Deborah really knows how to make a great breakfast. Yesterday we had locally grown, organic strawberries (the kind that are red all the way through) in a fruit salad to die for, it was so flavorful. Today it was French toast made with deicious cinnamon swirl bread.
We went to the Sebastiani winery this morning and had a very early picnic lunch (11:15!) to accomodate our 12:30 tour appointment at the di Rosa Preserve. Here are Paul and Ron in front of one of Sebastiani's famous decoratively carved barrels.
In tribute to Miles (from the movie "Sideways," which we own on DVD and love to quote lines from), here's Paul in front of the Pinot Noir barrel. Now I know enough to know why I don't like the taste of Pinot--its high level of bitter-tasting tannins. But Paul likes it!
There was a lighted window with an elaborately decorated wine goblet inside. I was able to get a gtreat close-up!
Here's Paul induging in a little tasting at the front counter.
Once again, today's tour guides provided us with a magnificent picnic lunch. This time, I had the presence of mind to request a picture. We were very full afterwards, having just finished breakfast a scant 2 hours before, not that this was a problem!
We finished just in time to make it to the di Rosa Preserve by 12:35. We had to drive down to another building to catch up with our tour group. I took this picture of an outlandishly decorated car before I realized we weren't supposed to take pictures inside!
This place houses the modern art collection of 87-year-old Rene di Rosa, who started buying local modern art by young unknowns over 50 years ago. He just bought what he liked. Now there are over 2000 pieces in his collection, which is open to the public. Some of it is moving, some striking, some funny, and some just off the wall. Here is the one piece by himself, called "Lynched Volkswagen."
There were cawing peafowl strutting around the grounds.
A very few of the art pieces were interactive. Here's Mom enjoying one of these, a musical percussion instrument.
The tour lasted about 2 hours, but we were exhausted from the standing, the 90+ degree heat and mentally digesting everything we saw, so all of us headed back to Deborah's to relax for a few hours before dinner, which was at the Culinary Institute where gourmet chefs-in-training practice their craft. Deborah joined us and we met Phyllis and Alec there.
We brought the bottle of Sterling's Cabernet Sauvignon that Paul had bought, and that one bottle (excellent, by the way) was plenty for the 6 adults at our table. We looked at the wine list just for fun, which included a couple of references to our friend Miles from "Sideways."
We started with Today's Temptations, a selection of delicious appetizers. I only had 3 (out of 8) because I didn't want to be full before dinner arrived. I needn't have worried, since my selection, scallops, though beautifully presented, only came with 3 scallops, 3 small spears of asparagus, and about 1/2 cup of rice mixture. It was delicious, and the small size didn't bother me at all--more room for dessert! Chocolate souffle, to die for, plus 2 sides of cherry tarts we all shared.
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