It begins with the wine…
Two weeks ago, we purchased the “golden” ticket for a wine weekend in Placerville with the rest of the Weaver/Nesler crew. On the way there, we ran into some bad luck. Bridget and Ron weren’t feeling great to begin with; we hit a snow storm over the pass, and then the tire blew out on our car. It probably took 15 minutes just to figure out how to get the spare tire down. But five minutes later, we were back on the road again.
The wine country around Sacramento is surprisingly beautiful. I didn’t even know it was there until this weekend. While I’m not a wine aficionado, we had a good time. Each winery had food to pair with their wine tastings and a different food to taste. We had a variety of cheeses, interesting flavored oils for breads and cooking (we bought a garlic and lemon), a free coffee bar at one of the wineries, and many other variety of foods. My favorite winery, needless to say, was a place that served both their wine and microbrew. They had a good stout that was a good break from the “oak barreled”, “hint of apricot”, “subtle blackberry aftertaste” wines.
Overall, it was a fun weekend trip that I wouldn’t mind doing again.
Two weeks later… was a different type of fun.
Rob, Nagisa, Bridget, Jason, Shawn, and I decided to do a trail run in Berkeley. And what a trail run it was! The run goes up to Grizzley peak for a 2800 foot elevation gain. I had never been to Berkeley, so I was interested in checking it out. So, we booked up to Berkeley for the night; checked in at our hotel, our motel, our Holiday Inn Express (say what?); and then grabbed some pasta and beer to wake up to our morning run.
And soon we began. The trail was a mud fest at the beginning, and people pranced between the pits, and then we slowly gained elevation. The Reno mountain air definitely helped us, as we passed ahead of those Berkeley-ites on the way up. And as soon as we got to the top, we could see Oakland and the far-off ocean. Quite a site to see, but quickly we began our descent, then climbed, dropped, climbed, dropped again on different parts of the mountain. It was a freakin’ battle, and by the time the third incline came, I was walking quite a bit. Well, the final piece I knew was coming up with those unintentional mud pits, but there was no prancing now, and I trudged through the mud pit, as the finish line was in site. And what a battle to talk about after it was done.
Oh man. My new shoes now have officially been broken in. Despite the pain on the ankles and knees, this was a fun battle to have had with Grizzley peak.
