What’s better than a wine tasting tour? How about a wine tasting tour with no driving! Coming up this spring is the perfect getaway weekend for vinophiles: a cruise from Seattle to Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. April 24-27, 2009. (You return to port at 7 A.M. Monday morning—in time for work, but with no guarantees on your readiness to go back to the grind.) Your guide for this experience, which includes an exclusive wine maker’s lunch at the Pinnacle Grill, a wine tasting party, and a complimentary bottle of wine in addition to all the usual shipboard amenities on Holland America’s MS Amsterdam, is baby boomer and wine expert Deb McFarlane.

A dedicated and seasoned world traveler who also loves wine, McFarlane spent many years at Microsoft. After leaving the software giant in 2000, she began to study her passion in earnest, graduating with honors from the two-year program at the Wine Academy at South Seattle Community College. Her company, Wine Diva Deb, the realization of her desire to combine her two passions, leads small groups of wine aficionados on trips all over the world. Check out her Web site, www.winedivadeb.com, for details on lengthier upcoming 2009 adventures farther afield in Greece, Italy or Thailand.

To book your spot on the three-day, Northwest wine cruise, call Wine Diva Deb at (206) 617-6160 or email winedivadeb@yahoo.com.