So on Wednesday, we headed to Charlottesville, VA to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We started planning this many months ago and after taking several things into consideration, decided to stay fairly close to home.
With that said and the fact that the Charlottesville area is the Napa Valley of Virginia, we landed on a Bed & Breakfast that was rated in the top ten romantic B&B's.
We stopped for a nice breakfast -
I made my 'routine' wishes and dropped a few pennies in -
then it was time to get out of the county. Out of three Map Quest options, we picked the scenic route.
The ride was beautiful and this was just one advantage -
The place looked quaint so we turned around. The owner just happened to be pulling up to mail a letter so let us in. We chatted, looked around, purchased some preserves that his wife made and Ronnie grabbed a bottle of Mountain Dew!
A few pictures later then we headed on our merry way.
This part of the country is pure beauty. The store owner told us we would see this barn on Route 231 and he wasn't wrong.
Our check in wasn't until 4 so we took our time, stopping wherever we wanted. We saw a sign for this winery -
it was closed but we didn't mind - we wouldn't have gotten to see this beautiful farm
The more south we travelled, the cheaper gas was which wasn't a bad thing either =)
Using our Wine magazine, I wanted to stop at Barboursville first. This one was rated the most romantic =)
I can certainly see why -
Lots of great wines, beautiful place and an added benefit was that our 'pourer' was from Italy. Very, very tall, ha!
We checked out the 'ruins' -
Then headed to Horton.
We have purchased some of their wines at Virginia Festivals -
Not too impressed. The building doesn't appear to be maintained. The staff?! Well, we were greeted by a guy who was washing dishes and apparently should have worn an apron. His shirt was just a tad wet, haha! And the 'pourer', well while she was definitely friendly, she wouldn't be who I would want giving the first impression. She was also very opinionated about their wines, telling us before we tasted, which she didn't like. Hmmm.
And then there's Keswick -
I always read about the winery before we go. The write-up mentioned quilts being available for the lawn. Not so sure I would want to use someone's quilt but they were available =)
There might be room on this table for your wine glass, ha!
The place was very pretty -
and the wines list included some nice whites and reds -
After our purchase, we headed out to our fourth and final winery of the day!
The place was pretty nice. The typical tasting is $5 and you get to keep the glass but here, $10 and the glass doesn't even have their name/logo. What's up with that?! The wines were good but a little pricey as well.
We did purchase a bottle and then it was time to go check-in! Yay!
We chose the
Fox Field Inn. Dan and Kathryn had our "Garden Room" all ready -
they even had two glasses of Virginia wine waiting.
What a perfect day so far. Check back to get the scoop on our Anniversary dinner =)
