Getting my AARP card

Retired people are awesome. More specifically, the retired people we are hanging with in Australia are awesome. Today we went to Yarra Valley, which is Australia's version of Napa Valley. On the way there, our tour guide Erica told us that she is a "one pot screamer" or as we would call it, a lightweight. She warned us that if she had more than a couple of glasses of wine she would be drunk. She asked for somebody to watch out for her and make sure she didn't drink too much, and "preferably not the Sheltons." Hmmm..... I see our reputation proceeds us. We started with lunch and wine at Furgeson Vineyard. You could tell from the start that Buzz and Dorothy from Nebraska came to party. We had a few bottles of red and a few of white, and then we got to go to the tasting. Those retirees meant business!! There was a group ahead of us, and Buzz told Erica to tell them that they had been there too long and they need to get the hell out of the way. We both laughed, and then we realized he was serious. My respect for Buzz just went up tenfold.

During the tasting, David from Texas put his glass down on the bar with a little too much gusto, and the bottom broke off. Dad told him that has happened to him several times lately. He just sets his glass down gently on the table and it breaks. Apparently Jake has been with him when this happened because I looked at him and he was just shaking his head. Dad doesn't do anything gently. The other day he gave me a high five and squeezed my hand so hard he bent my ring and bruised my finger. Sure you set the glass down gently, Pops. Sure you did.

After we left Furgeson, we hopped back on the bus to head to Moet Chandon. Buzz was buzzed and used this portion of the tour to get on the microphone and do his stand up routine. It killed, by the way. The Chandon vineyard was absolutely beautiful! I want to live there and drink sparkling wine and stomp on grapes all day everyday. We got to taste a sparkling shiraz, which was really good. From there it was on to a winery tour. Buzz was cracking jokes during the whole tour. Every time the tour guide made mention of fermentation or alcohol, he would just say "YESSSSS!" I heart Buzz. After the tour, we got to go to the tasting bar. The group was hitting it hard again, and I was talking to good ole' Buzz when David dropped his camera. Buzz looked down at it, and it was like slow motion. I watched his tasting glass do about 4 flips and then hit the ground. It shattered into a million pieces all over the floor. The girl who worked there came out and just looked at us. She looked kind of mad and I thought we might get in trouble, so I told her that somebody ran through, threw their glass, and then ran right out the door. She actually looked like she believed me until Buzz started laughing and blew our cover. So that ended the tasting and we all got back on the bus to come back downtown.

Jake and I tried to make it out after dinner tonight, but we went out late last night to see a band. And after our day with the retirees, I think they are rubbing off on us. Gotta head to bed early. Tomorrow we are off to Sydney!