My BFF, Abbey, turned 24 yesterday, but our celebration actually began on Sunday. Abbey, her mom, Adam, and his parents met in NJ for the weekend and they all drove out to Long Island for some wine tasting. I don't think I've talked in much detail about the wineries out here. More than 30 vineyards and wineries dot the forks of the island. Some people say the wine quality isn't the best, and I agree that some are pretty terrible, but there are quite a few that I really like. Part of the fun is being able to judge one from the other. And when it's nice outside, it's refreshing to take a drive out east, past the land of strip malls and into farm country. Unfortunately, our drive on Sunday wasn't so fun. Being in the thick of Halloween season, everyone and their mom decided to venture out to the north fork for fall festivals, pumpkin picking, corn mazes, apple picking and shopping at the hundreds of farm stands. This turned the usually quick 45-minute drive into a much longer excursion. Our moods were quickly restored, though, once we ate some lunch and started the first of numerous tastings. We stopped first at Martha Clara (which in my opinion, doesn't produce the best wine, but has fun entertainment like hairy cows and llama). We spent the rest of the day at Roanoke, which is one of my favorites. I'm a wine club member there, meaning I get free tastings and discounts in exchange for buying three pre-selected bottles each quarter. The people there are incredibly friendly and can tell you anything you want to know, and more, about the wine they make. And it doesn't have the commercial feeling that many other wineries do. Abbey and I drank some of her favorite Roanoke wine, a rose, and Adam's parents must have enjoyed some of the reds because they left with a box full of bottles.
Yesterday, for Abbey's actual double dozen celebration, I met her, Adam, Sarah, Matt, Mason, Keith, and Walt at Carmine's in the city for a HUGE dinner. After putting back platters of penne vodka, salad, meatballs, and chicken (I mostly worked on the pasta), we ordered the "Titanic," a monstrosity of chocolate cake, ice cream, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and nuts. Sooo good.
But the party's still not over. Tomorrow night, I'll meet Abbey and Amy in Florida to visit my parents and celebrate a little (or a lot) more.
2 comments:
That's awesome! What city will you guys be in?
I updated my blog today too!!!
Thank you for being such a good friend and celebrating my special day and surrounding weekends with me!
I love you more than anything!
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