I’m 28 and Going to Summer Camp

WeWork-Summer-Camp-2013I swear this isn’t a call for help. I’m not trying to relive my childhood. I’m actually going to the WeWork Summer Camp at the Raquette Lake Camp located in the center of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. Sounds pretty amazing doesn’t it?

I’ve never been anywhere near the Adirondack Mountains but the images that popped up on Google and Flickr look amazing! I’m as excited about getting to camp as I am getting a change to take pictures of the 6.1 million acres of stunning scenery!

I’m even tempted to rent some video equipment but I’ll just have to deal with whatever I can get from my iPhone 4S. At this point you’d think I’d either have the Nikon D800 or some other camera capable of recording HD video. I need to start seriously raising money for a new camera huh?

I’ll be flying into New York City August 14th and heading to Camp the next morning. I cannot wait to experience this amazing event with hundreds of other WeWorkers. An extended weekend in the mountains of New York with hundreds of strangers is something I could really use right now.

haven’t put myself into an adventure like this in long time; going somewhere I’ve never been, and basically with total strangers. In fact the only people I’ll know are a handful of WeWork employees and I’m pretty sure they’ll be busy making this all go smoothly. Continue reading

Wines of the Wine, Cheese and Dessert Party

This post is really just a list. A list of the wines the wines people brought to our Wine, Cheese and Dessert party. A few of these bottles are from my rack but obviously the majority are from the guests. I wish I had written down all the cheeses we enjoyed. There were quite a few great cheese. Can’t really say much for the wine; I only drank my Meeker and Turnbull cabernets.  Continue reading

Walking Dead Season 2 Trailer

If you watched the first season of The Walking Dead on AMC, then you are probably as excited as I am to get a glimpse of season two. Who knows how long this will be on YouTube before AMC takes it down but, here goes!

Beautiful Day in the Wine Valley

Sunday greeted Ryan and me with some of the most beautiful weather we’ve seen in a while. It also gave us an entire day hanging out with Kayla in the wine valley, checking out wineries, tasting a dozen or so bottles and buying a few as well.

We hit up Unti Vineyards, Preston Vineyards, Quivira Vineyards and WineryMounts Family Winery and finally an epic winery tour from Michel-Schlumberger Wine.

I picked up a bottle from Unti, Preston and Mounts. I was pretty tempted to get Michel-Schlumberger’s 1991 cabernet but rumor has it Ryan and I are looking at taking advantage of a big wine sell soon…

We ended our day absolutely devouring some tapas at Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar.

Cruising the Wine Valley

My best girl, Kayla, planned a sensational day in the wine valley for the two of us when I was in California back in September. We hit up six (?) wineries for tastings and were driven from one vineyard to the next in a limousine. How fancy huh? Thanks to Kayla for setting that up, it was an amazing trip through the valley. Every time she sets one of these things up she totally eclipses her previous efforts.

These are the wineries we went to and that I still remember. We had quite a wine between the two of us so my memory of the trip is a bit fuzzy… 😛

I went on this day trip intending to purchase a bottle or two, at most. I ended up buying nearly a case and a half. Add this to the wine I bought at the wine tasting in San Francisco… It wasn’t long before I was swimming in wine!

Our first winery was Seghesio, where Kayla works. I love visiting this place. If you have never been, you must put it at the top of your To Do list. The vineyard has been family owned since 1895 and it shows. Their wines are carefully crafted into some of the best Zins in the state. Their food and wine pairing are legendary and the parties they host are the envy of just about every winery. At least, that’s what I was told from just about every other winery we visited that found out Kayla worked at Seghesio.

Our next stop was Moshin Vineyards where a charming Scotswoman gave us a taste of some of their wines. There we enjoyed some Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and some fun Zins.

Amista and Preston Vineyards were both awesome. Amista’s wines tasted perfect. It felt like they had an equation for each of their wines, mechanically perfect. It was there that I had the first Chardonnay that I really loved. Of all the wines I’ve had, I’ve never had a Chardonnay good enough that I felt compelled to buy it. Of course I also haven’t had that many Chardonnays

Preston’s wines are organic, clean, crisp and pleasing. The winery is also an organic farm with fresh produce, organically raised hens and sheep. Their extra virgin olive oil is awesome and I’ve hear they have equally as tasty cheeses? Next time!

Kayla’s boyfriend Matt gave us a tour through some of their wines prior to our wandering of the grounds. I don’t think I got out of there with less than five bottles of their wine haha. Almost all were whites, seems I was in a mood for white wine that day.

Next up was a surprise. Jordan Vineyards, easily the most beautiful winery we visited this trip. There Kayla and I joined a few others in a wine and food pairing. Once again, great wine and a wonderful guide through the tasting and history of the winery.

The tasting ended with a taste of a dessert wine that was pretty damn awesome. It was a bit out of my price range but seemed like a bargain at around $50.

Every winery Kayla chose was awesome. Not a single hiccup or disappointing wine. The entire trip through the valley was just about perfect.

Well, that is until we took on the task of kicking out the squatter living in my house out in Forestville. That is an entirely different blog post though.

We capped off the night with a fabulous dinner at Barndiva with Kayla and Matt and a killer (in more ways than one) cocktail at Willies Seafood and Raw Bar.

The drive back to San Francisco gave me time to contemplate the day’s events. I thought about my friendship with Kayla. I thought of the early morning drives into Santa Rosa to open Starbucks or go to class. I thought about the house Seth and I lived in with the creaky wood floors and obnoxiously fertile fig tree in the back yard. I remembered the parties, the coffee shops, the podcast with Callie and how much I missed all of that.

It became clear to me on that long drive south into San Francisco that a change soon needed to be made.

Almost Back

It seems I should have spent my over thirty-six hours of travel writing blog posts about my trip.  Unfortunately I spent most of that time watching inflight movies and reading.  Shameful I know.  Guess I just felt the need to clear my brain for a while.  After traveling, running on empty and going at full speed for nearly a month, a little down time was necessary.

Today and tonight I am dedicating a couple of hours to gather photos and stories from my travels to put on the blog.  I’ve already gotten a lot of stuff uploaded to flickr and hope to soon have a post up.

Meanwhile, here are two panoramas.  The first is a view of Paris from Basilique du Sacré-Cœur and the second from the private beach facility where my parents live in Saudi Arabia.

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