Age Improves with Wine!

So, this summer I worked at the Bear Creek Winery in Homer, Alaska. What fun! It was the perfect antidote to teaching high school English! Everyone comes into the winery happy and leaves the winery happy. It was an awesome job... even though most folks from the lower 48 could use a lesson in the art of "tipping."

I served 18 wines in an average wine tasting, describing all of them to the customer... from the LoLo Berry (an Italian Barolo grape mixed with local Lowbush Cranberry) to Rhubarb Wine (100% estate grown and bottled) all the way to our incredible Alaskan Port (a clear spirit - aka 151 - mixed with a Muscadine Grape) which goes so great with chocolate that I may never be the same!

I met customers from all over the world and worked with a most incredible group of people - competitive dog mushers, professional bartenders, lifelong beer/wine-makers, and on and on.

Every day was a unique experience - it was most fun to tell customers, when they asked, that this was my summer job and that I actually had a Masters degree in English Education (a co-worker also had a Masters in Journalism). That's just how Homer is.

It is not unusual here to have a bartender with a Masters Degree. They choose to live in Homer for the quality of life and just take whatever job pays the bills. Folks here live life on their terms. The "Jones'" don't exist. There is no "climbing to the top" of whatever ladder is locally available. There are many a soul who throw out a grappling hook, however, to ask for local help so that they can continue to live life on their own terms.

And, folks here are generous. We live simply... and share what we can. We're all in this together, after all. We live in paradise and we know it. The more I'm here, the more this place sucks me in... more than any place that I've ever lived. And, I've live in quite a few places - suburb of St. Louis, rural Wisconsin, Shreveport, Louisiana, rural south Louisiana, rural Allegany mountains of Maryland, Couer d'Alene, Idaho... I know what I'm talking about.

But, if you're thinking of moving here... don't! The weather is horrible, the prices are unreasonable, and the schools are negligible! (at least that's what we tell the tourists)