We woke up early and hit the road to make it home for the oldest guys party at his teachers. Yesterday after visiting our new horse friends, Jason and Brandi, we headed into town. Before the details on town, here’s a little bit more about Jason, his wife Brandi, the twins and their 13 year old. Our friends in Wyoming had been to a horse clinic at the Stock Show in January put on by Jason. He has quite the gift with horses. In fact our friend Michelle in Steamboat says he’s a God when in the arena. We arrived around 10 am at their place where he was instructing a guy on cutting cows in the arena. The boys ran off right away to play with his kids and began exploring. They found the chicken coup and some 3 day old Bernese Mountain Dog puppies. Of course they didn’t touch them at all as that’s a no no. Meanwhile the misses and I were watching Jason and then talking to him about his philosophy on training. We’re going back up to ride with him in a few weeks. His wife Brandi, is a cute little ranch wife complete with boots and spurs on and we met her when we found the boys inside their house. The house is quite small but the barn and riding arena are big. They said they spend most of their time outside and really only sleep and eat in the house so it makes sense to have a smaller house than barn. He must have had a dozen or so horses he’s working now for clients from what we could see. After an hour or so, we all said our goodbyes with Brandi saying how polite and well mannered the boys were. We joked that we could leave them for the day and she said anytime and actually meant it. They were very polite, shook hands with all adults and were prefect gentlemen the entire trip.
Next off was a trip to town. We all walked around for a few hours until we headed back to the condo to rest before Lorenzo and I headed back to town for the wine tasting. Today’s event was a stroll through the entire town so we were at station number 5 (out of 8 spread around town) which was on the deck at Carls Tavern (an upscale tavern) across the street from the river. It was crowded so I spent most of the time off to the side or watching the Olympics inside while Lorenzo manned the table. After all, people would rather talk to an Italian winemaker anyhow, right?
We finished up around 6:45 and headed back to meet the kiddos and the misses. We had no dinner plans so I decided to call Cafe Diva as the owner was always a huge supporter of ours and always took great care of me. The answering machine said they were sold out Friday and Saturday but I tried calling back anyhow to try to get a live person. After 3 tries I reached a girl named Beth who I didn’t know but said she was his partner. She said they were sold out and Paul was busy but I asked her to tell him it was me anyhow. A few minutes later she was back on the phone asking when we wanted to arrive saying they were already setting up a table outside for us. I said we’d be there in 15 minutes. We arrived to be greeted by Paul and we spent a few minutes catching up. Soon the lobster fritters, asparagus and watermelon salads and some asian curry salad were arriving at out table. Numerous other delicacies also came from time to time. I had a peppercorn crusted filet along with Lorenzo while the misses had diver scallops. The boys had some sort of noodles and soup while anxiously awaiting desserts Paul had promised them. The food was over the top good and so was all the wine. Premier Cru white burgundy along with a great barbaresco we brought along was fantastic with our entrees and then a silky sauterne from France paired great with the peach cobbler dessert, burnt cremes and a s’more tower for the boys. We finished up and were getting ready to pay when he came out and grabbed the check, wadded it up and threw it over his shoulder. I insisted on paying something so a reduced bill was soon presented which we gladly paid and left a generous tip. (The night before we were also treated as well and it was all I could do to leave a tip then.) I have no doubt we will be doing some good business together soon. He has always really respected me and with Lorenzo there, a winemaker from Italy, Paul was in heaven. In fact, Lorenzo’s merlot was already on his list which was great. We said our goodbyes and he thanked us over and over for coming.
We headed home, the misses and I in the car with the boys and Lorenzo walking across the slopes. We woke up and were on the road by 8:15 and home about 2 hours and 20 minutes later. Tonight we have a party at a private lake with a huge fireworks display, uggh. More on this tomorrow.
Thanks again to Aunt B for looking after the pups. We walked in to see a new bed for Lacey and new toys outside for Mojo, she’s the best!
Take care, talk to you tomorrow,