken (statue) friend!

Amgen Tour de California Bike Tour

It was cold and rainy, but we braved it anyway and joined the throng of people who watched the Tour de California bike race here yesterday. They had predicted 90,000 would show up for this Davis to Santa Rosa Stage 1 event, so we went early and found a spot on the top of a parking garage. But the weather kept many away.

Lance Armstrong and our own Santa Rosan, Levi Leipenheimer, were expected to win, but a Spanish fellow was way out in front until the last minute. He is the lone rider in grey -- he did win yesterday. But there are many days this week they'll be competing--most of them in the rain. It's great California is finally getting rain. Too bad it had to be this week!

Fun with Friends

When our children were very young, four families used to get together on occasion. Some of us even had children in backpacks as we went on backpack trips. Other times we took car camping trips, and paddled in canoes, and took day hikes.

Our lives got busy and our children grew up. We haven't spent much time together as four couples in our "mature years," but we are hoping we've started a new tradition. We spent part of a weekend together at our home in Santa Rosa recently, going to Bodega Bay for lunch one of those days.

We decided it was a good time to say a big "thank you" to Sue, since it was near her birthday and she has remembered everyone of us on our birthdays every year -- and we are just a handful of people she regularly contacts on their birthdays! She had just retired from a nursing career. Part of the retirement "ritual" Karen created was of her smashing an alarm clock!

Pictured are: Jerry and Sue Angove (Jerry is a retired UMC minister -- he and I were on the UMC conference youth executive team in college days); Bill and Kate Johnson (Bill is also a retired UMC pastor who preceded me at St. Andrew's UMC in Palo Alto, and was a co-officiatant at John and my wedding; Kate and John were in meditation groups together); Stan and Karen Johnsen (long-time friends who even lived with my former husband and I for a few months and they were house-hunting in Palo Alto. Karen is a retired teacher; Stan is close to retirement as a physicist at Varian in Palo Alto.) One of Stan & Karen's daughters, Dr. Jill Johnsen, was just on a National Geographic TV special program last night about nanotechnology. Talk about our children speaking a different language!