Middle of the Week Update

We returned from Napa Valley late, late Sunday night. Our flight was delayed in San Francisco... which did allow us to watch the Mavs lose to Denver in Game 1. :(

The trip was fantastic - we met the other top 10 agents in the Nation, along with their wives (or husbands.) The fun part was getting to know the people behind the names that we've gotten to know over the last few years.

Here is a picture of my attempt at photography. It kinda turned out cool, don't you think? The name of the winery (Erna Schein) is on the glasses.

Below are a few pictures of the Harvest Inn, where we stayed. The landscaping was very lush and beautiful. We even had a fireplace in our room, which was nice since the evenings were pretty cool.

Below is a picture of a wine called "Cemetery." The label has a picture of a wood carving that shows a man being reunited with his best friend in the afterlife. What was unique about this wine, is that the grapes are grown on land leased from a church. The church cemetery is adjacent to the vineyard. When the lease is up, the grounds will be reclaimed by the church and the cemetery will be expanded.

We also toured the underground caves of a vineyard called Chateau Boswell. It was really unique, as the caves were blasted out underneath the vineyards. Barrels and barrels were stored in the caves.

Our favorite part of the trip was a Culinary School that we participated in at a vineyard called Clos Pegase. We were coached by professional chefs in preparing appetizers and dinner for the group.

The chef actually instructed Rick to massage my shoulders because he said I was tense. Imagine that! Me, tense?

And a unique (almost creepy) sculpture outside in the vineyard. Thumbs up for the culinary experience!

Below, we dined by candlelight in the caves. With a little help from the chefs, our dinner turned out excellent!

We returned from the trip late Sunday night and hit the floor running with a crisis at the water company. The week has been really crazy with the installation of the new pump and motor at one of the plants. That was an expense we weren't really planning on!

For those keeping up, it seems the house contract is still ticking along. We hope to close by the 15th. I'm not moving anything beforehand, so if we do close... we'll try and vacate pretty quickly. I might be calling on my friends to help!