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It looks like I survived the holidays and I’m sitting here with a cherubic smile on my face—definitely more cherubic looking than before the holidays.

Starting April 19 the wife and I decided to take full advantage of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association’s Wine Week and attend one of the events each evening. I’ll admit that I am somewhat involved in organizing Wine Week but this in no way influenced me to participate in the week’s events. My desire to eat fine food and drink fine wines in the company of good friends was all I needed.Wine Week started Sunday, April 19 with most downtown restaurants offering no corkage charge so you could bring and enjoy one of your own bottles of local wine that first day.  We started the week with a nice lunch at Ladera Grill downtown.The evening events started at Bubbles on Monday by meeting a friend, dining, and drinking local wines in the “Taste of Locals” wine flight (three nice samples of local wines). We chatted with co-owner David Dindak and learned about his plans to expand the offerings at his growing business. Since we were recent wine tasting class graduates of Cindy Adams (of Guglielmo) we skipped this evening’s classes but luckily one of the recent graduates joined us and filled us in on the wonderful class.Tuesday night presented a tough choice for us since both Ladera Grill and Odeum were hosting wine pairing dinners. We chose Odeum for their once-a-year event. As usual with our finest restaurants the food was incredible and Jason Stephens Winery brought out some of their newest releases and finest wines.I was informed by our friend, a graduate of the previous evening’s wine class, that the four winemakers hosted by Ladera Grill provided the usual fine wines. We won’t miss the last two winemaker dinners in their series this year.Wednesday again provided tough choices. We’re regulars at Rosy’s wine dinners so we chose the Good Fork which featured the wines of Madeiros Family Vineyards. The food and wine were incredible and the Good Fork seamlessly delivered their meals to an overflow crowd.Rosy’s had sold out and Vic Vanni with Solis Winery and Rosy’s food continued the trend and impressed their guests.Back to Bubbles Thursday night for a special dinner paired with wines from Calera. Although Calera is from San Benito County we looked forward to that evening and the “localish” wine offerings.Noah’s Bar and Bistro also hosted a wine maker dinner Thursday with Guglielmo that I am sure was a success with two local favorites.Friday night included “Our Award Winning Wine Region Celebration” event that offered truly spectacular wines and food from our locals. This new event will grow and I expect it to be worthy of the caliber of food and wine served while continuing to honor the local wine association’s award winning ways.The Morgan Hill Wine Shop and Cigar Company held a wine tasting that evening too.Saturday found me volunteering for the Wine Stroll as I started my recovery period.A lot of great food and great wine was consumed in downtown Morgan Hill that week. I hope you were one of the people who took the opportunity to get out and enjoy the fruits of our local region. I know I sure did and I will be back for more next year.John McKay is a longtime Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

Like everyone else, you hope to remain physically and financially independent your entire life. And you may well achieve this goal. Nonetheless, the future is not ours to see, so you’ll want to prepare yourself for as many contingencies as possible – one of which is the high cost of long-term care.