culture, history, architecture, and the toxic morass of american politics. also, wine.

[rone]

Sometimes, sleepy suburbia gets just a tad too exciting, and one must slip the surly bonds of home for less familiar surroundings, accompanied by one's best girl Friday (but that should go without saying), in order to again achieve a baseline level of boredom.  Three weeks ago, 2wanda and i headed to DC, under the pretext of some job-related conference which she was to attend with some of her coworkers.  The horrors of air travel aside, it was an enjoyable few days in our nation's capital, which i had not visited in over two decades.  Visiting the National Air & Space Museum rekindled all of the "i wanna be an astronaut when i grow up" urges i had as a boy, and we walked our legs off; outside the museum, a guy with the stereotypical Vietnam vet look played guitar under a pavilion in front of banners decrying the Chinese Communist Party's repression of Falun Dafa, and as we left the building, he was ranting about the evils of secularism and Marxism to someone who was obviously provoking him.  The next day, we walked what legs we had regenerated overnight right off again at the National Museum of the American Indian, which featured an excellent cafeteria with all manner of cuisine from native cultures all over the Americas.  After that we headed to the National World War II Memorial because Kim wanted to look up her grandfather.  Then we took a taxi back to the hotel because we were totally pooped.  I flew home the next day and spent two very lonely days until Kimmy came home.

Last weekend, we hit Sonoma Valley for our birthdays.  We stayed at the Birmingham Bed & Breakfast, which was conveniently located a short walk away from several wineries, which meant that we didn't drive at all during our stay; they were very good hosts and easily accomodated both Kim's gluten-free diet and my incessant list of food aversions.  We hit Meadowcroft (good wine, poor service), Chateau St. Jean (good [albeit overpriced] wines but a lack of warmth from the people), Kaz (wacky characters galore, from the winemaker to his daughter to the wines themselves), Landmark (good but nothing remarkable), and Kunde.  Kunde was definitely the best overall experience; a wide array of wine at a fair price, gorgeous grounds, cave and field tours, and nice folks.  Plus, their estate is where a great deal of Bottle Shock was filmed; we drove past the boxing ring that was specifically built for the movie.  The view from their mountaintop tasting patio is stunning and i highly recommend it.

Comments

[bryant]

Dude, you were in the area? I'd have bought you a beer.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Aw, i forgot that you're in Baltimore. There wasn't a whole lot of time; one evening was spent at the conference opening dinner, and the other was a private affair at Ruth's Chris steak house, where filets mignon were consumed with a nice shiraz from McLaren Vale.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

*smile* This sounds like a wonderful weekend. I'm glad you had a good time.

Thanks for the B&B recommendation. Paul and I will make a reservation and have a quiet weekend.

has the boredom resumed?

[madmerle.livejournal.com]

If not, you can have some of mine! ;P

Anyway, sounds like you and Kim had a great time on both your getaways. I can't recall if I've been to Kunde before, but I have had some of their very good wines, and based on your recommendation, will put it on my list to visit the next time I'm in Sonoma.

Happy belated birthday to both of you!

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

See, when I saw crazy guy, I totally did not get that he was associated WITH the Falun Dafa people; I thought he just happened to be doing his thing next to them.

Me: PROVEN RACIST. BY THE RACIST PROVER.

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

Girl Friday, eh? I hope that I'm also your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday girl, too!