That was a nice exhale.
I didn’t do a damn productive thing this weekend. I will probably live to regret that seeing as I have a 15 pager due next week that I have yet to start on, but it felt nice to just chill out and party hardy.
The Newport Seafood and Wine Festival was this weekend, and it was a blast! Some friends and I went last year, too—we’ve definitely decided to make it a tradition. The Festival is held in a big tent by the bay with over 100 vendors, 60 of them being wine vendors.
It’s the best place to get your wine on.
I of course hit my favorite, Hood River Vineyards, and found a new one, Honeywood Winery. Hood River Vineyards has the usual pinots and rieslings, but they also specialize in these fantastic fruit-based wines, including Marionberry, Black Cherry, and Raspberry wines. They are definitely dessert wines, so you need to be a fan of sweet wines to enjoy them, but they are fantastic.
Keeping with tradition of fruit wines, I found a new love in the Loganberry Wine made by Honeywood Winery. I must have a bottle (or five) right now. It has this lovely fruit flavor, with a deep color, and is the most perfect balance of sweet and tart I have ever had in a wine. It would be excellent with dark chocolate, I think.
Other favorites:
Hip Chicks Do Wine
Wine by Joe
Willamette Valley Vineyards
David Hill Winery (this one is right by where I went to college)
Oak Knoll Winery (their "Grape Eruption" wine is fantastic)
As was expected, I drank way too much wine. I will not admit to the number of glasses, but we’ll just say it was more than 3 but less than 10. Needless to say, my friends and I were in a happy place. We also managed to get adorned with quite a few Mardi Gras beads…I’m not really sure why.
And in a fantastic twist of fate, I randomly ran into this guy I studied abroad with in Ecuador back in ’03! I hadn’t seen him since we got off the plane when we got back to the states, so it was great to see him. He was pretty lit, but I told him to bring his friends and meet us at the pub that night after the festival, which he did. It was nice to “catch up,” but he was quite wasted so I’m willing to bet he doesn’t remember half the conversation. He must have asked for my phone number a half a dozen times after I gave it to him. He fiancée was being a sport, though. Most girls would have been horrified by his inebriated state, but she was having fun with him. Hopefully we’ll meet up soon and have a real catch-up session.
So I probably drank too much, and should have gotten some homework done, but I’m oh so glad I didn’t. This weekend probably ranks as one of the best I’ve had in a while!
Cheers!
