Hiatus?!?! What hiatus?!?!

If you'd have told me when I made my previous post (Super Bowl weekend) that my next post wouldn't be until after the All Star Break, I'd be more than a little disappointed in myself, and terribly embarrassed. But here we are.

Clearly I didn't intend to take a hiatus from the blog -- it's not like we haven't been doing anything (more on that in a minute) and I didn't have anything to say. But sometimes when your day job is sitting down and typing words into a computer, you find that's *not* what you want to do during your spare time. And then one week of no posts turns into another, pretty soon it's been a month, you get busy with other stuff and you find yourself staring at the Fourth of July.

So why am I back? Well, I do like the concept of blogging (even if I'm flawed when it comes to execution) and I keep seeing/doing/eating/drinking things that make me think "This would make a good blog post." We'll see if I can keep this up, but I thought it might be worth another try. If only I could find a way to quit my day job, or maybe spend a little less time trying to get some of my posts absolutely perfect...

Anyway, the stoppage in blog posts has definitely not been an indicator of a stoppage in Gastonomical adventures. Quite the contrary. Here's a couple of high points from the first half of 2014:

Downstate Weekend -- Saturday Touring

Showing the love at Cardinal Point

I'll be honest -- we covered a lot of ground and as the day wore on, my notes got less and less. But we hit some good places and had some good beer and wine. Here's the rundown:

Downstate Weekend -- the Ride Down

Half the fun of a trip is the journey, and that's especially true when you're stopping at wineries along the way, right? After a burger in old town Warrenton at the Iron Bridge Wine Company, we started southwest and hit three wineries on our way to Nelson County:

Headed to the Blue Ridge

Been a couple weeks since the last post, but a business trip, a heavy workload and a (much needed) slow weekend will cramp the Gastonomical adventures. This weekend, on the other hand, we've got a little getaway going down. We found a Living Social (Or was it Groupon?) deal for a dog-friendly B&B down in Nelson County, VA, just southwest of Charlottesville.

Fermentation Friday: Port City Brewery

"Fermentation Friday": A semi-regular look at a member of the holy fermented trinity:  beer, wine and cheese.


I remember visiting my brother and sister in law in San Francisco a few years ago. Cam (my bro in law) and I got to yammering (as we usually do when we're together) and drinking (ditto) when the subject turned to beer. San Francisco, and California in general, has a famously thriving craft beer scene. Lots of hops, lots of options, and little reason to look very far for good beer. He asked me what our craft beer scene was like out in the DC area. "We don't really have one," I said. Sure, there were some Pennsylvania beers, Dogfish Head (of course) and a few other odds and ends. But nothing compared with what they have out there.

That was a few years ago. I'm happy to report things have definitely changed. Right in my own backyard.

October 6-12 is Regional Wine Week -- Support Your Local Grape!

Dave McIntyre, in his WineLine blog, posted about October 6-12 being Regional Wine Week. It's the sixth annual celebration of wine made throughout the country and not just on the West Coast, according to McIntyre, who actually started the recognition as part of the drinklocalwine.com blog and along with Jeff Siegel, The Wine Crumudgeon. The focus was to encourage wine writers, bloggers and tweeters to focus on their local wine, wherever that happened to be.

Time for Lunch

Well, so far it's been Matt driving this blog. And I appreciate the time and energy he's put it into it. But pretty much since he established the blog, he's been on me to post something.

"What on earth would I blog about?"
"I dunno. You could blog about what you ate at lunch."
"Yogurt and a diet shake?"

OK I made that part up.

I really SHOULD be eating yogurt and drinking diet shakes for lunch. But instead, I get tempted...

Random Savory Links

An occasional feature where we post articles and blogs we're reading these days, in no particular order.
A Case for Virginia -- Wall Street Journal, September 19
Cooking with Daniel -- The New Yorker, July 29

Anthony Bourdain on How to Fly -- Esquire Blogs

How to Have Just the Very Best Time Ever on your Foodie Vacation -- Esquire Blogs