| I have known Ben for about 10 years, and I am fortunate to find
him as my next door neighbor. It's easy to remember Ben's birthday since
it falls on the growingly popular holiday of Halloween. Ben recently had
his 82nd birthday and a few of us got together to help him celebrate by
surprising him with a day in the wine country in and near El Dorado Hills.
A special thanks to Julie and Cathy for setting up everything (including 1/2 of
the cost of the limo!). Of course we all went in style, a stretched suburban limo, as we visited some of
our favorite wineries: Boeger, Lava Cap and Perry Creek. I'm surprised I
still have some wine left from my purchases as they are certain not to last
longer than the end of the year with all the of normal festivities. So all the party goers gathered in front of Cathy's house as Julie went and
retrieved Ben.
Did I mention that this was all setup as a surprise? Julie and Bob had initially made plans to watch Carolina play soccer in the afternoon. Though Carolina did have a tournament, we had different plans for Ben!
Doesn't Ben look a little surprised? I think he was generally amazed that we were taking him wine tasting. He was really thrilled, he had to change his hat! But before he skirts off for a few moments I managed to take a photo of the entire group.
So along the way we had time to chat and take some photo's. Here we are cruzing along I-50 reflecting how surprised Ben was earlier in the morning!
As usual, I forgot to bring in my camera into the wineries.. but this one I made a point to take a few photos. I don't recall which winery stop this was, but Gary and I shared a bite of chocolate here, it was really good!
All-in-all it was a really fantastic day. You wouldn't believe how much wine you consume during the day. And thanks to Roger and the Limo, everyone had a great, safe time! Of course it was a lot of fun trying to distribute the wine after we returned. Someone suggested colored stickers, which I think will work terrific! After returning we opened several more bottles and Cathy cooked dinner while we caught some sports on the TV as some people rested.
It wouldn't be a birthday party without some cake.. and sure enough, after everyone was stuffed and really buzzing, we had some cake.
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