Wine, Chocolate and Roses

After hearing for the past four years what an amazing event the Tahoe Women's Services puts on with their Wine and Chocolate Festival I decided this was the year to check it out.  It also happens to be the first year since moving here that I haven't been pregnant or breastfeeding during the festival and could thus DRINK WINE! 

It also helps that through my community volunteering I have come to know some of the people involved in the two organizations collaborating on this year's festival, Project MANA and Tahoe Women's Services, and wanted to show my support not only to the organization but to my friends.  When I first mentioned to Brian that I was interested in attending the event he had a rather luke warm response....he's not a wine drinker and usually doesn't divulge in sweets so the entire premise of the event wasn't all that appealing to him.  I then made a couple of emails and my good friend, Steph, took me up on the offer of a girl's night out and offered to be my designated driver as she is pregnant and due in May 2010. 

Steph arrived in the late afternoon and we had some time to visit and get all dressed up before heading out, leaving the boys with Daddy for bedtime.  I was happy to be able to squeeze into a cocktail dress I hadn't worn in 5 years!  Yes, a dress from my pre-kid days!

We got to the event shortly after it started and were immediately confused with the set-up of the venue.  I had never been to the North Lake Tahoe Convention Center in Kings Beach before so I wasn't familiar with the layout of the building and the arrangement of the chocolate and wine vendors and the appetizers was not easy to see with the crowds of people milling around.  It appeared that there were several nice silent auction items but both Steph and I agreed that there wasn't anything we couldn't live without.  We enjoyed the various chocolates offered by ten different chocolatiers and I tried just a few wines.  My personal favorite of the chocolate items I tried was made by the chef at a restaurant here in Incilne called Frederick's.  It was a warm chocolate sourdough waffle with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and apple-cinnamon caviar.....unbelievable!  Overall, I didn't really see why people have made such a huge deal about this event - unless they are all about getting wasted on wine and gorging themselves on rich chocolates.  At first that sounded good to me too but it was annoying that there wasn't even anywhere to sit down and relax and visit while enjoying the wine and chocolate - especially for my pregnant friend!

The band that was playing only added to the chaos by making it even harder to converse with people.  I saw many people that I knew and realized that this is basically a huge social networking event more than anything else.  The event was scheduled to run from seven o'clock to ten o'clock but by nine Steph and I were happy to retrieve our things from the coat check and enjoy the rest of the evening at home in our jammies.  On our way out the door, a very sweet elderly gentleman handed each of us a rose bud and thanked us for coming. 

Brian was surprised to see us home so early and I immediately told him that rather than going again in future years we'll use that money to go to something more to our liking.  The best thing about the evening was getting to spend time with Steph and having her here in the morning to hang out some more before going home.  The boys loved playing with Auntie Steph and were sad to see her go but Ben is very excited that soon there will be a new baby and Julianna will be a big sister!