SOCIAL MEDIA

3.23.2015

Adventure // Weekend in Wine Country

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We spent this past weekend adventuring in Wine Country! My sweet cousin and his wife gave us a certificate for a stay at a bed and breakfast in Calistoga for Christmas/my birthday! Since it was my 21st birthday, this was the perfect gift :) We just got around to using it now though since I was doing an official Whole30 in Jan/Feb and everything about this weekend was basically the opposite of Whole30 compliant haha. Anyway, we had the most wonderful time and here is a massive photo dump from our trip!
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We stayed at the Wine Way Inn in Calistoga and it was just the cutest! I've never had the pleasure of staying at a B&B before, so I didn't really know what to expect, but we loved it! From my Gilmore Girls watching, though, I figured it would be a cross between the inns Lorelai ran and the B&B they stayed in that one episode ;)wine-5 wine-6
I loved how the entire inn was decorated! It was very pretty & fit the character of the building well.wine-7
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We have learned that there are certain expectations to socialize with other guests when you stay at a B&B (again, that one episode of GG taught me well lol) and we actually really liked this aspect of it! We had great conversations with people over breakfast, while enjoying a glass of wine in the lounge during the evenings, and even while running into people in town. One couple was especially kind to us and even bought us a bottle of wine when we saw them at a tasting room! It was very sweet!wine-9
The breakfast was delicious. Above is the breakfast from the first morning, which included homemade granola, homemade yogurt, fruit, baked pears, blueberry muffins, chicken apple sausage, and bread & butter pudding (definitely the highlight of the meal!). Breakfast was also served with juice and French pressed coffee, which I loved even though I don't typically care for simple hot coffee. I may need to purchase my own French press someday soon!
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After breakfast our first morning, we got ready and headed out to adventure for the day! Calistoga is a pretty small town and has one main street. Our inn was in a great location, so we were able to just walk all through the downtown area and only drive when we were heading outside of the little town. We checked out a farmer's market, wandered into some shops, and visited a tasting room. What was nice about our travel package is that it came with several vouchers for free or buy one, get one tastings at 7 different tasting rooms and wineries. That definitely saved us a lot of money and allowed us to try more things than we would have been able to without it!
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After wandering around downtown Calistoga, we decided to drive to further places. We visited a winery that had a bocce ball court, so we had fun playing a little bit of that after our tasting! We also went to another vineyard before heading back to the inn.wine-10 wine-11
The backyard of the inn was also beautiful and on Saturday evening we decided to just get some good cheeses, crackers, salami, and fruit to have for dinner on the patio while we drank wine and watched Pretty Little Liars on Netflix (confession: we are obsessed) on my laptop. The weather was perfect for this! We later walked around the downtown area of Calistoga to get some ice cream for dessert!wine-12wine-14
The next day, we enjoyed another homemade breakfast and got ready to check out of the inn. Luckily, we still had a couple of free wine tasting passes, so we decided to stop by those places!
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The first one was just directly across the street from the inn and was built to look like an old gas station/mechanic garage. It had a lot of character and a cool vibe. We really liked the wine here and the gal who explained everything to us was super nice!wine-16wine-17
We then just walked a block or so down the road to another tasting room that was so cutely decorated. I just loved this white barn! The whole place had such a nice rustic feel. I thought my orange skirt and I fit in pretty nicely!wine-18wine-19wine-20wine-21wine-22
I think we may have enjoyed the wines here the most and decided to buy a bottle to take home! I'm excited to have two special bottles waiting for us! Now we just need an excuse to break them out :)wine-23wine-24wine-25wine-26
Something I learned about wine tasting: even though you are technically just "tasting" wines, after you visit two wineries or tasting rooms and have had 4 or 5 tastings at each, that adds up to be about 2-3 glasses of wine, pretty quickly too! So, after the second tasting in about an hour and a half, you could say we were feeling pretty good HAHA I would say that this photo of Dai sums things up fairly accurately!

Don't worry, after this we decided to call it quits for the day and walked downtown to have some lunch to soak up the wine before heading home! This weekend was such a great little getaway and we have been so lucky to have had frequent weekend trips lately. I don't want the fun to end! Thankfully we have one more trip on the horizon :)

Our weekend in Wine Country was a great way to continue celebrating my 21st birthday and all the new fun that comes with it! We had yummy food, lovely wine, great weather, and each other! What more could we ask for?

We will definitely be visiting Wine Country again soon!

Have you ever been wine tasting? How was your experience?


P.S. In case you are interested....

Where we stayed:
1019 Foothill Blvd, Calistoga, CA

Where we visited:
1307 Lincoln Ave, Calistoga, CA

1020 Foothill Blvd, Calistoga, CA

810 Foothill Blvd, Calistoga, CA

1 California Dr, Yountville, CA

1171 Tubbs Lane, Calistoga, CA
Jess said...

So beautiful! Looks like you had an amazing time! :D

Jess said...

This looks like such a gorgeous trip! I'm jealous, haha. You are so adorable in all your outfits & I love those sandals. Your photos are so lovely.

Jess said...

I love your outfit in the last photo that you're in! It sounds like you had such a lovely weekend! I wish we could do something like that but literally just one sip of wine makes me SO sick. Apparently my body can handle liquor but not wine? ha

Jess said...

This is a really good idea for a weekend getaway.

Jess said...

I would think that it would be the other way around, Abby.

Jess said...

ha that's what I would have thought to!

Jess said...

This looks like so much fun!

Jess said...

Thank you Margo! We really did :)

Jess said...

Aww thanks Summer! It was definitely a nice trip!

Jess said...

Thanks Chelsea! We had a great time!

Jess said...

Yeah for sure! I highly recommend it :)

Jess said...

Thanks Abby! Aww that's such a bummer! Wine is pretty much my alcoholic drink of choice. You guys should visit a brewery or something and go beer tasting! haha. Really funny that you can handle liquor better than wine! How ironic!