I hope everyone had an enjoyable 4th of July. I have been so busy afterward, that I haven’t had much time for blogging, but am working on new stories and articles to post up for those reading them 
I did try a new wine this weekend that I thought I would post up here anyways.
The fireworks this year were good as we’ve come to expect from our small town. Because Knoxville does their large fireworks display on Memorial Day (called Boomsday), they do not have a show for the 4th. Because of this, and the general all day festivities that they have in town, including all day boat races from racing boats around the south-east, custom craft vendors and local artisans, and usually a car and motorcycle show (which was missing this year, though they did have a small motorcycle show with awards). My girlfriend and I were lucky this year in that when picking out our alcohol for the weekend, the proprietor of the spirits store had VIP passes as an event sponsor that she wasn’t going to be using. I’m not sure why she picked us out of the hundreds of customers that came into the store that day (there were at least 10-15 that came in just during our 15 minute visit) but I am very appreciative. While I am not sure, I believe that to get sponsorship you had to donate one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars to the event, and there were very few others in the VIP area. We also received VIP parking that was very close the the festivities (usually you end up walking almost a mile from where you park to the actual events).
Unfortunately, not only was our four year old in tow instantly terrified of the concussion of the fireworks (they were being fired less than 150 yards from our location), but I also wasn’t
White Burst Shell
familiar with working the fireworks / long shutter time of my camera and ended up with nothing but a few very blurred photos of the show. Only one which you see here turned out halfway decent, with the rest looking like some bad acid trip from a grateful dead show
I hope everyone else had a safe and eventful 4th of July as well as a great weekend!
Wine – Night Owl – Merlot (Vintage 2004)
This wine was a gift from my girlfriend for the 4th holidays that she picked up because she liked the bottle This wine is out of Monterey County in San Bernabe California. This is a bold wine, but is also very smooth tasting as well, with the usual blackberry and plum flavors that you would expect from a merlot. Right off I found this to be a very good wine, with a less earthy but smoother tone than what you get from the Fetzer, (which has been my recent favorite merlot), and for it’s price range, which is still under the $20 mark, this wine comes highly recommended. 9/10 – $12.49/avg for standard bottle.