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After sleeping in, we drove over to the Los Reyunos Lake/Dam which was about 30 minutes away tucked between the mountains. We arrived and found the booth renting various water sports and decided to rent kayaks for a few hours. There weren’t very many people around which made for a nice peaceful day on the water.
Thankfully we were prepared for the sun with hats and sunblock and had fun kayaking our way around the mountains stopping to take a dip in the water when it got too hot. We got some really pretty pictures and enjoyed the serenity of the still water, blue skies and mountain range.
After a couple of hours, we could feel the sun beating down on us and our arms had gotten a pretty good work-out so decided to turn our kayaks in and head over to a winery right by our B&B.
We arrived to Casa Bianchi which was literally a road over from where we were staying. It was a huge property and had steps leading up to a large white building. We walked up the steps, stopped for a picture and then went inside to find a large tasting room filled with things to buy and scattered tables to drink wine.
We looked at the menu and went with a wine tasting served with finger foods. There was one table outside on their patio so we grabbed it and the waiter brought over the wines we chose, as well as a couple of plates of finger foods consisting mainly of dried meats, cheese and olives. After seeing the service and tasting the wines…we decided this was a very big massive produced winery which was great for super cheap prices but not necessarily for quality. After munching and relaxing after our work-out on the lake, we bought a couple of the Chardonnay’s which for the price were pretty good. We did notice as we made our purchase, all the wines displayed had a security cap on the bottle…the kind you sometimes find at groceries on hard liquor. Are people really trying to sneak out of the tasting room with a bottle of wine under their shirt?
We went back to our place to relax for a bit, got showered and then for dinner, went to a typical parrilla in a small town/pueblo where a husband/wife team owned and served the guests. We arrived at 9PM and were the first guests to be seated but within the hour, the tables were filling up. When we first walked in, we walked right by the oversized BBQ grill area where the owner was preparing various meats. Inside, the restaurant was covered with all kinds of paintings which we found out were created by his wife. Since they spoke only Spanish…we decided to have them choose our dinner (the menu had no English). They started us with an appetizer of several meats marinated in different sauces…we had rabbit, chicken, fish and a mystery meat. Then we had a typical salad which was followed by a sizzling hot rack of various cuts of pork.
We had fun looking at what other people were eating, trying different foods and communicating with the owners. It was about midnight when we finished dinner…eating these huge pieces of meat and then going straight to bed isn’t exactly a healthy habit!
We went straight to bed when we got back, tomorrow we are checking out of this B&B and leaving San Rafael. Don’t worry…we are just driving back to the area of Mendoza we were in last week, we are not leaving wine country yet!
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Published by Giff Kabat
I grew up in Ohio as a kid, so of course I went to college at “THE” Ohio State University. I graduated in 2001 with a major in business finance. A month after graduation, I moved out to California with my college girlfriend (whom I married in 2005)…and started my career in sales (industrial sales for 5 years…then moved into medical laser sales for 4 years).
In 2009 I was 31 years old. I had a great job, a new house, and a beautiful wife. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better…my wife and I found out we were going to have a baby. Everything was going according to plan…and I couldn’t have scripted a better life for myself.
Then in the same year…everything changed. My wife, Brandey, called me when I was on my way to work and told me over the phone, something I never thought could be possible in a million years. My beautiful 30-year old pregnant wife was just told that she had breast cancer. At that moment, everything stopped all at once. I immediately went to her…and learned of our new plan…which began with her needing surgery immediately…and the rest we would find out later.
The day we returned from the hospital after Brandey’s surgery…my father died. He had been battling an aggressive cancer of his own…and although he was the one person I wanted to speak with about Brandey having cancer…I never told him. My sister, Brooke, had just gotten married a few months ago, and although he was weak, he was able to walk his little girl down the aisle of her wedding. On the night before my sister’s wedding, Brandey and I told him that we were pregnant and about to make him a grandfather. It made no sense to tell him that everything had changed for us…so he died in peace knowing everything was “the way it should be” for his only 2 children.
2010 was the worst year of my life. We had lost our baby…and for 12 months I watched my wife fight cancer with multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and drug therapy. It was a difficult year for us…but we made it. When you go through something like this in life, you learn a lot about yourself and the people around you. I was amazed at the strength and courage of my wife…and how many good people there are in this world. I will be forever grateful for the ones who never ceased to amaze me with their kindness during this hard time. Family, friends, and sometimes complete strangers…helped us make it through this. I am, and will always be especially grateful to my mother, who was with my dad at the very end, when I couldn’t be there, and when things were at their worst. She has been so supportive throughout all of this, and without her everything would have been so much harder for me.
It’s 2011 now…and the plan we have for our life this year…is to make it the best year of our lives. Brandey is officially in remission from breast cancer and she has a 95% chance the cancer will never come back. Besides the love that I have for my wife and family, the loves of my life are food, wine, and adventure travel. My wife and I love traveling to new places, seeing natural wonders, and meeting new people from different parts of the world. So for the next 400 days…we’ve decided to travel the world…and celebrate our lives. There are so many things I took for granted in life that I will never take for granted again. My father worked for over 30 years at the same job with the same company…rarely took time off…and died at 64 years old right after his retirement. For me, this trip is a combination of a tribute to him, along with wanting to spend the time of my life with the “love of my life.”
* The only thing I will miss while we are gone is our family and friends (who we hope will meet us somewhere throughout our trip) and especially our 3 little kitties we left with my mom in Ohio to catsit for the next 400 days. I will also miss watching “American Football” over the weekend…but I’ll do my best to check the scores in the middle of the night.
GIFF
View all posts by Giff Kabat
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