SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA

Here I am at the Pride Mountain Winery which includes vineyards in both Sonoma and Napa counties and I am with some very special people.  In this photo are Roland Blum (age 9), Sally Johnson Blum, Violet Blum (almost 11), Max Blum, and me.  Max is holding their Boston Terroir pup, Biscuit. 

Here's the reason it is special.  In March 2020, right before the shutdown on travel, I got a message from Ancestry.com that I had a "100 percent parent/child match."  I quickly realized that the match must be with a baby boy that I put up for adoption in June, 1969.  Ancestry gives you a link to contact the person and so I did asking, "Are you the  baby boy I put up for adoption in 1969?"  He answered that "Yes, he was that boy."  Since then, we have gotten to know each other through emails and zoom calls and we also became Facebook friends.  Now that I am fully vaccinated and travel restrictions have eased, I made a trip to meet him and his family in person.  It is wonderful.  They are an amazing family.  Max is musical and artistic and a loving father.  Sally is friendly, a wonderful mom, and is the winemaker at Pride Mountain Winery, which is why we went there for the picture above.  Violet is loves art and animals.  Roland loves sports and active play.  They have a trampoline in the back yard which is good for hours of fun. 

We had a great day at the winery and I was honored to have a tour by winemaker Sally herself.  We went to the tasting room and a special banquet room.  I got to see Sally's office and meet her co-workers who were all very welcoming.  We toured the wine caves and I was astounded by how big they were.  Here's a photo of me and Max in the caves:

And here's another of me and Max in the caves with a barrel of Pride Mountain wine:

And here is a shot of Sally, Max and me in the wine cellar:

I learned that there are separate buildings for Sonoma and Napa wines because there are different regulations for each county.  Here is a photo of me with Max in the area between the two buildings:

I am standing on the county line and the caves are in the background.  We also went through the vineyards with Sally and she explained the layout and took us to the ruins of a winery that was burned during Prohibition.  Here is a shot of Max and me in front of a small portion of the vineyards:

It was a great day and I really enjoyed every moment.  We've also gone to Bodega Bay twice (once with my brother Jeff) and once to meet my friend Sheryl.  I don't have good pictures of either of those trips.  Other days we have spent in the neighborhood and getting Violet and Roland chances to do things they love---swimming, throwing footballs and baseballs, playing board games and just hanging out.   As I noted, a very special time.