There are times when you want to escape the ordinary, go someplace different that will refresh you both mentally and physically. You may think that this requires spending a lot of money, but no--actually all it requires is imagination and ingenuity, and you can accomplish this on a budget.
This is what led myself and a group of family members to organize a trip to one of Long Island's famous vineyards on the North Fork of the island.Some people might not know this, but not far from Manhattan, in Long Island, there are several excellent vineyards. Granted, they are not as well known as those of California, but they are very good and making a name for themselves.
And one way they get people to know who they are is by offering tours of the vineyard. Here you get taken around and shown the whole process of wine making--from where the grapes are grown and harvested, to how they are crushed, to the casks they are stored in, etc. The whole wine making process gets shown in a really fascinating tour. The setting is so enjoyable that you honestly feel that you are in some old-fashioned European place. You forget the urban life that's not too far away--- to the west of this place.
Since there were eight of us, we took the Long Island Railroad and a bus to get to the vineyard we chose to visit. Now, we were a rather mixed group: my two elderly aunts, one senior uncle, my younger aunt and her husband and us three younger people. Now, I must mention that my aunt's husband normally hates to go anywhere with a group.But when I mentioned that as part of the package tour, we would get a free bottle of wine--that sold him on it.
The train ride from Manhattan was very long, but finally we got there. What a sight! It was as if we had gone to another country--open fields, and rows upon rows of grapes as far as the eye could see. We really were having a good time learning the finer points of making wine, how delicate the grapes are and how the whole process is one of timing and patience.
Then came the good part, as my aunt's husband put it. We went to where they bottled the wine. There were several varieties of wines being bottled, and we were given samples to taste, which my aunt's husband took full advantage of. He kept saying that he needed just a bit more to fully savor the wine. We looked at him, sure--he just wanted to take advantage of the freebies. Of the whole group he was the one fully having more fun.
Now, he thought that it was so great about the free bottle of wine each tour group would get, that next thing we know, he disappears from our presence. We decided OK, let him do his own thing, we'll meet up with him at the end of the tour. You see, there were several groups being given a tour, so that as one group was in say--the fields, another was in the cask rooms, etc.
Finally we come to the end of our tour, and we meet up again with my aunt's husband--he looked the happiest I've seen him in a while, so I remark that he seemed to really have enjoyed this little outing. Oh, he says--this was the best trip ever! And look at this! He showed us four bottles of wine. I was surprised--and asked if he bought the other three (since he had received one for free). Well--he said, what happened was I kept getting mixed in with other groups--and they kept giving me another bottle for free--and I wasn't about to object--so here I am---man! I love this--I could come here every week.
I felt a little shocked, they just gave you the bottles? Sure-- he said, I'm not crazy and just take them without asking! And the funny thing is... that since they saw me with the different groups, they must have assumed that I was a different guy---and hey, who am I to complain?
We all really had fun and a great time at the vineyard, going home feeling refreshed and happy. But none was happier than my aunt's husband. He went from having been dragged to go to this place to being a total convert to a one-day getaway, so much so that he actually volunteered to go with us, if we planned another one---of course, as long as it was a place that offered the same free amenities!
