Everyone’s a winner

Check out what I won playing skeeball at Coney Island last weekend:


Next to it is the number of quarters I had to spend to get it. A fine trade-off, I think.

Sometimes you just want a taste

The Copia Center in Napa (the American Center for Wine, Food, & the Arts) is the Wine Country gathering place for people, learning, and ideas. Perhaps. In any event, while you’re gathering, one thing you can do is visit the set of wine dispensers. You put money on a card, stick the card in these machines, and then select which bottle you want to try and how much you want: a taste, a half-glass, or a full glass.

I kind of wish there were more vending machines around like this:

Last one for now

One more China photo. The trip did end, after all, over two months ago, but this is one of my favorite ones. This is a Dong man in Zhaoxing:

Coney Island

I went to Coney Island this weekend:

Napa Motel

We stayed at the Wine Valley Lodge in Napa:


A number of luminaries have stayed at the Wine Valley Lodge, including Rock Hudson, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley.

And in fact, we were in Elvis’s room. Wow:

There’s a variety of pests out there

Back to Napa—
This is the truck that was parked in our motel parking lot for a few days:


There was a big wooden box with a padlock in the back of the truck. Nice.

Brooklyn water

Lovely Gowanus Canal:

Wine, lots and lots and lots of wine

After Monterey, we went to Napa Valley, where we were surrounded by everything to do with wine. We saw how wine was made:


We had wines poured and explained:


We saw grapes everywhere (these are sunburned):


And we battled mild feelings of sluggishness throughout the trip.

Monterey sea life

I was in sunny California this past weekend and holiday, surrounded by family. Part of the family took a trip to the Monterey Aquarium, which had been recommended to a number of us by a variety of people. With good reason—we saw lots of interesting displays. Here’s a jellyfish:


We saw this interesting creature:


And Mom got to feel what it’s like to be a barnacle: