I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to write again, I guess it's been kind of par for the course with me and this blogging thing. But I took a new job about a year ago, I've been working on a feature length screenplay and numerous other little things that seem to keep me away from here.
But back at the end of October, myself and my good friends Kevin Gunter of Mooresville, NC, Blake Smith of Oxford, MS, Tom Carey of Lafayette, La and Robert McDavitt of The Woodlands, TX took our annual guys trip together.
We started these annual trips way back in 1990! The first couple of trips we took were to major league baseball games. We traveled to Chicago to watch the Cubs and the White Sox. The next year we drove to Dallas to see the Rangers play. The following year we decided to do a golf trip and we played rounds in Hattiesburg, MS, Mobile, Al and our hometown of McComb, MS. That lasted just a year for reason's I won't get into here.
We skipped a few years here and there, but then, for the last sixteen years, we all met in New Orleans to attend a NFL game to watch our beloved Saints team and enjoy the city and its decadence. We would meet, drink and eat all weekend until we all had to depart back to our normal lives.
This past year, we decided to do something a bit different. Kevin suggested we play golf again, this time in the beautiful Florida gulfcoast resort town of Destin. We all love Destin, so it was a no brainer. We rented an amazing four bedroom condo in Baytowne Wharf for the long weekend. It was the perfect abode for our crew. Check it out here: Baytowne Wharf
Then we decided to make it even more fun by including wine! Kevin, Tom and myself have, over the last ten or twelve years began to really enjoy exploring wines. Kevin and Tom even took a trip to Italy together a few years back and learned quite a bit about the multitude of greats wines produced there.
So our goal was for each of us to bring four to five bottles of wine with a price point of of no more than $25 per bottle. (Our buddy Robert doesn't drink, so he wasn't part of the wine consumption.) All in all we ended up with twenty-three bottles of wine. All reds of course, except for one Chardonnay. We tasted Cabernet's, Zinfandel's, Malbec's, Pinot Noir's, Tempranillo's, Spanish Priorat's, and blends from Bordeaux, Langeudoc, Southern Rhone as well as tasty wines from Italy like Brunello's, Chiantis and blends made mostly of Sangiovese.
The four of us really enjoyed the wines. We drank every day from Thursday night until Sunday! We managed to consume all but two of the bottles. (The Chardonnay suffered the indignation of becoming a cooking wine.) Had we not spent so much time on the golf courses, we probably would have been able to finish off those two as well!
One thing we also included with our trip was listening to music. We all love music, so we shared our iPod collections all weekend. The play list was eclectic to say the least as we blasted out songs by Counting Crows, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, John Mellencamp, The Foo Fighters, Billy Joel, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jimmy Buffet, Queen, REM, Steely Dan and more. Music and wine are a potent mix.
We tried to make a determination on which two or three wines were the best, but we never managed to get that done. In our minds, they were all winners! Well, maybe we were winners for getting to drink all of those wines! We were also treated to a terrific dinner of Italian stew whipped up by Tom one evening and I grilled up my killer hamburgers another night.
I'm voting for a return trip to Destin in 2016. Great friends, great wine, terrific music and some below average golf made for a memorable trip! My only request is next year we skip the T-shirts. Thanks guys!
But back at the end of October, myself and my good friends Kevin Gunter of Mooresville, NC, Blake Smith of Oxford, MS, Tom Carey of Lafayette, La and Robert McDavitt of The Woodlands, TX took our annual guys trip together.
We started these annual trips way back in 1990! The first couple of trips we took were to major league baseball games. We traveled to Chicago to watch the Cubs and the White Sox. The next year we drove to Dallas to see the Rangers play. The following year we decided to do a golf trip and we played rounds in Hattiesburg, MS, Mobile, Al and our hometown of McComb, MS. That lasted just a year for reason's I won't get into here.
We skipped a few years here and there, but then, for the last sixteen years, we all met in New Orleans to attend a NFL game to watch our beloved Saints team and enjoy the city and its decadence. We would meet, drink and eat all weekend until we all had to depart back to our normal lives.
This past year, we decided to do something a bit different. Kevin suggested we play golf again, this time in the beautiful Florida gulfcoast resort town of Destin. We all love Destin, so it was a no brainer. We rented an amazing four bedroom condo in Baytowne Wharf for the long weekend. It was the perfect abode for our crew. Check it out here: Baytowne Wharf
Then we decided to make it even more fun by including wine! Kevin, Tom and myself have, over the last ten or twelve years began to really enjoy exploring wines. Kevin and Tom even took a trip to Italy together a few years back and learned quite a bit about the multitude of greats wines produced there.
So our goal was for each of us to bring four to five bottles of wine with a price point of of no more than $25 per bottle. (Our buddy Robert doesn't drink, so he wasn't part of the wine consumption.) All in all we ended up with twenty-three bottles of wine. All reds of course, except for one Chardonnay. We tasted Cabernet's, Zinfandel's, Malbec's, Pinot Noir's, Tempranillo's, Spanish Priorat's, and blends from Bordeaux, Langeudoc, Southern Rhone as well as tasty wines from Italy like Brunello's, Chiantis and blends made mostly of Sangiovese.
 |
| 12 dead soldiers watch as Tom cooks up his stew |
One thing we also included with our trip was listening to music. We all love music, so we shared our iPod collections all weekend. The play list was eclectic to say the least as we blasted out songs by Counting Crows, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, John Mellencamp, The Foo Fighters, Billy Joel, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jimmy Buffet, Queen, REM, Steely Dan and more. Music and wine are a potent mix.
We tried to make a determination on which two or three wines were the best, but we never managed to get that done. In our minds, they were all winners! Well, maybe we were winners for getting to drink all of those wines! We were also treated to a terrific dinner of Italian stew whipped up by Tom one evening and I grilled up my killer hamburgers another night.
 |
| Tom, Blake and Kevin |
