As I mentioned in the previous post, Kel & I took Friday off from work to spend some time together in celebration of her birthday. Kel got to sleep in while I got the kids ready and took them to school.
We then went to Barnes & Noble to pick up some reading material and some coffee from the embedded Starbucks.
We then hit the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a bit of a grim day - heavily overcast and constantly on the verge of raining (a few drops, then nothing, then a few more drops…) Still quite pretty, as the pictures from the return trip (below) will show…
We had lunch at the Château Morrisette winery, just off the parkway, about an hour and a half from our house.
Here are a couple of pictures of the view from the back deck of Château Morrisette’s restaurant:
(All the pictures are linked to a full-sized image. Just click…)
After a very nice lunch, we did the full (almost) tasting and took a tour of the winery. I drooled over some of the equipment, and Kel bought a case of wine, along with some glassware.
(For lunch, I had the shrimp & grits. I’ve had shrimp & grits in Wilmington (NC) and Charleston (SC) served with a spicy tomato sauce. I’ve had shrimp & grits in Mobile (AL), served with a roux-based sauce. This was the first time I had it with a cream sauce. All are excellent, though…)
Château Morrisette sits at about 3450 feet of elevation. Which, as they explained to us during the tour, greatly limits the types of grapes they can grow. (Shorter growing season, harder freezes, etc.) Most of the grapes they use in their wines are from other Virginia vineyards.
I won’t try to tag all of the following pictures - I think they’re pretty self expanatory…
Some pictures are taken from the car as we drove, others from the many overlooks. I’m lucky to live in such a beautiful place - I should get out to see it more often…
As you can see, the sky pretty much cleared up. (But it got windy and cold…)b
As we were zooming past, I hurried to take a shot of a vine covered shed in the middle of the field.
After I cropped it for display, I realized I liked the full picture, too. So here that is…
Here Kel looks back at me from the car, wondering how damned many pictures I’m gonna take…
Then we picked up the kids and I cooked a spontaneous version of chicken cordon bleu.
Over all, a very nice day….
