The much needed weekend

Shawn and I woke up on Friday morning dreading what was coming next. We decided that we were going to remodel his office so that he can move all of his computer stuff down there and out of our mutual living space. This is necessary because we are seeing entirely too much of each other now-a-days. That's not to say we don't love spending time together, we do, but we are not quite sure two people at this stage of marriage were meant to spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week together. So, in order to cut down that time a little, we are re-doing his office so we can be apart a bit during the day. (Plus, I think it's wearing on him a little not being 'away' from the house....so my idea was to create a separate space just for him and his work). Hopefully this will turn out to be a good thing.

Back to my point - we woke up knowing what our day was going to be like - lots of paint, lots of physical labor. Well, at about 2pm I called him into the "Red Room" and decided we should talk about this a bit. Neither of us was in a good mood and neither of us wanted to remodel - so I suggested that we take the rest of the day off, go get some movies and just relax. Then I mentioned that we should take Saturday off too because I am stressed about not having a job, and simply life in general. So we decided to take Saturday and title it "SHAWN AND CAROL'S DAY OF FUN". (This is not an original title - every time we take the day off and have some fun, this is what we call it - and at random times throughout the day we repeat this saying to each other......just for fun).

So we called Jonathan and Sharon to see if they wanted to come with us. They were game! Joy joy joy!!! So, come Saturday morning we caravaned down to Sonoma (I wanted to drive separately because Shawn and I have some of our best conversations in the car on long trips....something we haven't really gotten to do since we moved up here and there are no more long trips. Plus, when I get stressed, I need to vent a bit and talk about life - so that's what we did. Not so conducive when there are other people in the car.)

Our first stop - the SONOMA CHEESE FACTORY.


While this place is no longer a cheese factory, you can still cheese taste, and that's what we did. Sharon and I wine tasted and all of us sampled the cheese. It was a short, but fun visit.

Our second stop was a restaurant about 2 blocks away called Deuce. It was a nice place, but I am not sure I would ever eat there again. We really wanted to go to a different place (can't think of the name of it, but Shawn and I went there about a year ago and it was FANTASTIC). However, we found out that it was closed for lunch on the weekends. Bummer - but we had a good time at lunch anyway.



The third stop was the Budweiser Factory in Fairfield. We have been here before, but Sharon and Jonathan had not - so we decided to stop and take a tour. During the tour they give you free drinks. A nice gesture! So Sharon and I had a beer each with some interesting flavor added (can't remember what they are called right now). They weren't in production that day, but we still got to tour around a little.


Stop #4 was the Jelly Belly Factory. Again, no production that day, but interesting nonetheless. I have been to the factory twice before, and to my amazement, Shawn never had - neither had Sharon and I assume Jonathan. So, we had a good time walking around to see the different process areas.

After the tour we went down to the sampling areas. Nothing too notable there except you can sample whatever you'd like. They now have Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Ok, when they mean every flavor - they aren't kidding. I tried a dirt flavored jelly bean and promptly spit it out. I have, sitting at home a vomit flavored bean, an earthworm flavored bean and a bacon flavored bean.....all of which I am a bit too scared to try. If I do try them in the next day or two, I will let you know how they are. But, judging by the dirt flavored one, they are RIGHT ON in their flavors. I have never eaten an earthworm - but one could imagine...and don't even get me started on the vomit flavored one....yikes. I guess I would have to be a 10 year old boy in order to fully appreciate these beans.


After the Jelly Belly Factory we were going to head home. However, we noticed a sign that said "Olive Oil Tasting" (a sign that I had noticed every other time I had visited this area but had never stopped). I had mentioned to Shawn a number of months back about how there is an olive oil factory in Placerville and they have tastings daily (I think). I mentioned to him that I would like to stop by there to check it out and taste some really good olive oils. Sharon and Jonathan also noticed the sign and asked us if we wanted to stop. Of course I said yes....Shawn was not to happy about that - but we had a good time tasting a number of different Olive Oils and a bunch of REALLY GOOD balsamic vinegars. We ended up buying Black Currant Balsamic and a really good Black Aged Balsamic. We didn't buy any oils because, like I mentioned, there is a place up here that makes olive oils. But I think Jonathan and Sharon ended up buying some.

Overall we had a good day. By the time we got home we had no energy left. We sat down on the couch and didn't get up for the rest of the night. So much for a relaxing weekend right? But at least we had tons of fun!!!