Michael and I got to have a mini weekend away! Saturday morning my dad came down from Seattle to babysit Logan (and the furbabies) for the weekend and we took off to wine country! (We had a family emergency and my mom had to stay home to take care of it, which was disappointing but necessary. And the emergency got sorted out.)
The first stop was a small hike in McMinnville. We did Miller Woods. It was a preservation area with a few ponds, trails through fields and forest, plus lots and lots of birdhouses!
All week the weather had been hot and sunny and gorgeous–even got up to 90 degrees two days! Of course the weekend arrived and it was suddenly gray, overcast and drizzly. But we got lucky and the weather, while windy and chilly, wasn’t terrible.
It was an easy hike and very kid-friendly. They even had some laminated picture sheets for kids to take along to spot different plants and bugs, etc. on the trail. (Dogs not allowed.)
We did the shorter loop because we were a little pressed for time. After the hike we drove to Newberg and got lunch at Good Company. It was a cheese shop with sandwiches and stuff for lunch.
We checked into our rental. It was a super cute attic apartment a few blocks from the main street in Newberg. It was such a cute place! I loved the retro feel.
It was adorable! Impeccably clean and darling. Seemed professionally designed, too. It reminded me a lot of our house (we have a 1920s bungalow and the attic was converted in the 90s to living space so the ceilings are slanted). I absolutely loved the design. Simple, cozy, some country/farmhouse design for the kitchen. It was quiet and comfortable.
Because of covid, things have changed a lot. This was kind of the first time we ventured out into “the world”. We’ve gotten food at outdoor venues, but haven’t been IN anywhere in a year+. One thing that changed was that for wine tasting you had to make reservations.
So you book a spot online, pre-pay to reserve your spot, you get 90 minutes to taste. It kind of changes the dynamic of wine tasting. Usually we’d go somewhere that looked good, or we’d read about it, and if we liked it we stopped. If we didn’t like the wines, we’d go to the next place. The spontaneity is definitely gone!
The first place we had reservations for was Rex Hill. Check out their website for better pictures. They had a ton of outdoor tasting space, which was nice. It was a little windy being up on a hill in a valley. When the sun was out and it was hot, it felt nice.
Rex Hill is one we’ve never been to. It’s one of the older wineries in the area. I think it was originally a fruit and nut farm, then a pig farm and then in the 70s or 80s they started growing grapes.
It was a nice, chill, relaxed, slow paced afternoon. It was very weird to be out and about, around people, not wearing masks occasionally. But after the initial weirdness, it felt almost like covid had never happened. (Other than all the workers wearing masks the entire time they were working.)
The guy doing our tasting was really interesting, chatty and knowledgable. We learned a lot about wine tasting in general, not just wine! It was cool.
Part Two coming!
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