To be fair, I really had no idea what to expect from Blog World, all I knew was I wanted to go. Luckily I knew someone else who also wanted to go, my friend Whitney (if you haven’t read her blog yet you totally should).

Thursday morning, the keynote speaker was Scott Stratten, he was awesome. I had seen him on Twitter and knew the Social Media Club of Dallas had had him as a guest not to long before Blog World. After hearing him talk I was bummed I hadn’t heard here; if his Unmarketing book tour comes to your town you definitely need to go hear him! He gives you a great outlook on social media. He stressed, that people do business with people they know. As simple as that may sound, to me he really highlighted the importance of interacting with others and with being yourself.

That afternoon we got to hear Mark Burnett. I was a Survivor fan before going out there, even though they didn’t pick my friend Joe to be on it. But after hearing him talk, I’m an even bigger fan of it now. Hearing the creator talk about his masterpiece gave me a better understanding of what he tries to accomplish with the show. His key point was that when he selects the cast he is choosing the “content” he is using to tell his story, and how important it is to choose the right content.

After the sessions wrapped up, Whitney and I made our way back to our hotel, but first stopped to pick up our complementary tickets to see the Lion King. Disney gave us our tickets, and let me say, they were probably the best tickets I’ve ever had. Even though I love musicals, I can’t afford the close seats and always watch from the balcony, needless to say this was a real treat. Thank you Disney!

A few years back I saw the Lion King here in Dallas, but we ran late and missed the first 10 minutes. I was impressed with the show the first time I saw it, but this time I was blown away. I think we were on the 8th row and being that close to the aisles as the animals entered was breath taking. The actors moved with such grace it was easy to believe they were the animals they were portraying. I am quite convinced I will never have the words to express how amazing this performance was.

Throughout the entire show Whitney and I had to fight the urge to sing along, pretty sure our neighbors would not have been too happy with us. The actress that played Rafikki did such a good job that she stole every scene she was in. It was so much fun! In an effort to keep this post from getting to long, I am going to end here but will post more about the rest of my time at Blog World.

This week, again in honor of October being Texas Wine Month, I wanted to feature not only a Texas winery, but my favorite Texas Winery: Flat Creek Estate.

I have been fortunate enough to visit this winery twice, because a good friend of mine has a lake house just around the bend from it. It is an absolutely beautiful winery with a great tasting room and very friendly staff. I borrowed this picture from their website, and let me tell you it is not a perfectly staged picture, the winery is just that breathtaking:

On my first visit to the winery I fell in love with their Muscato D’ Arancia. I’m not much of a dessert wine person, but this one is amazing, especially if you pair it with something chocolaty. Every time I have introduced someone to this wine they have also been impressed.

The second time I went back my favorite wine of theirs became the Super Texan. If I remember correctly it is similar to a Sangiovese. And fortunately for me they do sell this one at Central Market here in Dallas. However I didn’t know that at the time and left the winery with a case of wine!

I was disappointed this year when I realized Flat Creek wasn’t at Grapefest because I always love seeing them at events and having the opportunity to taste their wines. However I was pleasantly surprised that the day I went to the State Fair of Texas not only were the Flat Creek wines spotlighted but also Rick one of the proprietors was there which gave me the opportunity to visit with him.

This time around, the Pinot Grigio was my favorite, which is really surprising because I am not typically a Pinot Grigio fan. Of course the combination of the afternoon heat and the chill of the Pinot Grigio may have been the perfect scenario to wine me over.

I highly recommend not only the Flat Creek wines but also a visit to the Winery itself. I know I plan to go back. If you live in Texas and don’t see it at your local wine store be sure to ask for it (over and over and over again).

Cheers!

In honor of October being Texas Wine month, I’ve decided to spend the month trying wines from various Texas Vineyards. Ironically it can be kind of tricky to find Texas wines in local wine stores and grocery stores. Central Market would be an exception though, they tend to have a much wider variety of Texas wines than anywhere else I’ve seen.

This week’s wines I selected were (try not to envy my photography skills):

Being an Aggie, I am more than familiar with the name Messina Hoff, every time I’d drive in or out of College Station I would pass the turn off for the winery, though sadly I’ve never actually visited the winery. I’m also not that familiar with their wines so I was excited to give this one a try.

After opening the bottle I poured myself a small glass, and found this Cabernet to be dry and woody. It didn’t have any sweetness to it. I set it to the side and moved on to the Fall Creek Cabernet. When I came back to the Messina Hoff Cabernet an hour later it had really opened up and the dryness had eased and it was even a bit sweet. It didn’t initially win me over but after the second round I would most definitely say I’d drink this wine again.

From the first glass on, the Flat Creek Cabernet was my favorite of the two. Unfortunately since I liked it so much I didn’t do the same experiment and wait an hour to see if the wine changed. But I suppose that was a good sign. To me this Cabernet had a more, well rounded palette that I preferred. It had a small hint of sweetness and was not dry at all.

To be honest I am not that familiar with Texas wines or wineries but I do believe quit a few of the grapes are brought in from multiple parts of the state or even from other states, so these may not truly be 100% Texas Wines. But, nonetheless I really enjoyed my first week of tasting Texas wines and am looking forward to next week’s tasting.

This weekend I went to Austin, TX for one of my sister’s best friend’s bachelorette party.
We spent most of the day Saturday shopping and roaming around South Congress until we could check into our hotel.

Saturday night, we headed out at 7 for our pedi-cab tour. I know what you’re thinking, pedi-cab, random. And I had the exact same thought, but it was one of the most fun things I’ve done in forever!
I think it was Claire that came up with this idea, but it might have been Sammie; regardless it was through Urban Taste Tours.

Since there were 7 of us we had to have 3 pedi-cabs and our guys were hilarious; they were Andrew, Andre (sp? I know there was a y in there somewhere) & Robert. Here is a picture of Mandy, the bachelorette with the guys.

We did the margarita/mojito tour instead of the “Bachelorette” theme because basically we would have just paid more money for the guys to pedal us around without their shirts on and I think a little toile would have been attached to the cars. Although after teasing the guys about it a little two of them did arrive at our second stop shirtless for an added bonus. See: