Time Flies

I probably said this the last time I blogged, but time really does fly by! We are loving it here in Bodega Bay and getting into the swing of things. Of course, as busy as it's been over the last 3 months, we are being told by the locals that winter is coming - and they remind us all the time. Lots of storms, wind and no traffic. Bob and I just keep working on all the plans we have to keep the people coming in. And they are! The new signage that Tammi and Steve installed is working nicely. We've been doing some advertising and working on getting some editorial press. We sent out a press release and got a pretty good response from that. All in all, we are happy with sales thus far and looking forward to a busy holiday season.

Living in west county is very interesting...we're getting to know all the locals. It's a really good week if we get to see everyone - some more than once a week! And we've had some visitors, too! Our neighbor Karen Banks from Orlando was in the wine country with some friends and brought them all out to the shop to see us. And of course Mom and Dad were out, too. We think they figured out why we love it here so much. The weather was perfect and we got to visit some really great places. Hopefully, neither of them will ever look at a bottle of wine the same.

We all went to the Iron Horse Winery for a tour of the vineyards. Iron Horse is most well known for their sparkling wine. David Monksguard is the winemaker and he spent the better part of 4 hours explaining the root stock of the vines and how sparkling wine is made. And there were samples - lots of samples! There was also a barrel tasting at Hauck Cellars. Greg and Jennifer Hauck moved out to Sonoma County from Georgia in 2004. They started their own wine label and make fantastic wine. Even though they are Bulldogs, we still sell their wine in the shop ;-)

Bob is starting to play golf a little more. I've got a bad case of tennis elbow and have had to put the sticks down for awhile. We did get a couple of kayaks so we could explore the bay. We went out this morning for the first time and it's a lot more intimidating than it looks. There are harbour seals and sea lions in the channel and they pop up with no warning. They are so cute from far away and so BIG up close!! There's lots of adventures ahead and I hope to get comfortable enough to take the camera out there one day.

Here are a couple of pics...

This is the view on a foggy day from our living room - normally you can see the Bodega Head:


This is my friend Katy and I at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair - so many wines, so little time!!


Steve and Sarah are two of our favorite wine folks. They are with Hook and Ladder Winery, owned by Sarah's grandfather, Cecil DeLoach. They are smiling so wide because their wines won a Gold Medal and a Best in Class!


A foggy day in Bodega Bay...


We rarely have clouds and visibility...


These two pics are of the same bird: