Today is my birthday! Yay! I love birthday's, especially my own! :-) I turn 36 today, so officially starting the second half of my 30's and slipping ever closer to the big 4-0! Chris now has 4 years to plan an incredible birthday bash for my 40th. Friends, if you love me, help Chris out and remind him. Thank you.
Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to this weekend:
We did something I have wanted to do for years and went to Wildlife Safari! It is a very cool place where hundreds of animals from all over the world live essentially "cage free." We saw lions, tigers, bears (oh my!), cheetah, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, zebras and many other cool animals. I will have a separate post about this trip, but it was awesome!
Afterward we stopped at Abacela winery in Winston, Oregon. It was very beautiful! The tasting room is about a year old and set in the vineyard with some amazing views. The wines were decent, but I wasn't overly impressed. We did come home with a bottle of white that had a bouquet that was very sweet, but actually drank crisp and balanced.
Our next stop was Spangler Vineyards, also in Winston. A tucked away little vineyard down a gravel road. The tasting room had tons of cute wine-abilia, like this t-shirt:
Ha! And this nightgown:
So great! We actually bought this on a magnet and another one that says "Domestic Bliss: one bottle of Cabernet away." So funny! The wines were quite good, lots of reds here. We ended up purchasing an Estate Syrah and a sparkling raspberry that will be great for a brunch or hot evening.
Today I wanted to get a couple pictures of myself on the day I turned 36, and I was wanting a couple with Roxie. However, she was unwilling to cooperate.
Look at those teeth! What a whiner...she is in the middle of a whiney meow because she wanted to get DOWN thank you very much!
Our next attempt wasn't much better. She was having none of the picture taking today. Brat-cat. So then we moved on to taking a picture of just me. Here I am! 36 years alive!
Not too bad if I do say so myself.
After our photo session we headed out to run around. We dropped off some car parts to a guy in Cave Junction, and then met my friend August for some sushi lunch in Grants Pass. It was actually very delicious and fresh! The restaurant is called Hunan Gardens. We will definitely be going there again!
August was a total sweetheart and bought me a wine tasting tour so Chris and I headed out to check out a couple of the wineries on our way back home. First stop was Troon Vineyard.
I would tell you how the wines were but since they were too snooty to acknowledge our existence and we left after being ignored for ten minutes I can't tell you anything about their wines. I can tell you that I won't be going back. Too bad, Troon!
A bit farther down the road is Wooldridge Creek Vineyards.
The wines here were lovely, balanced, crisp and not too sharp, tart or with too much acid or tannins. Smooth and balanced. We really enjoyed several of the wines particularly the 2011 Viognier, which we bought, and their port and their sparkling Brut, pictured below. The people were friendly, the view lovely and tons of regulars were coming and going.
After Wooldridge Creek we stopped in at Bridgeview Winery.
Bridgeview wines are widely available in Southern Oregon. They are inexpensive, and we enjoyed several of their varieties. The chardonnay was clear and crisp, the Riesling was not too sweet, but very drinkable. We ended up purchasing their sparkling muscat, sweet but slightly bubbly, and also a really unique Cabernet-Merlot blend.
Tonight we will be headed out for a lovely dinner. We are going to the Jacksonville Inn again. This time I am going to dress for dinner so hopefully the old man manager doesn't look down his nose at me like he did last time! So far it has been an awesome weekend and I have enjoyed driving around, seeing new places and things, trying new wines, and visiting with lots of different people from all over Southern Oregon.
What a great way to kick off my 36th year!
No comments:
Post a Comment