Saturday, August 22, 2009

Message in a bottle...Pinot Gris


Paris France is 3,931 miles and an ocean away. This week I spent nearly three days with two Parisians. We worked hard together, and we struggled through light cultural and language barriers. We all had dinner, then breakfast and then Pizza. It all ended with a visit to a winery. The red carpet tour...or is that, le carpet rouge? A walk through the gardens, a tour of the facility, and then the tasting. My new friend wanted to taste a pinot gris...but the winemaker said no. "It's not right, it's flat," he said. He wanted to try the wine...I wanted to try the wine for the sake of connecting. Instead, we left for dinner. On the wine list - Anthony Road Pinot Gris. It ended up on our table purchased by a friend who happened to also be there. It was a wonderful wine. Wonderful conversation. The world became just a little smaller for me these three days, and now I have friends across the sea. In this case, fthat riendship was the message in the bottle...







Monday, August 10, 2009

Re-activated ...or, why I geocache

We've been geocaching for about a year now, and it's been a lot of fun (at least for me). Mixed reviews based upon the day from the girls! Today I want to share again why we do this apart from the pure fun of it...



From '84-87 I was in an airborne unit stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington. We were LRRP's. The unit was eventually deactivated and life went on for me for the next 22 years. But last month I "met" a cacher from Idaho whose son is now in combat. In our discussions we agreed that a travel bug I created to honor E Co. 109 should be placed in Afghanistan. Now it's there! And yesterday we agreed that the bug should remain with the Troop until their return home. I'm honored. I'm proud. And I'm proud of that young man who carries this tribute to my old unit as an encouragement to his unit.



Log into http://www.geocaching.com/ and put TB27GWP in the "search trackable items" box. I'll update as I learn more.