Wine + Good Food + Work friends= Good Summer Outing

Last year's summer outing was a raucous affair with not so hidden flasks and a tour of Hollywood. This year was much more subtle, but still had some good alcohol.

For our work's summer outing, we headed to Malibu Wines, this vineyard tucked in the Malibu Hills that let's you taste beautiful wines and then hang out in their cool vineyard. We brought some delicious food from Food Lab and played games and just had a wonderful time.

Don't you wish your summer outing was like this? :)

The Porter Novelli SoCal team (why do I always work some place with only one dude?)

I'm not sure if that was real wine in the fountain, but it was really wine colored and almost stained my shirt.
That's what I get for trying to be funny. 

Dead soldiers from our afternoon. They served us well. 

This is the artwork that greets people as they come in. I need this at home. 

My friend Meredith using the macro setting on her phone to get up close and personal with some grapes. 

The view from the tasting area

Our little neck of the vineyard. The estate has zebras, llamas, camels and all kinds of crazy stuff. 

It's Summer (Check Local Listings for Season in Your Area)

Okay, here's a weird thing about living in California: the use of July 4th as the first official day of summer. I think it's partly because school gets out later, but its clearly different than the rest of the country that uses Memorial Day as the beginning of summer.

Even if it's not officially summer, it felt like it last week when I took the Pacific Coast Highway home. I think it might become a habit. There's a traffic time sign at various points on my journey home. I think if the first one reads 50 minutes or more to make it to my first change of freeways, then I'm going to just take the PCH. Normally, it would take longer, but with the delays, it can cut come time off. And aside from that, it's just gorgeous.

One of the things I like about where I work is that its nestled in the mountains. I get to travel through the valleys and see some scenic areas. And when I take the PCH, the trip is all the more lovely. The cars were littered across the way with surfboards poking at the back. There were tons of surfers floating on their bobbing boards. And it was 6 p.m. There are days when I get so caught up that I forget that I work in California. I live near the coast. It is perpetually summer. And I need to bask in that more.

It seems quiet around here

Every year about this time, the city seems a little more quiet. Maybe it's just me, but once school is out and the college kids leave, it's like a breath of fresh air. I know if I were a mom, I'd be thinking differently, but I'm not.

You never realize how many college kids invade your favorite hangouts until their gone. Living about 3 blocks away from a campus doesn't ease the situation, but I digress. Driving through campus every morning to get to work and not having to dodge pedestrians is nice. Not being forced to confront my own age by watching frat boys roll out the Slip 'N Slide while crawfish are boiling on the porch is also a plus. I don't need a taut 20 year old in a short skirt to feel out of my element. That just happens naturally.

But after a few months of quiet, it is kind of nice when school is back in session. Even the local schools. It's like a collective exhale in May as the schools let out and then another one in August as they roll back in.

Add to that it's vacation time. Even those taking staycations (which I think has to be the word of 2009 as I never saw it in print as many times as I have in the last three months), are still out of the usual routine. The traffic is lighter and at least 10 percent of the city goes on vacation each week, so it starts to make a big impact.

For now, I'll just enjoy the quiet before the bitching about traffic begins again in the fall. Welcome summer!