Saturdays are “Ally days” around here. This means that Eric abandons his homework for 24 hours and we get a full day of dating.
On this particular Saturday, we headed to wine country. There are a ton of wineries only 20 minutes from our apartment, so we just picked one that we had heard of from an Oregonian. We headed to Sweet Cheeks Winery to partake in a wine tasting and pick up a bottle to take to dinner that night.
One should be warned that the roads to the wineries are very windy. And if one is prone to car sickness, one should prepare oneself.
Anywho, apparently Sweet Cheeks is a very popular Saturday afternoon destination. The parking lot was almost completely full when we arrived, but the service at the wine tasting bar was excellent, despite the crowd. And the best thing about Sweet Cheeks? The wine tasting is free! We got to try 5 different wines before picking our favorites to purchase.
Neither of us are wine connoisseurs, by any means, but I am happy to report that I was actually able to taste some of the “hints of citrus, berries, etc.” as listed on the wine description. Of course, I think I mostly noticed the citrus because it tasted like someone had spilled a jug of orange juice in a bottle of wine. It was gross.
We spent the rest of our visit out on the huge patio, enjoying the view of the vineyard and surrounding hills.
The drive back from the winery had little hints of autumn. There are a ton of evergreen trees here, but if you look hard enough, you can find some deciduous trees with amazing pops of color. I didn’t photograph any of those for you, but I did take a picture of this little pop of Christmas to get you all excited for the season ahead (but let’s be honest, if a Christmas song comes on my iPod, I’m not going to skip it, no matter the season).
After the winery, we headed to historic Brownsville for dinner with friends. Brownsville is a cute little town about 30 minutes north of Eugene. It had one of those fun historical markers as we entered the town, so we had to stop and take a look. (You can blame my interest in historical markers on my Mom, who would photograph them all on every vacation.) You can read all about Brownsville’s exciting history here, but most notably, the movie “Stand By Me” was filmed in this town. Personally, I was just impressed that this pioneer woman operated a ferry by hand.
Our drive through historic Brownsville was followed by an incredibly delicious dinner and a nice evening stroll through the town. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
-Ally
Betsy says
What a great picture of you, Ally!! Sounds like such a fun day and I’m certainly glad you get an Ally day!! Eric gets to benefit too by being with you (which I know he loves) and exploring!