Holiday Cheer

For Christmas Jason, Mike and I decided to split the cost of a very rare bottle of port as a gift to eachother and ourselves. We had a nice little party with some pizza and the wine. It was a Sandeman's 40 year old tawny that was made special to commemorate the new millenium. Some of the wines used to blend it were over 100 years old. I'm not usually a big port drinker but this stuff was fantastic. Jason loves port and said it was the best he's ever had. It tasted like dried apricots, toffee and maple syrup with a chocolate cherry flavored finish. If you ever find one feel free to pick it up, we'll all come over and share it with you. Well, Merry Christmas to you all, hopefully we'll see everyone in a few days.

It comes in a nice wooden box

Bottle #1482/4000

Travis's 18th Birthday

Just our Christmas Tree

Birthday Boy

Jennifer and Charlene at the 99

Nana Ford and Travis

Danny and Trav

The Ford men

Danny and Rachel

Hiking the Kinsmans

Not a lot going on lately so here's some hiking pictures from a few weeks ago when Ryan, Greg, Stephen and I climbed the Kinsmans (11-25-06)

Here's three of us on our way up the Lonesome Lake trail.

Us at Lonesome Lake. Those are the Kinsmans in the background.

Stephen, Ryan and Greg at the mostly frozen Lonesome Lake

The Fishin' Jimmy Trail was icy but free of snow. Some of the steeper ledges had some steps mounted on them somehow.

Kinsman Pond was frozen so we spent a few minutes bowling ice chunks on it.

The summit of South Kinsman at 4358 feet was 45 degrees and free of snow. This was the latest I have ever hiked in the year without snow above 4000 feet.

Ryan on the cliffs 600 feet above Kinsman Pond.

Birds-eye view of Kinsman Pond

The other three of us on the North Kinsman Summit cliffs.

It wasn't easy getting over there before the timer went off.

The new guy surveying Franconia Notch to the south.

Lonesome Lake at sunset on the way down.

Our cruise around the Caribbean

This is out ship, the Navigator of the Seas, docked in Puerto Rico. Then it's Jennifer sitting on a donkey in St. Thomas and at Magen's Bay beach, one of the 10 best beaches in the world. The picture does it no justice. Then it's just us at dinner on the ship and at the Atlantis casino in Nassau.

Key West

Here we are in Key West, a picture of our hotel from the beach and then of course we had some key lime pie. We gave it our best but could only eat about half of it.

Disney World

So after we showed up and people were already in our room things could only get better. Here's Jen with some crocodiles fountains by the pool, us in the Magic Kingdom, Jen with Chip and Dale and us in front of our hotel.

Here's a few from Niagara Falls

These pictures are of our hotel room at the falls, the butterfly conservatory and some of the wineries in the area.

Starting our own blog

Just starting our own blog, it looks like a way to kill some time this winter. Might even be fun, who knows? Well, here's a picture or two to get started, and if I get the hang of this check back for more stuff like pictures and...well...I don't actually know what else, maybe some wine reviews or something. Thanks for checking in.