Saturday, September 19, 2009

A very nice day

We spent the afternoon today eating delicious food, drinking good wines that cost more than we usually spend on a bottle of wine, and looking at gemstones.

It just doesn't get much better than that!

Our town held a food and wine festival today; many of the restaurants and wineries around the park were participating. We were given a map, and a card with the participant's names on it, and we walked around downtown, stopping in at the places that appealed to us. Some were offering just a bite, others offered a good bit more. Some of the wineries offered a choice; others had a designated tasting wine. The participating restaurants and wineries were located in an area about eight block square; just enough space to spread things out and keep it from being crowded.

We arrived early, and walked about half of it, eating and drinking, until we'd had enough. Then we drove over to the gem and mineral show on the other side of town, and walked all over that. I fell in love with a 29.5 carat faceted ametrine; it was the deepest purple and yellow I've ever seen. The seller wanted $7/carat, a mere $204 . . . it was stunning, but SO not in my budget. He also had a gorgeous faceted black opal, with brilliant purple and orange fire. I did NOT even ASK the price on that one after he told me it was the best stone he had. Yup, I went right for it. I didn't buy anything, I have too many gems already, but it was fun to look, and it was a good way to walk off some of the food and wine.

By the time we'd cruised all the booths at the rock show, we were hungry again. So we drove back to the festival and hit the rest of the restaurants. We skipped most of the wineries; there were 16 of them participating!!!! I think we tasted at 4. That was plenty! We also tasted a guava mojito; now there's a drink that goes down easy. We agreed that it would be far too easy to drink too many of them without noticing.

I hope wherever you are that your day was just as fine.

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