The rumors of how much snow was here was greatly exaggerated! The neighborhoods are definitely lacking in the being plowed arena, but the regular roads were just fine!

After we went to the wineries and found a bunch of yummies to take home, we had to figure out how to get it home! We of course got some desert wines which I forgot are taller than a normal case size, sigh, go figure! So we decided to put 5 of the tallies in our luggage. It was all snuggled in our closes, layers or bubble wrap, target bag just in case. When hubby pulled it off the carousel I smelled vinegar. Hmmmmm. Maybe we were lucky and it was just some face wash or something… No such luck. We decided to leave the carnage at the airport. So we opened the suit case. From the top you could see that one side of the box was very very squished. OH NO!! Luck was with us and it was just the Chrysalis which was the one we liked the least and the one vineyard that can ship to Colorado! Woohoo!! Hubby’s jeans got the brunt of the spillage, so my new jammies, wool sweater and new land’s end shirt was saved!

Everything else appears to have made it just fine! But with our delay in DC, the head wind that made us fly a measly 400 miles an hour, the 20 minute delay to get to the gate, the 40 minute delay to get the luggage and the site trip for hubby to pick up my pampered chef Christmas present… We made it home by 11… ugh! (We were supposed to land at 8) We plopped into bed pooped as can be! It was nice to be back in our big bed, together! Bubbah’s were very happy to see us. Terrance slept as close to me as he could!

I’ll wake the hubby up in a couple hours so we can do our Christmas!

For now, it’s left over bills and laundry! Woohoo! Welcome home to me!

We headed off yesterday afternoon to sample the yummies of Virginia wine country!
We had a wonderful time cruising thru the country side. Although any trip from my sister’s house includes going through the country side! Did I mention that she lives in the middle of no-where?

We decided it would be a fabulous time in the fall with the leave’s changing colors!
We also heard about a place Hot Tub Heaven
Might have to check it out!

We started at Linden… But they weren’t open. Lucky for us there was a sign for Fox Meadow on our way, so we meandered over there! What a fabulous place! Great views, wonderful tasting room – and… some really kick butt wines!

We liked the following:
2006 FMV Chardonnay (steel drum)
Freezland Red – super duper yummy chilled (good with spicy foods)
2005 FMW Cabernet Franc (produced with other vinyard’s grapes)

Then we headed east to
Naked Mountain
We liked the
2006 Chardonnay Riesling – what a fabulous taste
2004 Merlot – great taste. Can’t wait to get that home

Off again to the north and to
Piedmont Vineyards and Winery -
We didn’t like the regular wines, but we did like the different ones:
Little River Peach – great with deserts and sweet stuff
Felicita – great desert wine. Not too orangy!

And finally to
Chrysalis Wines -
We didn’t fall in love with much here except for the:
Sarah’s Patio White – wonderful sweet wine for the summer! Or any time- maybe if the fire is roaring!

It was a fun afternoon and now we just have to find a way to ship it back to Colorado since most small Virginia wineries can’t ship to us. Sigh! I might have to become a distributer just so I can get my wine!

J. Bookwalter2006 - Reisling Columbia Valley, WA

Richland, WA

This wine was a another, hey that bottle looks neat, and it's from Washington State - lets try it.

It was not great. It was agreeable.

Not too biting, no too sweet.

I'd probably go with something else!

Colorado Cellars - White Riesling

Very tastey and sweet wine! Yummy! Would buy it again!

Red Truck - 2005 California Cabernet Sauvignon

We only got to taste this on the second day. It wasn't fabulous, but after the second or third taste it was drinkable. Bought it cause of it's picture!

Dog Tail Vinyards – 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

It was not a bad bottle, but not a great bottle of wine. Was sharp. No tannony, but just sharp. It was drinkable, I’m still drinking it as I type!  Not something I would buy again, but had to try it, cause of the label!

We had this tonight with our Omaha steak straight from the freezer dinner of crab stuffed trout and potato au-gratin balls! 

The meal was ok. The fish was a good flavor with the crab and shrimp inside!

This was another wine from my run to Lucas last week.

6th Sence Syrah from the Michael David Vinyards

We decanted it in our fancy decanter from Souther Living, but it was still a little to "full bodied" for me.

It got a little better as the dinner went and the night progressed, but not sure I would buy it again.

We had dinner with friends last night. I was our job to pick out the wine, and pick up dinner along the way (which they called in and paid for).

We went with Italian at Via Baci. We have seen this restaurant numerous times, it is in our favorite Target parking lot, but it never looked like much so we never stopped. Boy was than an error on our part! We had a delicious dinner!

Hubby had the - DIAVOLO • spicy hot with san marzano tomatoes,
house-made mozzarella, sopressata salami, pepperoni,
pepperoncini, spicy red pepper, fresh basil

and I had the VIA BACI • chopped romaine and iceberg, fresh basil,
oven roasted turkey, fresh tomatoes, garbanzos, scallions,
fresh mozzarella, caesar dressing.

We also got the cheese dip for appetizer – yummies!!! Definintely a recommended spot!


It was our job to pick the wine, so I ventured to Lucas on Thursday – and came up with these

We started with crayon house, next was Donedei and finished up wit the Chianti.
We of course loved the crayon house (L'Ecole), as did our friends, and really enjoyed the Donedei and would probably skip the Chianti on our next purchase!

We watched Last King of Scottland.

I thought I had heard of it, but really had not. Go figure! Me the queen of knowing movies and movie stars (sarcasm there). It was pretty interesting. Not a very happy ending kind of movie, but intriguing. Makes me and hubby want to go and learn some additional history!

And desert was brownies baked by yours truly! I love working from home! ;)
We decided we needed ice cream, I couldn’t decide on vanilla or chocolate so I went for both and found the most magnificent chocolate icecream ever! Haagendaz Mayan Chocolate!
If you decide you need a treat – this is the treat to get! Mmmm mmmm mmmm!

Good night had by all and hope to do it again soon!

We got this wine as a "gift" from our Traveling Vinyard event.

What can i say - I'm glad it was free.  Sigh.

Not very good from my point of view. We had it with fish, mexican, and italian (it was a mish mash dinner)

But there was not much flavor, not much of anything.

Recently found wines!

We did this wine tasting at California Adventure:

Uvaggio Mendocino County Barbera

    I found this to be a very good wine. No too many tannons. Good flavor

McWilliams Hanwood Estate South EasternAustralia Shiraz

    Loved this wine!  Want to fine where i can buy it! Great flavor on the tounge.

Dining

For anyone looking for info, I’ve included this secondary entry!

Orleans Square

            They turned this pick your food, go in line, pick up food, pay, go sit and eat, into a sit down restaurant. Not a bad place. You get pretty decent food, and even chocolate treasure with you bill! Woohoo! The 3 ladies had the Crab Sandwhich. Kinda like tuna, but better!  Lots of Avacado! We also started with the parmesean cheese fries – very tastey and the spicey sauce to dip them in – yummies!  Hubby had the Monte Cristo – and found that to be very tastey as well.

House of Blues

            We had eaten here before but decided to go with it for lunch on our first day. We started with the Calamari! NUMMY!!!!  Very much recommended! I went with red beans and rice and it was not bad. Has they actually brought me the Bayou Heat sauce that I love them for and buy bottle after bottle of as opposed to refilling an old Bayou Heat bottle with Tabasco sauce it would have been fabulous!  It also came with a tasty corn bread.  Hubby went for the buffalo chicken and strips and found them to be lacking. It was an unfamiliar cut of breast meat. I thought the breading was ok, but nothing to write home about.

Tortilla Jo's

            We had dinner here with the whole family!  Mojito was super duper tasty! I had 2!  We started with guacamole – very good!  I had breaded shrimp and grilled shrimp tacos. Again very tasty. Hubby had the burrito – that thing was huge and very tasty!

La Brea Bakery

            Breakfast on the final day!  We met mil and dil there for a quick bite before they headed to the airport with SIL.  Hubby and I had the Quiche  Lorraine. Pretty Tasty. The others shared pancakes.  Service was very fast – similar to in park.

Napa Rose Lounge –

            Hidden secret!  You can eat at the bar – so even if there are no more reservations available for dinner, you can get almost equivalent service in the bar! We headed there the final dinner. We chose a funky appetizer called sizzling rock. Besides the fact that the chicken was not 100% cooked and the waitress didn’t believe me – it was tasty. (We finished the cooking process on the hot rock) I would not buy it again for the price, but the wine was excellent! I got a Zilliken Riesling - .  I’ll definitely go find that bottle too!

Grand Californian Lounge

            We stopped here with Kim on Thursday.  We found the chairs near the chess tables to be a bit uncomfortable but others vacated some comfier chairs and we moved our drinks over there! I had a pretty good Mai Thai – but it didn’t hold much punch – and I know I live at altitude now, but for the size I should have been a bit tipsier!  Hubby had regular beer and kim went for the Lemon Drop – party animal!  Nice to go for drinks and relax – you can also get a drink at the bar and bring it out into the main lobby and enjoy the atmosphere there as well!

Steakhouse 55

            Although our waitress Gloria was less than thrilled to serve us, we had a fabulous dinner! I’d been here with kim before for my birthday and also enjoyed it then as well!  Sunshine brought us a bottle of fabulous Shiraz to enjoy with dinner!  I went with the rack of lamb – first pieces was nice and juicy, second piece was a little dried out. Hubby had the Top Sirloin – yummy, sunshine had the T-Bone – nummy, and kim had the filet – yummy!  We got too many sides and could get any desert or we would have exploded!  I enjoyed the mushroom, and the asparagus. Mashed pot was ok, and hubbies fingerling potatoes were a little bizarre.

Catch a Flave -  Ice Cream

            Most bestest icecream in the whole wide world!  Soft serve vanilla with a flavor swirled down the outside! I go with Bubblegum flavor! NUMMY!

Bodin Sourdough Bread Factory –

            I had the Shrimp Salad in the bread bowl! WOW! Really yummy! Hubby helped me with the bread bowl after the salad was gone!

Rita Baja Blenders – where you can get alcoholic drinks!

The Vinyard Room at the Golden Vine Winery – we popped in for some wine tasting. I did the reds, hubby and kim did the Napa Valley ones. I enjoyed 2 of wine, which I will put in here later!

We ate very well while on our vacation!

I had a friend of mine from the Traveling Vinyard come over and throw a wine tasting!

The line up:
 

Light Bodied White Wines –

Veronica Creek – South Eastern Australia– 2005 – Chardonnay

Sushi

Miniature quiches

Guacamole

Medium Bodied White Wines –

Stone Briar – Baya Cellars – California – 2002 – Zinfandel

Crab Dip  (friends brought this for us)

Baked Brei

Grilled Shrimp (BBQ recipie from cooking light)

Guacamole

Medium bodied Red Wines –

Cotes Du Rhone – – Red Rhone Wine – 2003

Hummus (friends brought this for us)

Cheese Plate 

Full Flavored Red Wines –

Vina Alamosa – – Cabernet Sauvignon 2001

Pizza

Bittersweet Chocolate  (Cost Plus – expresso flavored and one that was mango and chili pepper)

The Desert - Moscato D’Asti - 2005

We had a total of 14 people there to eat and drink! We spread out over the dining room and the living room.  Hubby and I manned the kitchen! Rolling out the  different food settings while they explained everything and poured the wine!  We enjoyed all the wines that were tasted! The Chardonnay was a nice  flavor and not the normal biting taste you usually get. 

We ended with the Port from ClearCreek Cellars in Evergreen (we provided that!). Most people seemed to like that as well!