Wine, Pastries, and Feeling Tipsy in Solvang

Welcome to Solvang! This quaint Danish village packs a lot of punch and charm.

We arrived late so woke up early to wander the streets. 

There seemed to be an ongoing theme; wine and pastries. Every other shop consisted of these. My kind of town indeed. 

I had to fight for every bite of my delicious apple strudel. When it comes to sweets, I don't share. Sorry Luna.

Having our fill of sweets, we decided to indulge in the area's other specialty; wine. Insert grin here. We drove past beautiful golden vineyards and arrived at Sunstone Vineyards & Winery.

Before heading to the tasting room we explored the grounds which felt like we were transported to the hills of Tuscany with it's rustic charm and spectacular views of the mountains in the distance.

Entering the tasting room we grabbed some bread to dip into their delicious oils and vinegar they had available. You know, to soak up all the wine we were about to consume. 

Let the fun begin...

I tried to school Jer on the fundamentals of wine tasting; the swirl and sniff.

He decided that the chugging method was more his speed.

The place was quite crowded and the lovely lady that was assisting us with our wine tasting kept giving us double of everything. I feel she is a major asset to the winery.

We moved ourselves outside (after grabbing a few more slices of bread) to take in our beautiful surroundings. 

 We were taking this wine tasting very seriously. Still trying to find the notes of tobacco in each sip.

We decided that now would probably be a good time to pack it in. We purchased our wine and headed down to their vineyards. 

We had about one hour before the wineries closed and debated if we should try another one in the area. Carpe Diem. 

We arrived at the Rideau Vineyard. Much different than the last. Beautiful gardens with large oak trees (I forgot how much I miss trees on the this trip)adorn the outside. Inside had a very strong Victorian style with bold colors and trinkets throughout. The owner is very hands on and can be seen walking around with her two dogs. It felt like you were visiting an old relative.

We plopped down and began our tasting. Our wine connoisseur was great and humored us by listening to our ramblings. 

I am not sure how it came up (maybe all of the trinkets everywhere) but Jer said that no one outside of the "skook" (our hometown) knows what knick-knacking is. I didn't believe it so I asked the two ladies behind the bar and the response was collecting trinkets. 

We explained that when we were kids the thing to do was to get corn and throw it at houses for shits and giggles (mainly around Halloween). 

They both repeated it back to us "So you would get corn, throw it at houses, and run..." We shook our heads yes, this is what you do in small towns.

Our assistant then says "Oh wow, well, we don't have corn but we have apples. Would that work?" We lost it. We both looked at each other and were like that could break a few windows. We explained that we took the time to take the kernels off the corn and threw those. Which ensued even more strange looks. The one girl turned her nose up and walked away and the other was probably going to be purchasing a shit ton of corn kernels at the grocery store that night (we clicked). 

With too much wine in our bellies and no food it was time to head back to town. But not before Jer had a chance to run in the vineyards...(sorry Jer I know you are going to kill me but you can blame it on the alcohol)