By the Pond

Two kids + two rings + celebration

The first trip of the 2-month adventure was to Temecula for Katie and Joerg’s wedding. Yes, Temecula, all the way down in southern California sandwiched between LA, San Diego, and Palm Springs. And yes, we decided to hoof it down 600 miles and make a road trip of it. About 2/3 of the drive is beautiful, but then there is this nasty part of I-5 between the grapevine and Los Banos that is pretty horrid, but the music was good thanks to the DJ and Lopez is always entertaining.

It’s all great fun, it’s this yin-yang of laughs and grunts, sandwiched in between grown men being instigators and causing a ruckus.

The festivities kicked off at Monte del Oro Winery with a interesting wine tour, and by interesting, I mean in-depth. Did you know that roses planted at the end of the vine row act as a ‘canary in the coal mine’. As we learned, roses have a similar temperament as grape vines, but are also more vulnerable. So when something (weather, bugs, mold, fungus, etc.) is about to attack the vineyard, the roses take the first hit and alert the vineyard manager that they need to take action to protect the vines and grapes. Interesting eh? Here is some more information about this. Also, I had no clue there would a quiz later to see if I was paying attention (because I looked like I was zoning out at times), but while drinking wine after the wedding ceremony, Robert quizzed me on why chardonnay tastes creamy. And wham bam, I threw down the answer. Chardonnays have a creamy, buttery taste because the fermentation process includes a step that is included in almost no other varietals (not sure if any, but I’ll leave that to the smarties, Paul, Brooke?) that involves converting the harder malic acid into the softer lactic acid. Lactic acid of course is what we all consume in our dairy products and it is part of the dairy product that gives it the creaminess that coats your tongue. And that’s why chardonnays have that cream-like character, explore more about this and get all on wonky here.

Enough about that stuff, let’s get onto the goods — Katie and Joerg getting married. We started Friday night off at a place called Baily’s in Old Town Temecula. We caught up with friends and waxed nostalgia over beer, wine, and super tasty passed apps. But the true highlight of the night is the Polterabend, a venerable German tradition meant to challenge the soon-to-be-wed couple. Sounds wonderful eh? Search for ‘polterabend’ on the YouTubes and you’ll see dump trucks and street sweepers, so let’s continue. Polterabend, as a tradition, is billed as the soon-to-be-wed couple’s first test where all guests smash porcelain plates, bowls, saucers, coffee cups, and sometimes even toilets (I’ve heard, but not this time) into tiny shards. The couple is then equipped with a boom (or two if the brothers are nice), dust pan, and garbage can and set out to get to work. Sweep sweep sweep all day long, sweep sweep sweep while we sing this song (Adam Sandler reference). So they sweep and sweep some more, then more porcelain shows up and people smash it, just creating a bigger mess. Then they get a bunch of broken porcelain and shards in the garbage can, then some mischievous German will saunter over and gracefully give the can a nudge. Back to square one. Then some guests jump in and literally jump all over the broken porcelain taking plates to mere shards of a sweepers worst nightmare. It’s all great fun, it’s this yin-yang of laughs and grunts, sandwiched in between grown men being instigators and causing a ruckus.

The absolute highlight of the polterabend was instigated by Brooke. She had saved five plates and strategically handed them out, saving the best for Joerg’s mother. Just as Katie and Joerg had finished sweeping, Joerg’s mother walked casually and unsuspiciously up to Joerg, holding a plate behind her back. She acted as if she were happy, congratulatory and celebratory, Joerg lifted her and gave her a huge hug, all while she smashed the plate to the ground behind Joerg’s back. All were ear-to-ear smiles at this point and a riotous laugh could be heard throughout. Let the good times roll, it was a smashingly good time.

Friday night then continued as it should with bar hopping and the likes.

Onto Saturday, the morning and afternoon were chill time with friends, so lets jump to the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding at the Ponte Winery, which looks out over the rolling hills of eastern Temecula and onto Oak Mountain in the distance. It was an outdoor wedding with the couple sharing the vows and exchanging rings under an arbor on the edge of the winery pond. The setting was beautiful. Then we continued with celebratory drinks in the courtyard, followed by another German tradition of cutting a log as a couple. I know less of this tradition, but it sure was fun to watch and see all the Germans partake in the tradition.

The wedding reception was in the winery’s barrel room and smelled AMAZING. The reception and dinner were wonderful, now for some highlights. As the couple went from table to table socializing and saying hello and hallo, each table got progressively more fired up. The first table was calm and collected, but then by the fifth table or so, they were yelling like banchees, hoopin’ and hollerin’ like wild west cowboys. Then it just progressed from there, one table even jumped up on their chairs, yelled like mad while waving their napkins like rally rags. Another great moment were the lovely toasts that Joerg and Katie gave, they were genuine and sweet (Katie even did her’s in German, sie gehen Mädchen). And then the dancing ensued, let’s just say people brought their dancing pants, plenty of rugs were cut, and there was a tonga line that filled the entire barrel room. So much fun, the night was great. Filled with so many smiles, laughs, cheers, and general merriment.

Thanks for getting married!! And congratulations dear friends.