South Coast Winery was awarded the GOLDEN BEAR named "Poppy," July 10th, 2008, from the California State Fair...the highest and most prestigious award given in the State of California. In the 150 years existance of the state fair, this is the first time the award has been given to a Southern California winery. Pictured below are winemakers Javier Flores, Jon McPherson, with Jim and Maggie Carter.

Saturday, June 14th, the Shriner's Hospital of Los Angeles put on a music and wine festival to raise money for their children. It was a wonderful success! They had the entertainers Jim Brickman, Shiela E., Kurt Whalen, and Herbie Hancock. What a venue! The house ROCKED!

The Shriners had a special wine pairing dinner on Friday night of approximately 85 people. Jim and I were invited. When we are escorted to our table, it is always prearranged by the banquet staff as to where we will be seated. We had several people sitting at our table but we didn't know anyone. We were chatting with everyone about the food and wine. We found out later we were having dinner with Sheila E.(drummer for "Prince"), her family, and her manager. How exciting!

Sunday, May 4th: Rain, rain...go away! We arrived today in a very beautiful city...Auckland, New Zealand. On the outskirts of town, between the airport and the city, is very country-like. People who were riding with us in the airport van said just a few short years ago the airport was a cow pasture where people would drive up and park their cars on the grass. Things have changed! Auckland is a bustling city which houses the University of Auckland. We started our touring there today because the grounds look like an arboretum. Jim just couldn't stop talking about the trees. Some must be several hundred years old. As you can see by Jim's umbrella, it was raining. Tomorrow we are signed up for a wine tour.

Monday, May 5th: Today was a very beautiful, sunny day! Our wine tour guide, Phil Parker who is the owner of Fine Wine Tours, has a website www.insidertouring.co.nz . He has a new book coming out soon from Random House called Weekends For Mad Keen Wine Buffs. Phil took us to three wineries. The first one was Kumeu River Wines which sells about 15,000 cases of wine a year and the wine was great! The second winery was called Nobilo which sells (hold on) three million cases a year and the wine was very good. The third winery was West Brook which sells 50,000 cases of wine a year and the wine was light in taste. In this wine growing area they do not irrigate their vines because they have an annual average rainfall of 36 inches. We are bringing wine home for the winemakers to taste.

Wednesday, May 7th: Welcome to Melbourne, Australia! This is the city of the old and new together. There are beautifully preserved buildings of the 1800's and older surrounded by new skyscrapers. Our hotel told us we could ride the local transit system for free... we wanted to see the city. We hopped on and rode across the city and back until the driver noticed we were still on the trolley. It turned out it wasn't free and they don't take cash, so we got off. As you can see by the red tree, it is fall in Australia. It really is pleasant here and the weather is mild. The church in the picture is 150 years old. More pics in the photo gallery. Buy the way, we are a day ahead of you because we crossed the international date line. Tomorrow we are taking a tour of the countryside. Hopefully we will get to visit wineries. Just wanted to mention that even though we are having a wonderful vacation of a lifetime, I really miss the USA! Home sweet home.

Thursday, May 8th: Hi Everyone! Hope everything is going good where ever you are. Today we took a tour of the Beach Road. It was the best! The above picture is an area we saw today called The Twelve Apostles located in the Tasmanian Ocean. It was inspiring and very beautiful. We visited several surfing beaches which is most of the beaches. Tomorrow we will tour wineries, ride the train, and have a delicious lunch. Take care!

Jim

Friday, May 9th: Fun day! Took another tour and visited three wineries. We had lunch at the first winery, Fergusson Winery, which was included in the price of the tour. The lunch was really fantastic! It was sliced roast beef with roasted veggies. It was the best food we have had on our trip. Everyone enjoyed wine tasting and shopping in their gift shop. Our favorite winery of the day was a champagne house called Moet-Chandon. We had a tour of the facility with sampling of the champagne. I chose their sweet champagne and Jim had the Brut. Very good!!! On the way back to Melbourne we saw quite a few kangaroos.

Jim with Maoris

: Sunday, May 11Happy Mother's Day! We are in Sydney, Australia...what a place!! We stepped onto our patio at the hotel and there was the Sydney Opera House. It is a very famous landmark. We went to the opera house and enjoyed Neil Sedaka on his last Australian tour. There is so much happening in Sydney. It was completely different from the other two cities. We will post more pictures in our Photo Gallery under Travel. Thanks for joining us. What a great vacation.