Vineyards and beaches

This weekend, we took some time to explore our new state before Dave starts work Monday morning. We had a great time visiting new places and doing new things all while getting to spend more time together - a luxury that we haven’t had while Dave has been so busy finishing his PhD!

On Saturday we checked out some vineyards and did some wine tasting. It was really interesting to taste new and different styles of wine. I never knew so many different kinds existed! By the end of the day (and after a few too many glasses of wine) we joined a wine club at a vineyard. We will receive two cases of reserved wine a year and get free tastings and other perks all year-round as members of this club; so friends and family come visit soon! We even got to go to a members-only party that day with (more) free wine and food - we even got to pick up our first case of six bottles of reserve wine. I think that will hold us for a while ;-)

On Sunday we went to the beach after church to see what that was all about. We’ve been to the beach in the past with other family members who live in California, but never by ourselves and never with Gromit. I’m not the biggest fan of the beach and don’t like the sand, but I was willing to give it another shot. We packed up a small picnic lunch to take with us and headed out to a beach that Dave found online. We enjoyed our relatively sand free lunch and then took Gromit out to the water to see what he would do. At first he was scared as the waves came towards him and he would jump back and run away as they got close to him. After a while he got more comfortable and was having a blast running along the water edge and playing in the water! When it was time to go he wouldn’t leave - he just sat down in the sand and refused to move. Silly dog! It was a great time, even if I did end up with a sandy dog ;-)

We had a great time exploring parts of our new home state. While we still love and miss Colorado, we are certainly having a great time here in California. Hopefully Dave’s new work schedule will allow us to have some more weekend adventures soon!