Winey

Who dosent love a drop of wine from time to time, especially in the company of lovely friends...and so it began, one grey Saturday afternoon, our merry band (Mr Big, Tadpole, Ronnie and Johnny) headed out in our old explorer for the wild Skagit Valley.  Who knew? There are hidden vineyards and wineries a plenty and some delightful drops of wine to be had.

First stop was Carpenter Creek Winery.  The first thing that greeted us was a row of beautiful rainbow flags, so we knew that this was going to be a fun place to go.  The flags lined the driveway to the tasting room and filled our eyes with happy colors.  The next thing that greeted us was Jeff, the vitner and all round wonderful fellow.  Here is Jeff in the tasting room with his delicious wines:

Jeff even gave us a behind the scenes looksie into the art of making this yummy wine, look at what

ONE TONNE of merlot grapes looks like with two lovely boys....Johnny and Tadpole :

 imagine what a lovely time it would be having access to all these barrells

I chose a riesling which is utterly scrumptious

Of course - with all that hard work behind the scenes it was time to sup a little more vino with Jeff - here's my empty glass

Sadly it was time to move on...we loved Carpenter Winery and will be there again sometime soon!!

Next stop - was Pasek Wineries in Conway.  Yes this is a wine shop at a gas station, yes most of their wine is made from fruit - but as you can see, their complementary wine tasting (10 bottles strong INCLUDING port) was quite delicimo and ... they had wine cracker mmmkay?

and lookie here - someone seems quite happy about the fruit wine selections, in fact, if I am not mistaken this is a drunk smile John Jensen

no man left behind was our motto this day and yet, look who was last.  None other than Mr Tadpole, refreshed and bright after his 10th glass of fruit wine

We were quite hungry after the first two wineries so we skipped across the road to world famous Conway Pub.  I liked their sign (and the sign below) and so I was excited at what might lay ahead

as you can see, its no enchanted forest - but cozy enough and I LOVED that the waitresses screamed across the room at the patrons.  That just added a certain gen a say qua to the place.  There were dude sitting across from us in full camo gear which added to the excitement - they are there in the photos but you cant see them.  They are in camo.  Pretty much the perfect outfit for a pub dont you think?

Here is Ronnie.  He's shy - unless he's dancing

Here's me and my boi.  The lighting was interesting at the Conway Pub so sorry about the photos

and me with Johnnie - though we were drinking diet fizzy at this point, we both were still proudly wearing the drunk smile as you can see

So return to the conway pub?  I dont think so.  Food was mmmeeehm.  Nothing to blog about.  Still friends, a quick trip to the fish shop and we were off to our next stop a winery slash glass blowing joint.  This should be interesting.......and it was!

I dont remember this chicas name but she was very sweet, as was the huckleberry wine that we had there.  Dont you think those things on the wall behind her with the tails look like giant colored sperm?

Did I mention I really REALLY liked the huckleberry wine? By the way - my hands arent actually the size of snausages - its just that they are right close to the camera...really, they arent the ham hocks they appear to be

The glass was really pretty here - I loved that you could drink wine, listen to a little Jimmy Buffet, be warmed by the kilns on a cold day and see a masterpiece made

Sadly - we had places to go and wine to guzzle so it was onwards to....highland cattle?

Yup - these little chicklets were hanging around and were quite interested in our aucspicious arrival as you can see. A short drive down the road and we were here.  Eagle Winery - Tad and Ronnie's Fav.

I liked the people here, they were very sweet, but the fruit flies buzzing around the tasting room took away my amor a little, I battled through though and I have to say the rose from here was outstanding.  So elegant and delicate and a perfect celebration wine.  I enjoyed it so much I forgot to snap a pic - just pretend this is rose and not something else: