OC Wine Trolley and start of a Pick a Thon...

e. Friday night my best friend and I hit up the OC Wine Trolley. My boss had won a couple of passes and since she couldn’t attend gave them to me. Um OK!!!!! I live in Orange and didn’t even know this thing existed. So here's how it works: There are 26 spots. They run this thing on Friday nights (I'm not sure if it's every Friday). The host is Al Ricci who is a big time realtor in these parts. He apparently owns this trolley. A fellow named Jeremy rides a Segway around letting the restaurants know we're coming. A boy named Sean talks about the wine and Al's kid helps out as well. The Trolley drives around the Circle and Old Towne while you are served wine and Al talks about the history of Old Towne and brags about some of the houses he has sold. All in all it was a very fun night! Lib and I arrive early and try to stake out the best place to stand so we can sit in the front. I'm slightly paranoid about my motion sickness. The trolley pulls up (There is a 6:15 ride and an 8:15pm - we were the later shift). We get behind a foursome that had the same idea as us of sitting in front. We file in and take our seats on these benches in the trolley. On the seat are a little paper plate, fork and napkin. We squeeze into our bench and realize it's going to be a bit of a squeeze and a bit of a juggling act because I have my camera and now I have a plate and we have to find places for our purses...anyway. A very loud and obnoxious woman asks the sweet quiet couple behind us if they will trade places with her because she wants to sit with her group. They oblige. Lib and I realize this error of ways throughout the night. Al Ricci comes on the speaker and starts chatting about how the night will unfold and introduces the crew. The trolley drive is a large man who actually backed into the fence scaring the shit out of all of us when we started. Um...I all of a sudden don’t feel very safe. We start the tour. Al is chatting about random tid bits of historical Old Towne while this woman behind us is shouting out opinions and answering the trivia questions before he is even done asking them. Think of her voice like Archie Bunker wife....Lord. Throughout the evening the wine kid chats about the wines we are tasting and all the restaurants that participate bring you samples of something. It ended up being a lot of food! They also get a chance to chat with you about their restaurants which I do think is awesome PR for these establishments. The winemaker is Cupcake. I don’t know if any of you have had Cupcake - but get it. So good!!! We tasted 7 different wines throughout the night: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Angel Food, Prosecco, Pinot Noir, Red Velvet (my favorite!) and Cabernet Sauvignon (my 2nd fave!) I will now finish my wine trolley portion with photos! The Trolley!

My hot date:

1st food stop - Old Towne Grinder. They didn’t come out to chat so Al passed out the sandwich samples. If you got the red toothpick you got a $5 gift card which I thought was a really cute idea!

Here are a couple of shots of our wine kid. The poor guy had a horrible stutter and lost the attention of a lot of the passengers, especially as the night went on. But Lib and I thought he was adorable and knew an amazing amount about all of the wine!

We then stopped at Old Towne Diner and got burger samples!

Next up was Watsons and we got what I think was Bread Pudding. Kinda nasty actually, but here's a shot of Lib and I attempting a self-portrait with it and the little gal from Watsons pimping this Old Towne favorite.

Next up was Cherry on Top. We tasted a cinnamon bun flavored yogurt. Not bad. This was Jeremy our Segway guy chatting with the Cherry girls

Next up was Citrus City Grille. There was some screw up here because there was lots of Al and Jeremy running around and we waited a bit longer, so I didn’t get a shot of the people but tried an out of the window self-portrait. I know...I'm a dork.

Then we hit Ruby's. I won’t ever return to this establishment because of the horrible way I was treated when I left my debit card there awhile back and they served us jalapeno poppers which I can’t eat but here's the gal, who honestly was the worst speaker. She didn’t seem to really care at all and seemed annoyed to be doing this. Wasn’t surprised.

After that was Felix's. This chicken rice thing was the bomb. It also has plantains in it. The speaker was very cool and totally pimped his restaurant.

Next was Francoli Gourmet. I love this place, and the sample of pasta they gave was AMAZING. They also gave you a little basil/cheese/tomatoes snack. OMG! The man couldn’t come out to speak so Al's kid did a very cute job trying to pimp out Francoli's with an Italian accent.

Next up was the Bruery. They gave us a little meat and cheese snack. The gal talked for quite a while and apparently they have beer classes and tasting classes. I plan to "like" them on Facebook. It sounded like a pretty cool little joint. I've wine tasted there, but didn’t realize all the other stuff they apparently have going on!

Somewhere in here we took a break at Pitcher Park where we could actually exit the trolley and walk around a bit. It was really nice to get up and stretch out. Those seats are horribly uncomfortable! If I ever would do this again I will bring a cushion or something.

Then we hit up Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got candy and Zitos Pizza and were given Garlic Knots. We were so damn full by this point!!!!

Last was Avila's. The two guys that came out were fantastic. They even said if anyone came back after the trolley they would get happy hour prices. They passed out tacos. Sadly I could only take a bite. I was so full by this point I just couldnt do it!

The very last stop of the trolley is Rod's Liquor where they were selling all of the Cupcake wines for a cheap price. I bought my 2 favorites and Lib walked out with a 12 pack of Bud Light. Yup. About sums it up. All in all we had a really great time and I didn’t get sick and aside from the obnoxious woman behind us it was a fun group! Now onto the 2nd portion of this blog. I was planning on telling you all about the Pick a Thon I was a part of that included a Lucy Stomp but it was sadly cut short because I got very very sick. But I can tell you a bit. So - my friend/co-worker had a team for this Pick a Thon and needed one more person. I of course was thrilled to join. The event raised money for the Southern California Hospice Foundation. The day was going to consist of harvesting/picking the grapes, a Lucy Stomp off followed by lunch and a tour of the winery. We had to be there at 7am. This was a little rough after coming home late from the trolley the night before. (Did I mention the trolley didn’t finish until after 10pm!). I was there and excited. The team arrived, we were given hats and checked in. They had some breakfast snacks which I nibbled and were then given buckets and garden shears and off we went. We were assigned zones. The grapes were beautiful and I of course sampled a few. Shhhhh. Everything was going awesome, I was having fun, our team was enthusiastic, I had seen some cute guys there, and I was just thrilled. One of the Lucy Stomp offs started and I darted over to watch! Looked like so much fun and couldn’t wait for our turn. After we had finished our zone of harvesting I noticed I wasn’t feeling very well. I sat down in the shade and hoped it would pass. It didn’t. It got worse fast. I told my friend I had to leave and as I cried the entire way home, ran in the door and promptly threw up like the godamn exorcist. I was absolutely heartbroken and confused. WTF!!! Later on, after thinking about and talking to some people we think it may actually be that I was cutting the grapes at just enough of the wrong angle to screw up my ultra-sensitive weird motion sickies/vertigo. I have no idea. The scary test is next week, so maybe someday soon I will have some answers and better yet solutions. So unfortunately my excited event got cut short, but Monday Michele showed me a video of the stomp off and it looked like so much fun! Hopefully we can do it again next year and I can be a little more careful when I cut. I guess? I don’t know. Anywhoo, below are some pictures I was able to take before all went to hell! :) The entrance to the winery. Random right?

Michele was late so I snapped a few fun shots

The beginning!

My shots of the grapes!! So yummy!!!

Our fabulous picking team!!

We did good!!!

Seriously I wanted to smash these in my face....

And the last shots I took at the winery before I got ill