Memorial Day Weekend

The alarm on a silver BMW convertible was going off at the train station parking lot this morning. The person who set it off is a regular passenger who seems decent enough, so I doubt he did it intentionally. He probably brushed against the car or breathed on it as he was getting out of his own vehicle. That scenario is more plausible than the one I concocted in which the spotless BMW resented having a beat up Tercel with peeling burgundy paint parked next to it all day and was throwing a temper tantrum.

The long weekend was a good one even though we weren't able to do more than day trips. A celebratory commitment on Sunday kept us relatively close to home.

On Saturday, we braved traffic on Highway 80 to visit V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena. I must admit that my knowledge of wine is limited. What little I retained from watching Sideways is all I know. I didn't get to try a Pinot Noir, but here is the list of wines I tasted:

• Dry Johannisberg Riesling 2005 (white)
• Off-Dry Johannisberg Riesling 2005 (white)
• Gamay Rouge 2004 (rosé)
• Duarte Vineyard "Old Vine" Zinfandel 2002 (red)
• Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 (red)
• Muscat 2005 (dessert)
• Angelica (dessert)

My favorites were the Dry Riesling and the Angelica.

The place was packed, so we had to wait a while to taste the wine. Because of the crowd, I thought the man behind the counter would rush us through the tasting, but he took his time and presented each wine with patience. We selected a bottle or two to take home with us.

We ordered food from the deli (chicken pesto sandwich, Greek salad and a small block of smoked cheddar) and found an empty bench in the busy picnic area. The weather was nice, so we spent a fair time eating and watching people.

As the afternoon drew on, the crowd diminished. I suspect most of them left to visit other wineries. I wonder how many wineries the typical tourist or wine connoisseur visits in a day. I imagine some of them make it an all-day excursion or an entire vacation. A half-day jaunt is good enough for me. After the winery, we paid a short visit to Dean & Deluca, a name I recognized from watching random episodes of Felicity, before heading home.

On Sunday, before our celebratory commitment, we had dim sum and ran around Lake Merced. Two hours separated those two events, which was just enough time for digestion and a solid nap.

The roughly four-and-a-half-mile run around the lake was exhausting, but in a good way. It felt like I was running uphill and into the wind most of the way. It was the longest run I had done in a long time and my legs are painfully aware of that fact today.

There was a lot to see along the way. There was the lake, of course, with its trees and boats and seagulls. On the east side of the lake, our run took us between San Francisco State University and Harding Park. We ran clockwise, so on the west side, we had an excellent view of five or six hang gliders hovering above the treed ridge line separating the lake from Ocean Beach and the Zoo.

Yesterday, we spent a lazy day in Carmel. I finished reading Quicksilver (finally!) while enjoying a coffee at the Carmel Plaza. After grabbing food from Il Fornaio at the Pine Inn, we sat and read some more on the beach. It wasn't exactly warm out there, but it didn't become uncomfortably cold until five, when the wind picked up and drove all but the most stubborn tourists from the beach. Traffic coming home was awful, but we survived it and managed to reach the house in one piece.