Wine and Dine

Late in the afternoon, Mr. Fun asked if I'd like to take a short drive to the Galleano Winery. He knows that I love the "old" country feel of their property.

Galleano not only has a quaint little wine tasting room/store, but they have a lovely picnic area complete with what seems like a mini-zoo. It's a stone's throw from the action of the 15 Freeway. Once we turned onto the country lane, marked "private road," it's as though we've been transported to the country side of Italy, Portugal or Spain. The macho, condo, disco of southern California just disappeared as we rolled off the asphalt and onto the gravel dirt path.

At the winery today cars were parked everywhere, which is quite unusual. The place is usually very quiet.

A door into the winery, which is always closed, was wide open. So we peeked inside and also peeked with my camera.

Then we walked past a gathering of several dozen suits--business executive-type people having what appeared to be a celebration gathering. Into the wine tasting room/store we stepped, where a half a dozen 40-something girlfriends were swapping stories, laughing loudly, and sipping wine.

I asked the young woman behind the counter/bar what was going on outside. As she poured sips, she told us that someone from the Obama organization was having an awards ceremony. Wow!

We spent a little time in the store and then walked across the gravel road to the picnic area. I clicked several dozen photos of the guinea pigs, some who were outside of their large cage nibbling leaves that had landed just beyond their boundry . . . evidence that the grass is always greener . . . . ;-)

About a month ago when we had been at the winery, we asked for an Italian restaurant recommendation. That led us to Ciao Bella. So tonight we left Galleano Winery and drove to Ciao Bella to enjoy our second delicious meal there. So the left frame above is the winery and the right is the restaurant.

It's been a good day and now it's very late.
Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol

P.S. A confession: I am currently struggling immensely with my personal commitment to blipping. I've mentioned some lately that our wireless is not working. So we have to plug-in to a wire-connection and that's upstairs (where I am now). The fireplace and my best friend, (Mr. Fun), are down stairs. This wireless problem is getting really old. Mr. Fun won't fix it because he doesn't want to hang on the phone for 4-hours and try to figure it out. I'm considering buying one of those thingys (that's a technical term) that plugs into my laptop and allows me access from anywhere. So I need to research the cost, the reliability, and the availability. Big sigh! And then, my writing feels lifeless, flat, stale, ugly. After I posted yesterday about Marie, I thought it all felt/sounded so sterile. I know the way to conquer this is to keep tapping keys. Maybe it is just that I am days away from a big blip birthday. Mostly it is driving me crazy that I am not getting much time to comment. Honestly, I have more fun commenting on what others have posted than posting my stuff. I don't know why I'm telling all of this; I guess I just needed you to know. So thank YOU for hanging with me while I go through the blahs. All of the meaningful comments are just amazing.