Trip to the Valley

On Saturday Ann and I packed up the car and our faux mini schnauzer, Rosie, and hit the road to visit Daughter#2 who lives in Harrisonburg nestled in the Shenandoah Valley. It's a beautiful drive heading west on I-66 and then south on I-81. The mountains are all around. The main reason for the trip was to transport Daughter's#2's bridesmaid dress for the upcoming marriage of her older sister, Daughter#1. We also returned a few odds and ends that she had left during her visit home for Christmas.

We arrived just before lunchtime so we sat down to chat and enjoy a cup of tea before we set off to Clementine's for lunch. I had a portobello mushroom sandwich with goat cheese and marinated roma tomatoes. Here Daughter#2 munches on her black bean burger. She is still recovering from gum surgery so her lunch choices were somewhat limited. I also enjoyed a bottle of two of some fine Belhaven Scottish Ale.

After lunch, we walked across the street to drop into Harrisonburg's tourist information center to locate the address of a winery that is nearby. The nicest old woman asked if we needed help and then talked our ears off for a good 15 minutes or so. In a good way though. She was full of information and ideas as our elders often are if we take the time to listen. The winery we were looking for was Crosskeys Vineyards. It's fairly new from what I understand and close to Harrisonburg. It took us less than 15 minutes to get there from downtown. Here Daughter#2 and I stand out front of their main building. The wine tasting room is to the right in this picture. It was a gorgeous place, but did I mention it was freezing out?

Same view but a little closer shot of Ann and Daughter#2 before we headed inside.

We didn't take the tour because of the temperature outside. We noticed when we pulled up that the tour included a trip outside to see the grape vines and it was just too cold. We did do the wine tasting and sampled five of their wines. We all thought their Chardonnay was excellent as well as the Cabernet Franc. Enough so that we decided to get stay and enjoy a glass or two as seen below.

After the wine tasting, we returned to Daughter#2's home and the dogs, who were ready for dinner and a run in the fenced yard. As we were getting ready to drive home, The Son In Law got home from his band practice/recording session. We missed having him along, but there are other weekends plus we have a trip planned with them in the near future.

For anyone who might be interested in seeing more about the aftermath of the Air Florida crash that I discussed in my past post, particularly the rescue part, check out Daughter#2's comment on how to view additional footage. There are four links but I only linked to the first.