spending a day with the queens

Dubbed "the four queens" in elementary school- Kim, Monica, Kristen and I have been lifelong friends. We met at the age of six -that's thirty years ago for those of you who are pretending you don't know our real age. (Nice try). Monica moved out to Colorado years ago and when she comes home for a visit we try to get in as much time together as possible. We finally introduced our children the other day during a festive play date that included our mothers. Sadly, Kristen wasn't feeling well and didn't bring her little sweeties. We also missed her dearly during our visit to Newport yesterday.

Kim and I picked up Monica and headed to the Newport Vineyards for a wine tasting and tour. The ridiculousness pretty much started the moment we stepped out of the car. As we were heading toward the entrance Kim said, "Mmmm something smells good"... (meaning food) and a dorky guy in short shorts and a Hawaiian shirt turned back with a flattered, creepy smile. Clearly thinking she meant HE smelled good - he said "Hi" ( oh FYI he looked like that sleazy guy from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead). Kim, simply being polite, said "Hi" back and we walked into our building laughing like fifth graders. Dorko went into another building. We started our wine tasting.

Our host/bartender/tour guide guy was super corny but very nice and let us have several tastings - as he was having plenty of tastings himself. We chose wine after wine, sipping and chatting at the outdoor bar where the breeze was phenomenal. Then the tour started. Snooze fest times eleven. Listening to a tour guide is always brutal for me, I don't know what my problem is. I definitely couldn't have cared less about the grapes, the seasons, the barrels, the birds, etc. I focused more on the wet spot on the guide's shorts - wondering if he had spilled chardonnay or pissed himself. Kept me occupied for the better part of the tour.

Inside the room that held those vats was as humid as an armpit. We were so warm and bored. Kim kept making me laugh - it was just like we were those little girls back in St. Timothy's Church getting kicked out by the priest.

Post tour (and bonus tasting session) we stepped out for some pictures. After ten minutes of trying to do it ourselves we asked a young couple to snap a couple of pics of us... while we laughed hysterically. Kim's hair was stuck on Monica's face, someone was tripping on rocks that had fallen off the stone wall, there was laughter-induced snorting and a few tears  - it was quite a scene. We gave that couple a good show. Here is the one picture that is remotely okay for public viewing...

We bought a few bottles of wine (I finally settled on Landot Noir) and hit the road. But what did we find tucked into Kim's driver-side window?

 Driver, I think you are cute - text me,

guy you said hello to

... Yup. That is a note from Dorko McShortshorts who apparently has never had anyone say hello to him before. We laaaaaaaaaughed and laaaaaaaaaughed.

Then we headed to Bowen's Wharf to pick up tickets for our sunset sail. We tried to get a bite to eat but by the time the food came we had just four minutes to catch the boat. The girls packed up their sandwiches, I took five sips of boiling - but delicious - chowder and we grabbed our drinks to go. We managed to get the three worst seats on the boat - natch. Got some semi-decent pictures though...

This last one is really crappy quality but still so pretty; I love seeing the lights on the water. The picture definitely doesn't do it any justice. I wish I could recall all of the things that we laughed about but I know they wouldn't seem nearly as funny to you - (like Kim nearly going blind on the boat due to her tearing eyes and the driving wind). We made lots of great memories and had a really good day and night. But we really missed our fourth "queen" - Kristen, you weren't forgotten!

Cheers to old forever friends. I love my fours.