For all my treasure hunters out there (you know who you are)...a birthday story about both a mom and a business.
Pictured above: Part of my birthday present this year from my family that knows me (and loves me) so well. :)
First, A Birthday to Remember
I love it that my family gets me. I'm a seeker and treasure hunter at heart. I usually just watch shows about it (i.e., The Curse of Oak Island, Finding Bigfoot...which by the way, are they EVER going to find it?) Ha! For me there's just something about the thrill of the search.
This year, my family arranged a full-on treasure hunt type of day, beginning with playing cards carrying a secret message, to a fossil kit where we dug out real fossils, to the crowning glory present of...wait for it...my very own METAL DETECTOR! Ahhhh! They hid money in plastic bags with metal objects in the backyard for me to find. Here's a sneak peek from the day (not great quality but still fun to share).
Next, how this all ties into Serendipity's origin story.
“We should come a day early and do a wine tour,” they said.
That was it. The beginning of the treasure hunt that ruined me forever. (In the best of ways, of course.)
My husband is the "Commish" for his fantasy football league. We take football seriously in this house and Draft Day is no exception! We start the day with a 5K, complete with T-shirts and times scribbled with chalk on the sidewalk. Then it's competitive games all day (Croquet, Cornhole, a Basketball game called "Bump"), lots of good food and then the anticipated live draft complete with a draft board and presentation of the traveling trophy for the previous year. They just recently added a "Toilet Bowl" trophy which consists of the winner being the recipient of a freshly waxed body part.
Needless to say, the lucky members of this fun and competitive league travel from all over (California, Texas, Idaho) and six years ago, a couple of them suggested that since we live smack dab in the middle of wine country, they could come out a day early and do a wine tour!
Believe it or not, Shawn and I had never been wine tasting, let alone on a wine tour! Even though we live in Oregon's gorgeous Willamette Valley, where we would learn later, grows and produces some of the greatest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay around. So I was put in charge of finding and booking a tour (no small feat since it was IPNC weekend) and we were off and running.
I remember it like it was yesterday. The day came and all six of us crawled into the back of a van with a person we had never met and let him take us to magical places we'd never been.
I would never be the same. No joke. I fell in love immediately. There was just something about the whole experience, the beautiful landscape, the themes of the wineries, the careful and fun hospitality of the tasting room associates, the delicious wine and most of all, the memories we made with our family and friends.
I treasured all of it in my heart...and to think it was right there in my own backyard all along.
“Trust the treasure we look for is in the ground on which we stand.”
-- Henri J. M. Nouwen