For all of you out there reading this, let’s do something; let us do some day-dreaming.  Suppose your partner, sometime in the near future, turns to you and says,

“Sweetie Pie, let’s you and me go on a trip, a big trip, a really big trip.”  Let’s take about a month off from work, jump on a jet plane out of Orlando and head for . . .  

Peru in South America and while we are there, let's visit Cuzco and Machu Picchu, Let's also hit  . . .

Easter Island and see those giant carvings of the "moai."  Heck, we can even hit

Samoa for a day and then on to

Australia where we can do a little snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef.  From there we'll go to

Papua New Guinea and do some bird watching, hiking, and visit some of the natives of the Huli tribe.  Wow, that will be like going back in the Stone Ages.  Let's don't stop there.  Let's to to 

Cambodia and visit Angkor and then on to

India to visit the Taj Mahal.  And, you know, we've heard so much about those rich folks at

Dubai, let's go there to see what all that hoopla is about.  Afterwards, we can go on to

Tanzania and go a photo safari.  Wow, and before we head for home, let's get back on the plane and hit 

Morocco for two nights, then we can come home.  All-in-all, we should travel about 35,000 miles before we get back." What do you say babe???

You would probably say . . . . .“Wow! Honey, that sounds great!  Let me see if I have this figured out . . . We leave Florida, go down to South America, visit three places while there; hop over to the South Pacific area and hit a couple of islands; from there, over to Australia; then a hop up to New guinea then up to Cambodia; pop over to India; after that continue heading west to the United Arab Emirates; then hit east Africa and onto northwest Africa and back to Florida.  My goodness, pumpkin, that trip will take us around the world!! 

. . . . Ok, let’s do it, and when we get back home, we need to top the whole thing off—that wonderful ‘around-the-world excursion’ by going out and having a fabulous dinner with all our Chaine friends at BIN-555.” I hear that Bill will have a drawing and will be giving an outstanding bottle of wine to the person drawing the lucky number.

And you know what? That was the conversation that took place between Mark and Catherine Milbourn.  They went on this great trip, saw all those wonderful places, did all those exciting things.  And you know what else they did?  Yep, when they got back from that breathtaking trip, they followed it up with the BINN-555 dinner. 

Let me pick up the current story here inside the private dining area at BINN-555 before Mark and Cathy arrive...   

Vivian and I thought we would be the first to arrive.  It was around 6:40; however, once there, we found Steve and Lauren Walthour already seated (click on pic).  Steve and Lauren were guests of the Hoelschers, who arrived shortly thereafter.   The rest of the group, including the Milbourns you know, those "world travelers," soon started pouring in, pulling tables together, setting up their wine, putting their corkscrew in operation, greeting all of those who were there and those who were arriving.  It wasn't long before the place was "roaring with good cheer,"  glasses clinking together as the words "Salute," "Toast," "Drink-up, "Felicidades ," were heard throughout the room.  We, the Chaine group, had our own special room in the restaurant, but we were still drowning out the other diners in the main dining area.  This was going to be a fun night!

Scroll down.  Look at the pictures below. . . Let's go around the room quickly and see what's going on . . .

 (Click on thumbnail picture enlarge)

Next row of pics. . . Other than Vince and Mike taking up most of the space below, we have the whole gang getting a little edgy in the 5th picture.  Everyone is ready for the wine drawing. . . then in the next pic, Bill has everyone's attention, almost everyone's attention.  Next to last, we have a table of "Losers" who did not draw the winning ticket for the wine. They all made the "L" sign on their forehead except those who had maybe a little too much wine and could not figure out how to make the "L" sign. . . and then we have the winner of Dan's special bottle of wine.  Guess who turned out to be the winner? Read on...

Vince Parziale & Catherine. Vince will be upgraded to a "Maitre de Table Restaurateur next month. Yeaaa!	Mike Davis and friend putting up the "L" sigh for being loser on the wine drawing.	Ok, we now have Mike's face uncovered. He looks much happier here.	Vince and his neighbor, Jerry Nelson,    from Spring Branch.	The gang is getting restless waiting on the wine drawing. Everybody heard it was going to be some good stuff!	Bill speaking: "Ok, everyone get ready, we're going to have the wine drawing. Oh,Oh, Dan, wake up! It's your wine we're giving away.	The hat with the winning ticket just passed this table. They want everyone to know they were losers.      GG! you're cut off!!	Guess who won? Yea, it was the guy who just got back from around the world. I think the whole thing  was rigged!

The wine that Mark won was a bottle of Barossa Valley Estates E&E Black Pepper (Ebenezer) from the outstanding 2000 vintage in the Barossa Valley, Australia.  Rated 95 by the Wine Spectator.

Mark and Cathy never made it out the door with that bottle of wine.  Everyone rushed their table with an empty glass in hand waiting for the cork to be popped.  Once the cork came out, your know the rest of the story. 

I also had a good bottle of wine.  I had a 1.5 Liter bottle of 2006 Morgan David that I picked up at Wal-Mart. I took it over to Dan's table and offered him a good deal.  I was going to trade him my bottle which was twice as big as any thing he had on his table, and you what? He turned me down!  I thought Dan was a smart fellow, but now I'm beginning to wonder.  For the record, the following are some of the the little bitty 3/4 liter bottles of wine he brought: 

o  A 1997 Beaulieu Vineyards - Georges de Latour from Napa (rated 95 by the Wine Spectator),

o  A 2001 Tenuta dell'Ornellaia - Le Serre Nuove Super Tuscan from Italy (90 by WS),

o A 2001 Clos des Papes (Paul Avril) Chateauneuf-du-Pape (95 by Robert Parker),

o A 1997 B R Cohn - Olive Hill Estate (90 by WS) (note: Bobby Cohn was the manager for the Doobie Brothers!),

o A 2001 Bodegas Emilio Moro - Malleolus from Ribera del Duero in Spain (94  by Robert Parker). 

I still say Dan turned down a good deal with me.  My wine was certainly a lot fresher than his.  Wow, he had some old stuff there.

 

My apologies go out to Jinnyn??, Dan Jacob's daughter.  I had a beautiful, and I mean beautiful shot of her and was prepared to post it on this site; however, during my cropping and editing, it got deleted, and I could not recover it.  All I have left is her backside.  Jinnyn, has finished her higher education and is now heading for Doha, Qatar (10% of the country borders on Saudi Arabia, and 90% of it borders on the Persian Gulf) to where she will be will heading up the International Relations Department for the University of Qatar.  She will be teaching in English, but also learning Arabic while she is there (she already speaks Spanish and Turkish).  Jinnyn, good luck.  We will catch you when you get back.

See all of you at the next dine-around. I might even talk about food the next time??