Lindsey and I do not get out much anymore. I mean, yes we are always doing stuff, but it is very rarely something that is just the two of us (unless we go see a movie). Most of the time when we have weekends off, we try to do something with family, which makes sense since our schedules are so varying, that one weekend off each month needs to be used seeing people who are also generally off on weekends. However, it seems that there is usually one weekend where there is nothing really happening and we need to find something to do. I noticed an ad in our little newspaper that comes each week, the Mainline Extra.
Quick aside. I love the Mainline Extra. It comes every Thursday and I actually sit and read the entire thing. There are so many terrific (okay, that might be a stretch) articles about local government and what is happening in the region. I feel like I should splurge for the actual subscription version, which covers the local sports. Local journalism is vitally important and if your town has one of these free papers, utilize them! Read about the town council meetings and all of that “boring” stuff. Or buy a subscription, I doubt they are expensive. Remember, if no one covers these things, then these governments can do whatever they please. Okay, back to the real story.
The ad was for something called Sippin’ For A Cause 2018. It was a wine event held in Northern Cambria. I told Lindsey about it and she was like “sure, we can go.” So we lined up a babysitter and went up to it. We honestly had no clue what to expect. It was $20/person and the paper said there would be a few wineries there and a pasta bar. My thought was that it would be like a sit-down tasting, they give you a few samples from each winery, then you eat some spaghetti, and then we head home. Lindsey thought it would be something like she went to before (you got one free glass of wine, but then had to pay for each additional glass). Well you did get a free glass and the wineries were giving out samples. You could sample as much as you wanted. It was actually pretty cool. You could also buy bottles and drink them at the table. Also, other people brought coolers with beer.
The pasta bar was three different noodles, Alfredo & marinara sauces, meatballs, and salad (which was just lettuce and a variety of dressings). There was also chicken to put on the pasta, which was shocking. The music was not very good. It was some guy and he played acoustic, but he was bad. His mic was too low so you could barely hear him, and it seemed like every song sounded the same at first, plus he would play two songs, then take a five minute break.
I was shocked by the number of people actually there. Lindsey thinks a few hundred, but my guess was probably around 150.
We ended up buying three bottles of wine from Wapiti Ridge. We gave one of the bottles to the babysitter (do not worry, she is old enough to drink). My guess is that Aunt Lori would not like much of the wine that was there because it was very sweet. Actually two of the wineries were even too sweet for me. We also purchased some wine smoothie packets. They had a bunch and they were all very good, but we liked the orange creamsicle the best. We are going to take them with us to Myrtle Beach when we go next month.
I would definitely go again next year. It may be more fun to get a group of people to go though and actually get a bottle of wine there and drink it. We drank our samples, then just chilled while waiting for the 50/50 & basket drawings.
Another quick aside…
I really need to shake my notion of what firehalls/social halls look like. For some reason I always picture fairly dirty (maybe not dirty, but a place where people smoked so much that it is worn, if that makes sense?) or very old rundown buildings. I have no clue why. This place was really nice. Going to something like this also helped me realize something for work. When places come in for a donation for these events, I usually give them a gift card, but there are so many things I could offer that would help. I mean, this place had a pasta bar, but no bread. I could have easily donated 10 loaves of Italian bread.
Anyways, it was good to get out. We left the event and went to Applebees for a drink before heading home. We had a great time.
