Western Iowa Wine Trail

If you've never been much of a wine connoisseur , then you may not be overly impressed with this post.  But you may enjoy hearing of my travels on this trail. 
Nebraska's neighboring state to the east, Iowa, was the destination.  Not only one town but several.  As it turned out we traveled to 5 little towns.  My friends had the idea early in February to combine the celebration of my birthday along with my friend Lisa's, which is March 12TH, and be part of the Mardi Gras Wine Trail.  Because we both enjoy wine and incidentally, have similar taste in wine, the other girls knew we would both enjoy this adventure.  The weekend of the wine trail was March 5TH and 6TH...coinciding with Mardi Gras.  So early on Saturday morning Trisa picked me up at my house and from there we went to pick up Tina.  We went back to Trisa's house and waited for Lisa to come by and get all of us.  She drives a large enough vehicle to hold all of us comfortably.  From there, we drove to Tammy's and then to Dee's.  After packing in our birthday gifts and munchies and water, we all climbed in and hit the road for our day of sampling. 


The car load.  Tammy is looking at the map to see where we should begin.



Tina and I in the back seat. 

Our first destination was Glenwood, IA where we found King's Crossing Vineyard.  We purchased our "wine passports", (needed for the entire trail and used to enter for door prizes), sampled some of the food that was prepared and began our journey of wine sampling.  Each winery has an allotted number of samples that any one person may try.  Then if you decide you like any or all of them, you can make your purchases.  We actually saw another car load of girls that we knew and ended up caravanning with them throughout the course of our trail.  

Me and Lisa...the birthday girls at King's Crossing.

 Then it was back to our vehicle and on the road to Treynor, IA and Prairie Crossing Vineyard.  This was a quaint little country winery.  The setup inside was very nicely done.  It had a nice bar with room for many people at one time and they had many selections of gifts for purchase scattered throughout the room.  One wall had many bottles of their wine lined up from floor to ceiling.  The atmosphere was fun too with all the other customers that were already there when we arrived.  Apparently, they had been there awhile! 

Once everyone was ready to go, we took some pictures and once again, piled into Lisa's car.  Trisa was our designated driver as she wasn't drinking.  Our next stop was going to be just to the east of Carson, IA, which is home to Whispering Hills Winery.  We discovered that it was a little busier than our first stop.  It had a very nice bar that was much bigger and had room for more people as well.  Once again, we sampled some of their food and tried out some of their products. 



My friends and some of the other group of girls that we traveled with on the tour.
Left to right:  Tammy, Trisa, Dee, Lisa, Tine, Chris, Me, Jenine, Christina 


Pictures done and purchases in hand, back to the vehicle we went.  By now, it was about noon and even though we had some nibbles of food and crackers at the wineries, we needed sustenance!  So we drove back to Treynor, IA and stopped at a little cafe called The Rose.  They are so small that there isn't a web site for it.  It made me think of back home in ND where everyone knows everyone and they had delicious home-made food.  The other group of six girls stopped here as well and all twelve of us had a good lunch/dinner. 



Dee, Lisa, Tammy, Tina, Me and Trisa

Our journey continued on to Breezy Hills Vineyard and Winery in Minden, IA. This winery wasn't far off the interstate and was very easy to get to.  It was a popular place and had a lot more space inside for everyone to sit and sample both their food and wine.  We browsed the items for purchase, sampled many items and of course, I found one that I especially liked.  Tammy bought this one for me as part of my birthday gift.  Thanks girlie!

At each stop, we had our "passports" stamped by the respective wineries.  When we had made all the stops we were going to make, we would leave the passports with the last winery.  It would be included into a drawing for prizes.  I thinks it's safe to assume none of us didn't win anything as we haven't heard from any of the wineries!  Oh well....maybe next time. 

From there, we traveled on to Crescent, IA and Loess Hills Vineyard and Winery.  This little town is just off I-29 to the east and is easy to get to as well.  This was going to be our last stop of the tour.  We had been gone all day.  Some of the girls were getting pretty tired.  But, no one was tipsy as I thought may happen.  We had behaved and had eaten during the course of our day to prevent "hang over" issues. 
This winery had an awesome selection of wine and I found two flavors that I had to take home.  By this time, I had seven bottles of wine in the vehicle and Tammy had a few more than that.  We were obviously the biggest "winos" of the day!


The last stop of our tour. 

 

All of us at Loess Hills.   Back row: Tina, Tammy, Trisa and Dee.
Front: Me and Lisa

On our way back to Omaha, the idea of going to Dee's parents house was brought up.  They have an outdoor hot tub and what better way to end our day then by sitting in it to relax and enjoy our beautiful weather!  So we dropped off people at their homes.  Everyone (but Tammy...she stayed home with her family for a good night of family time and movies) got into their bathing suits and made their way over to Bob and Alvina's home.  By now, the temps were getting a bit chilly but it was still nice for early March. 
Bob wasn't home but Alvina joined us.  We sat there for over two hours!  Talk about pruned skin!  It was great to have more girl time and talks.  Alvina went inside early and made "finger food" for us to munch on after we got done in the hot tub.  We sat in the house and chatted more.  It had been an awesome day and wonderful to have a much needed friend day together.  We don't get to do this sort of thing very often and we felt it was much deserved. 
Thanks to all of my "besties" for a wonderful day of time together.  I had a blast and I think of them did too!  Love you girls!

Birthday Celebration

Wow....today has been a great day!  Even though I had to work my normal shift at the airport, on my birthday,  I still had plans afterwards to join my friends for some shopping and an evening meal out.  I met my friends at Trisa's house and we went to Kohl's for the first stop of our shopping extravaganza.  From there we drove to Shadow Lake Towne Center.  After eating an early evening meal at Wheatfield's,  we found a parking space centrally located to most of our favorite stores and hit the sidewalks.  We walked in and out of most of them.  Clothing was tried on and some purchased, shoes were tried out and most purchased, and accessories were picked out and of course, purchased.   Tammy and I were the last two standing that night.  We were out and about until most of the stores were closing up shop at 9 PM.  I hadn't done that for many months! 

My day started with many birthday greetings popping up on Face Book.  They continued alllll day long!  I think before it was all said and done, there had been over 50 people sending me good wishes.  I love how I've been able to reconnect with so many that I used to see and talk to regularly when I used to live in ND. 
It was so fun to read them all.  I also had a few phone calls and even some text messages from a couple people.  Technology has certainly changed.  There are so many forms of communication and they all worked for me that day. 

But the birthday celebrations aren't over today.  Next Saturday, on the 5Th of March, I'll be joining my best friends for a co-birthday celebration with Lisa.  She celebrates hers on March 12th.  So we are all getting together on the 5TH.  Stay tuned for all the fun details on that day! 

Thanks to everyone that sent greetings my way!  I love to hear from you any time.