Resumption of blogging: an anniversary trip

Yes, I know it's been a long blogging hiatus. But I do have some good excuses, in addition to just being plumb worn out from telling you about our European trip (did I really write 61 blog posts?!?).

For one thing, we were in the high Rockies for a time, where the internet is pretty sparse. Then we had a glorious 3-week-long visit from the Exceptional Granddaughter and her parents. I couldn't miss out on playtime to do any blogging then!

So I do have a backlog of pictures and accompanying tales to tell.

I'm going to start with a weekend trip made possible by our lovely children. They gave us gift certificates for our 40th anniversary (last year) to a B&B in Fredericksburg and that town's wine shuttle. Naturally, for us, the certs were about to expire when we finally found time to use them in January.

lovely winter sky at Becker Vineyards,
one of the many stops on the shuttle route

Our accommodations were at Hoffman Haus, and we hadn't felt so pampered since getting off Tor in Budapest. The room was really nice, and the breakfasts were scrumptious, and even delivered right to our door in ingenious little baskets.

Henry enjoying breakfast on our patio

A good bit of our time in Fredericksburg was spent in the war museum there, and I'll tell you about that next time.

But Saturday afternoon we toured, and tasted at, wineries. This part of Texas is becoming quite a wine destination, with dozens of vineyards and bottlers in the area. Many are not far from F'burg, and these enterprising folks have taken advantage of this density to offer shuttle rides for wine tourists like ourselves.

First we fortified ourselves with a satisfying lunch at Jennie's Burgers. Who could resist an order of their "Tornado Fries"?

Then over a block or two (F'burg is so nice and compact; all of its important landmarks are within walking distance of each other) to catch our wine bus.

I neglected to take a good picture of one of the shuttle vehicles, but here's the one we caught at Becker. It's not good of the bus, but isn't that a gorgeous old tree?

We decided to do tastings at just two of the wineries, since, as much as we like fine wine, we don't have as much capacity for it as we wish.

First up was Torre di Pietra (which means, as my rapidly disappearing facility with Italian tells me, "Stone Tower"). We splurged on a tasting + tour there, since they have their own vines, and we got a personalized stroll around the place with the owner. Here's a look at some of his vines, resting in winter dormancy:

We got a look inside, too, at some of the machinery that makes our wine-drinking possible, like this bottling apparatus, seen from bottle's-eye-level...

After our Torre-tasting, we hopped on the bus and took it to Becker, which is at the end of the line. We opted to skip a tasting and tour there, since we had done that a few years ago with our kids. (Pictures and description of this outing are at the end of this post.)

But we did just buy a glass of Becker cabernet and sat around a while, enjoying the clearing weather (see photo at the top of this post). 

Then it was back on the bus for the ride back into town, after a stop at a different sort of winery, the 4.0 Cellars. They don't have their own vines, but rather bottle and sell wines from several different Texas vineyards. Here's their tasting room:

By the time we'd gotten a good start on their tasting list, we were in pretty good spirits (so to speak), generously helped by our knowledgeable, but rather quirky, sommelier. Yes, he's wearing a kilt, and told us he does all the time. At least that's what I remember him saying!

The best aspect of the wine shuttle tickets are that you don't have to drive back to town after doing all this wine sampling! So we safely made it back to F'burg and were able to look forward to another day of museum-ing on Sunday before heading home.

Henry channeling his inner Nimitz on the museum grounds

We had visited the National Museum of the Pacific War on our previous trip to Fredericksburg, and had always wanted to come back. Next time I'll show you some more of the great exhibits offered by this fine museum.