At 3:30 AM on the day after my exam, I was rudely awoken by my alarm clock. No, it wasn’t malfunctioning. We were scheduled on a 5:50 flight out of LaGuardia on route to San Jose, CA (with a connection in Houston). The purpose of our trip was to attend the annual Society of Wine Educators’ conference, which was held in Monterey, CA this year.

Unfortunately, the conference actually began on the day we flew out, so we missed the first day, arriving just in time for the International Wine Tasting, but too late to attend the earlier education sessions. The tasting provides participants with an opportunity to taste wines from all over the world. However, it is frequently dominated by local wineries and there is often a chance to speak with the winemaker him/herself. Accordingly, we tasted a number of wines from within Monterey County making the pleasant acquaintance of many wineries which were new to us.

Unfortunately, between the extremely early rise and the change in time zones, we were soon quite tired, heading out with friends for a quick dinner before completely collapsing into dreamland. Not to worry, we still had two full conference days ahead.