Wine Weekend Part 3: Jumbo Coffees and Pint-sized Middle-Schoolers

I haven't gotten to the wining and biking portion of our weekend yet-- the reason that we traveled to the North Fork in the first place. When we were organizing the trip, we started an e-mail train with some ideas. Someone suggested visiting the wine trail up in North Fork. We all responded that that was a great idea! The next email someone mentioned that they took the ferry and rented bikes and biked from winery to winery. Next, someone wrote about how that would be great because our bachelorette loves to bike. The next girl responded with "great idea" and an offer to find a place to rent the bikes. I was sitting at my computer screen watching these emails go back and forth with a look of terror. I couldn't stop the runaway e-mail train and before I knew it, I had plans to bike.

The winery idea I was completely on board with. Wine, check. Being outside, check. Day drinking, check. Hanging with the girls, six checks.  So far this plan was all very "me". But on a bike? I hadn't been on a bike since the 10th grade, and that is completely by choice. I'm not exactly what you would call an athlete. I recycle and donate trees and whatever, but if I have a choice between riding a bicycle and driving my convertible, I'll choose the convertible 100 times out of 100, environment be damned. My thoughts were that we were going to rent a party bus or a van or limo or something and drive from place to place. So, I wasn't quite sure about the biking idea.

As it turned out, it was the best decision of the weekend. I sang the praises of Dan the Bike guy in yesterday's post. Not only that, I had no idea that North Fork Wine Trail was part of Bachelorette Party, U.S.A. I mean it goes 1.) Thunder Down Under, 2.) Drag show, 3.) Piano bar, 4.) North Fork. So there were tons and tons of bachelorettes in the area. And my two favorite vineyards that we visited were The Old Field Vineyards and Croteaux. Both places had beautiful and tranquil gardens overlooking the vineyard where you could sit and sip wine. And both places had gigantic signs out front that said "No Buses or Limos". So, biking was for the best as we wouldn't have been able to visit these gorgeous vineyards if we had gone with my plan. Plus, I looked pretty boss on a bike

After what was an amazing afternoon, we got dolled up and went out to a phenomenal dinner at Noah's restaurant in Greenport. Here's a list of what we ate so that you can be jealous: 1.) Blue Point Oysters, 2.)Pipes Cove Oysters, 3.) Beer and Bacon Glazed Spiced Almonds, 4.) Gorgonzola Rosemary Fries, 5.) Warm Lobster Rolls, 6.) Striped bass, 7.) Jalapeno Ginger Glazed Chicken Wings, and 8.) Squash Blossoms. I ate everything on that list and I'm not ashamed. I would shout it out from the fattiest fatty's rooftop with reckless abandon.

We then went out for a night on the town. [Edited to remove details: What happens in Greenport stays there.]

I definitely didn't want to say goodbye to everyone the next day. It's nice that I'll see them for the wedding weekend in September, but the boys will be there this time and it just won't be the same. Andrea and I went on another coffee run on Sunday morning. For the non-Dunkin addicts, we stopped at the cafe next door. Back to the clueless locals...this coffee shop had two sizes of iced coffee. Small Weenie Dixie Cup and Super Gigantic Incredibly Hulky In-Your-Face size. It seemed that they didn't think that people might actually want a normal-sized iced coffee. Faced with a tough decision, we got everyone the Mega-buckets...I think they were grateful(?). For scale purposes, we put them next to my Dunkins medium:

After coffee, we packed up and went back to the ferry. Andrea and I didn't get on the same boat as the others...again. But, we were old pros at this by now and that was par for the course. We were however on the same boat as about 150-200 boy scouts. They were everywhere you looked and scurrying around like mice. It definitely could have been worse...if you're going to be stuck with 200 male tweens, it's nice to be stuck with ones who act like...well, boy scouts. But, the line for the snack bar was a monstrosity.

So, that does it for our wine weekend. I definitely recommend a trip up there if you're ok with ferries and you like mega-buckets of coffee and wine. Check out the links because the places that I mentioned are really fantastic. And feel free to let me know what you think of them.