Been over a week since I last posted, and with judiang posting almost daily on her WordPress blog of late, she’s making me look bad. So, now that LJ has calmed down a little, I can finish talking about my Organic Chemistry Vacation. (Might as well post about it since this past week wasn’t near as interesting.)
Friday was our last class. Kate got us conversant enough in benzene ring chemistry, and then we filled out our evaluations. I had nothing but praise for her – she was a fabulous teacher. And then it was off to Opie Taylor’s for lunch and then Oliver Wineries for a tour.
Kate was kind enough to drive me to the restaurant and winery since I wanted to return to campus before leaving. The restaurant was a bar with decent enough bar food. I had half a Reuben and onion rings. Oh, and a cup (very small one) of chicken noodle soup with really thick (and tasty) noodles.
Oliver Winery is the first winery that appeared in Indiana. The grounds are beautiful with lots of flowers. And when we got into the sales area, I saw the cutest little bottles and went right over to them. To discover that they weren’t wine bottles at all, but hard CIDER!
Two of the class had left by the time we gathered at the winery, so when we got on one of the tours, the poor tour guide had 9 chemists in amongst the non-chemists. I think we got him too flustered with our questions. He definitely forgot to show us the video on bottling that they usually show their tours. But he was nice enough to take a group photo of us.
After the tour, those of us who were left bellied up to the bar and tasted what Oliver had to offer. So of course, I tried the ciders. I tried the three flavored ciders (peach, raspberry, and strawberry) and then a Gewurztraminer. I liked the ciders pretty well but couldn’t remember if the Gewurz was something mom would like or not. So I got her a Riesling and dad a Shiraz and me a case of Cider.
Kate brought me back to where my car was parked on campus, and I put the first bit of booze into my trunk. But I had plans for more. See, I was channeling my great grandfather Lowry that day. He was a brew master, and would sometimes get called away to a brewery in Indiana (for example) to help them out with a problem. And when he would get ready to return home, the grateful brewers would load his trunk up with beer and fill the empty spaces with single bottles of liquor.
So I headed next to Kroger (where I had gotten supper the night before) because I wanted to buy some Upland beer for dad to try. And when I asked him what he’d like in addition to the wheat beer, I mentioned that they had a nifty Fat Tire display at the store. “They have Fat Tire? Well, get some of that!” was his response. So I picked up a 6-pack of Upland Wheat, a 6-pack of Upland Amber, and a 12-pack of Fat Tire. Those went into my trunk as well.
But I wasn’t done yet! My goal was to head to Trader Joe’s on my way home. It was only slightly off the beaten path on my way home (in Indianapolis), so I had a list of things to buy for me, for mom, and for dad. And dad’s requests were all wine. So after a supper of Pad Thai at a Thai place that happened to be in the strip mall where the Trader Joe’s was, I picked up a dozen bottles of wine and plenty of nuts (for mom and for me) and added those to the trunk.
My trunk wasn’t as full as great grandpa Lowry’s was, but it still had more booze in it than it’s ever had before. I had dad take photos when I dropped the booze off the next day. I’ll have to get the pix from him so I can show y’all.