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Washington Wedding Recap – Day 3

July 11, 2014 by DetroitDuchess Leave a Comment

Day three of our trip was the day of the wedding so we were jam-packed with fun activities. First up, I had a little fun at the Willow’s Lodge spa with a heavenly massage. This was their outdoor jacuzzi:

After my massage, I met up with my gal pals to tour more wineries (yay!). We started at the Alexandria Nicole tasting room. I have to give a big shout out to my cute preggo friends for being such troopers and going wine tasting with us even though they couldn’t have any.

At Alexandria Nicole, we got the 2013 Roussane, which will make the perfect summer wine for our deck.

Next up was the Bookwalter Cellars, which I loved because of the book theme. We got the 2012 Subplot 28 which was a great red blend.

There was a food truck right outside of Bookwalter’s and we were able to get some lunch and enjoy more of Bookwalter’s wines! We had a great time:

Our final stop for the day was Patterson Cellars. I got the 2012 Forbidden White and the Due Anni Red Blend.

After the last stop it was back to the hotel to prepare for the wedding. John and I were finally able to take our third anniversary photo since we were all dressed up:

The wedding was beautiful and I couldn’t be happier for my dear friend Amanda and her new husband Michael. She was just stunning. This was one of her photos from C2 Photography.

We had a great time in Washington and would love to visit again.

A note of warning to anyone who decides to visit Seattle wine country – this isn’t like Napa, where the hotel will ship your wine for you. If you don’t get it to a special shipping facility during the week you will have to take it back in your suitcase because UPS/FedEx won’t ship it back for you. So keep that in mind if you are going on a wine shopping spree.

If you missed Day 2, click here for the recap.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Alexandria Nicole, Bookwalter Winery, Patterson Cellars, Woodinville

Washington Wedding Recap – Day 2

June 25, 2014 by DetroitDuchess Leave a Comment

On Day Two of our Washington Trip, we visited a few wineries in Woodinville. We started with the infamous Chateau Ste. Michelle:

The winery was located in its own estate, there was a beautiful chateau and it was a very scenic area. It would have been a great place to picnic at or sit outside and enjoy some wine. We had a tight schedule that day, so we didn’t have a ton of time to hang about. Chateau Ste. Michelle is famous for its Rieslings. I used to be a huge Riesling fan, but lately I don’t like some of the really sweet stuff. We did buy some of the Sauvignon Blanc from the Horse Heaven Vineyard. We may have purchased more, but I think we drank it during the trip, so this is the only bottle I have left.

In the back of Chateau Ste. Michelle, there is a winery within a winery. This was intriguing to me because it was in this little room made entirely of glass. This picture doesn’t really do it justice:

Our hostess at Chateau St. Michelle was telling us about this winery run by the Antinori family who has been making wine since 1385. I am a sucker for a good history lesson and we had to go check this one out. The winery is called Col Solare and runs in partnership with Chateau St. Michelle. They only have three wines available, the 2008 Col Solare, 2009 Col Solare and the 2009 Shining Hill.

This wine was amazing and if they would have had a wine club I probably would have joined it. We bought one of each at this winery and I am excited because they are a number of restaurants in my area that carry this wine, plus it is available at one of the local markets by our house.

After our visit to Chateau St. Michelle, we stopped at Airfield Winery, where the wedding would be held, to get a sneak peak. This tasting room was PERFECT for our friends’ wedding. He is a Marine and a pilot and she is a Navy Physiologist. One of the hosts at the tasting room gave us a little history about the winery. The vineyard is located in the Rattlesnake Mountains in the Yakima Valley within three miles of an airbase used in World War II.

Throughout the course of the weekend, we purchased the Pinot Noir, Bombshell Red, Ruby Rose and Flygirl White. We also joined The Officer’s Wine Club so we could have a great memory of this weekend.

After this tasting we drove out to Seattle to meet John’s fraternity brother for a Mariners/Tigers game at SafeCo field. I was so happy to see these guys reunited. Plus this added to our list of baseball fields that we can cross off the list.

We had a ton of fun on Day 2!

Stay tuned for Day 3 of our Washington Wedding!

If you missed Day 1, click here for the recap.

Filed Under: Travel, Wine of the Week Tagged With: Airfield Winery, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Col Solare, Safeco Field, Seattle, Woodinville

Washington Wedding Recap – Day 1

June 17, 2014 by DetroitDuchess 3 Comments

I may have mentioned in a previous post that we had four weddings to attend this spring. This is the third wedding we went to a few weeks ago for our friends Amanda and Michael. It was a big one as we got to travel to Seattle, Washington for the first time.

John and I had a few extra days before the wedding to check out some sights, so as soon as our plane landed we decided to check out Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. We had fun checking out the marketplace and trying fresh fruit. I even tried a Plout (Plum & Apricot) and it was delicious!

We had lunch at the famous Pike Place Chowder, a.k.a. “Nation’s Best Chowder.” I tried the Southwest Chicken Corn Chowder and I could definitely see why they are known for their chowder!

After lunch and exploring, we headed out to Woodinville, to check in at Willow’s Lodge, our home for the next few days. This resort was gorgeous! Our room was amazing with it’s own fireplace and balcony.

Our room turned out to be right next door to a few friends that we hadn’t seen since our wedding. We had a great time catching up over some wine while we were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.

For dinner we all walked right next door to Redhook Brewery and we were able to meet up with another one of my husband’s fraternity brothers that we hadn’t seen in about five years. I was so happy that we got to meet up with them! I tried the Blonde Ale of course, YUM!