Adventures in Wine Country

No. I didn't go to California this weekend (although that would have been really cool)... rather I went to  a winery in the country... get it?

Sorry, that wasn't even funny.

Anyway, my friend and I decided to get out of the city yesterday and go check out a not-so-local winery wayyyy out in Delaphplane, VA (about 1.5 hours from DC) called Cobbler Mountain Cellars. She had purchased a groupon a while back and had been planning to use it with her friend that's a boy, but he backed out at the last minute and I got to go instead! The deal included free tastings, two full glasses of wine, and $12 off the purchase of a bottle, plus, you got to keep your tasting glass.

Wine tasting table set-up outside the winery.
There was also a cool tasting area inside.

The drive wasn't too bad once you got out of the city and off I-66, which is annoying and trafficky at the best of times. But it was super nice after that—complete with cow pastures, trees galore, and lots of long, winding, super narrow, gravel roads... it felt like being back at home!

The view from the porch of Cobbler Mountain

We got a tiny bit lost and the GPS took us a slightly roundabout way, but once we found the place we were pretty charmed. Their website has this slightly ridiculous poem which I will not post here, but you can get to through the link, which supposedly explains their story, but in my opinion is just a little over the top. Almost as silly, but slightly more explanatory is the story on their Facebook page which states...

Cobbler Mountain—home to the "Little Winery That Could"—is where the fairies live in big poplar trees, children run barefoot to Thumb Run Creek and stories of the wise Grandfathers and kind Grandmothers are shared around the Grand Fire Circle at the foot of the forest. A legendary dreamer, Grandfather McCarthy, discovered Big Cobbler Mountain in 1959. His love of creatures and exploring has been preserved and passed down to his children and grandchildren. Come hike a wooded trail. Open a bottle of imagination. Sip handcrafted wines with the makers. Find a little fantasy under the old apple tree. Who knows who you will meet along the way?

Charming, huh? Anyway, it's a super cute little woodsy area and their wine was pretty good too. My favorite was definitely the chardonnay. It was delicious.

Best. Glass. of Wine. Ever.

On the winery porch.

After we we had tasted all the wine we could, we headed out in search of somewhere for lunch. We were originally planning to go to some pub that the winery people recommended, but we were starving, so we decided to stop at a little gem called Old Salem Cafe (and sports bar). We partly picked it because it was the first place we came to, and partly because of the huge sign outside that proclaimed, "Bikers Welcome!"

They had the best onion rings ever there. The other highlight of the meal—the time the waitress asked me if I had just come from graduation... in June. In other words, she thought I had just graduated from high school. Typical.

The Old Salem Cafe.
Bikers welcome.

Not Yet Please.

June 10 is far too soon for my thermometer to say that it is 109 degrees outside.

Granted, the temperature part is currently sitting in the sun and the weather channel only says it's 91... 

but I'd say that 91 degrees is still too hot.

Time for Tea

One of the things I LOVE about pinterest is how many fun websites I find through it.

Take this one for instance. Time for Tea is a tumblr site dedicated to all things tea-themed, tea-inspired, and just plain tea. It's kind of awesome.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures...

via time for tea

via young wild & free

via knuffle bear bunni

via studio ampersand

via so feel the audio...

The Epitome of Up-cycling

I have an old school iMac (well my parents do) that is seriously calling my name right now.... how hard do you think this would be to DIY?

Source: fab.com via Melissa on Pinterest

I'd totally get a cat if it would sleep in this!

Feeling Lucky?

Everyone can use a little more luck in their lives and I'm hoping that my new "Lucky Bamboo" will bring a little extra luck to my life. 

According to the banner at IKEA, three bamboo stems will bring you happiness, five will bring health, and nine bring good fortune.

As I'm pretty healthy and I didn't have enough room for nine stems, I opted for the three stem happiness route. So far, I guess it's been working pretty well... I did get to see Prairie Home after all!

According to Feng Shui, Bamboo brings a peaceful and wise energy into the home by teaching you the ultimate wisdom: how to be flexible and hollow (aka open) on the inside, so that the spirit can freely flow and heal your being.

Sounds good to me!

A Prairie Home Companion!

 On Saturday I got what was probably one of the best (and honestly only) Memorial Day presents of my life... I got to go to a live taping of A Prairie Home Companion!

I got to see Garrison Keillor, Guy's All Star Shoe Band, Sue Scott, Tim Russell, Mr. Fred Newman, and all the rest of the Prairie Home crew. It was kind of awesome. And it was all thanks to my friend Elspeth and her parents, who gave me their extra ticket to the Memorial Day show at Wolf Trap.

One of my favorite parts of the show happened before the show even started. About 15 minutes before the live taping began, Garrison and Sara Watkins, one of his guest singers, walked all through the lawn at Wolf Trap singing song after song and signing autographs and taking pictures with the audience. It was so cool that he did that. Even cooler, Garrison was somehow able to sing and sign autographs and take pictures at the same time... he barely even hesitated when someone shoved a book and pen into his face or wrapped their arm around him for a picture. It was nuts.

Also nuts was Sara Watkins' outfit. I so wish I could pull that off. (She's the one in the hat with hipster glasses and a microphone.) Elspeth and I both decided that she is quite possibly our new favorite singer.

Once the show started it was pretty much like listening to the radio, only instead of watching the road wiz by (cause we usually listen to it in the car) you actually got to watch them on stage. 

Guy's All Star Shoe Band

And while it was pretty uneventful on stage (the pictures below were taken during the Guy Noire story) it was very cool to be able to see Mr. Fred Newman doing the sound effects.

From left to right: Mr. Fred Newman, Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Garrison

Elspeth and I also tried this "great" technique of taking pictures through binoculars in an attempt to get a better close up picture... it kind of worked, but it was hard to take a picture that wasn't blurry. It's hard to stabilize a camera and binoculars and take a picture all at the same time.

When they started the power milk biscuits song a sign lit up on the side of the stage, which was cool. There was also a sign that said "on air" that lit up when the show was live on air.

During the break we went up to the balcony area of Wolf Trap to see what it looked like from up there... it was cool to see the stage from a different perspective (aka way closer and from above).

After the show was over and it was time to leave, the parking lot was literally a parking lot, since the traffic flow at Wolf Trap isn't exactly spectacular. We saw lots of people hanging out in the parking lot (rather than hanging out in their cars, in the parking lot, while burning lots of gas... that's what we were doing. And blasting some Sara Watkins music). People were throwing frisbees and nerf thingys, drinking wine, and doing what I would generally think of as lite tailgating, since they didn't have cooking implements and stuff. However, the best was definitely these people, who actually went so far as to spread their blanket out on the pavement and have a full blown picnic.

If you feel like listening to the show, you can get to it here. Just choose the 5/26 show. 

Or, you can just listen to clips... my favorites had to be "You and Me" (one of Sara Watkins' songs) and Guy Noir

An Evening in the Battlefields

Last weekend my brother graduated (yes, that's right graduated!) from Gettysburg. The evening before, my cousin and I took a drive through the battlefields for a little sunset tour. It was beautiful.

Here are just a few of the sunset/battlefieldscapes I took... 

I realize that many of you can't handle as many semi-repetitive versions of a sunset as I can, so to spare you, I've put the rest of the pictures after the break...

p.s. if you click on the pictures, they get bigger and you can see the sunsets in all their beautiful glory.