7 Years!

Wine tasting!

Enchanted Valley B&B

Deck off of our room

Beautiful country

Yeah...interior decorating can't get much worse than this...

First stop Wollersheim!

Grapes!

Shhh...wine at rest...

How cool is this!

Kerrigan Brothers


Awesome sink at Kerrigan Brothers

Ledgestone Winery

Trout Springs

The cool Floor medallion at Trout Springs Winery

The ROOST!

Random sign in Appleton==that is an interesting new breakfast menu....

Yup...He is definitely King of the Mountain...

For our seventh anniversary Rob and I decided to go on a winery Tour of Eastern Wisconsin. I have told Rob before that I wanted to spend a few days traveling through the state and stopping at wineries and staying at B & B's. Rob suggested that we do it this anniversary.

Nana came around 5 on Friday (to watch the kids) and we were gone by 6. We stopped on the way out at Papa John's for a pizza. We were planning to drive straight to our first B & B and eat pizza in our room and drink a bottle of wine we had brought along. (Pretty much all the wineries were closed by 6, but we didn't want to waste our first night out!) Our first B & B was near Mazomanie. We picked this B&B because we wanted a place close to Wollersheim (our first winery) and because of the neat description and good reviews.

This B&B said that it only had 2 rooms, but the rooms had their own private decks. Breakfast is made with garden produce and served at the time you would like on the deck. We thought this sounded like a neat place--where we wouldn't be with a lot of other couples and we could enjoy the beautiful countryside. Unfortunately it was freezing cold, so it turned out that we didn't want to spend too much time on the deck.

When we got there we were greeted by an elderly couple. This B & B was their home and they rented out two rooms in their lower level. This couple was very nice but also very talkative and almost scary so. First of all, I should mention that we enter this house and it is a flashback to the 80's. Everything and I mean EVERYTHING was pink---ooh...except for the bright yellow couch in the family room. UGH! And I hate pink--but am actually more tolerant of it now since most baby girl clothes are pink. The couple ended up joining us for our pizza on the deck. Like I said they were very friendly, but weird. For example the lady suddenly asked us out of the blue if we liked Obama's health care plan. Hmmm...I want to have a nice stay--do I answer this question? Do I really want to talk politics with you? VERY odd. I was actually beginning to think that Rob and I would never be able to get away until eventually I think the husband got the idea and told his wife that they needed to turn in. YEAH! So Rob and I escaped to our pink room.

I have to say the pink room had the most comfortable bed--but it also had newly hatched spiders! EEKS!

The next morning they joined us for breakfast as well as another couple. Breakfast was good, but again conversation was strange. We were too happy to escape. This B&B was a bit overpriced, considering the accommodations, but I will say the views were breathtaking. I also think the owners just need to be more careful not to intrude on their guests. I think it was just an odd place--oh I almost forgot to mention that the wife had the place Feng Shui'd and she was very proud of it. Very odd....yeah, I don't think we will go back.

Wollersheim Winery was first on our agenda. It is funny that this HUGE winery is so close to us, and we have driven by it multiple times, yet we had yet to visit it. I have to say the first part of this tour was goofy--it was a video of an old man with an accent talking about how when he came to Wisconsin, he knew he could start a winery here. I loved going down in the cellar where all the barrels were. It was very cool to just see where all the grapes went and where they were processed. Of course, the tasting was excellent afterwards. SO much fun to taste and rate wine! My favorite there was a sunrise blush! YUM!

We then left to head North East towards Green Bay where there were 3 more wineries we were planning on trying. It was funny that we actually went back through Madison to get there. We stopped in Sun Prairie and grabbed a quick lunch.

Our first winery was called Kerrigan Brothers in Green Leaf. They had a lot of fruity wines. We really had bad timing with this winery as several bachelorette parties were coming in while we were there. The owner even apologized to us and asked us to come back. My favorite part of this winery was the sink in the bathroom. They used a roll top desk as a sink! HOW COOL! As you can probably tell now, i wasn't that impressed by the wine. They did have a tomato jalapeno wine--and I just thought that was gross--it tasted like drinking salsa. Kuddos to them for trying. BTW I learned there that it is against the law to ferment vegetables, so he actually had to add the tomatoes later...Interesting stuff.

Next we headed to Ledgestone also in Green Leaf. This winery seemed very upscale. It was located in the country and the outside of the building was not impressive, however the inside was VERY nice. Rob and I had fun tasting the wines here as well, but we did not really care for any of the wines. They had a Moscato at the end--and I love Moscato's, but it was not worth the price they were asking (and it wasn't their wine.)

From there we were off to Trout Springs Winery. This winery was actually a small building located next to the owner's house. There was no official parking area, kind of showing how they don't expect many people. The wine here was good! And Expensive. They personally bottle their own stuff though, so it was understandable why their prices were higher. After tasting, we ended up purchasing 2 bottles there. YUM! After we were done there we went back to an ice cream shop we had noticed down the street. Actually I should call it an ice cream barn, since it was located in a barn. Rob and I got some delectable creations. His was oozing sauce all over--the girl really made it yummy! We played a game of chess and then left (yeah it was a short game since neither of us are very good---I think Rob won.)

At this point we were off to the next B&B in Appleton. I was excited about this B&B. I had picked it based on the name "The Roost!". Doesn't that just sound fun!? And it was a beautiful place too. We had a fabulous room and the owners did a little chatting with us--however they also gave us space. Our room had this giant bed you had to have a step stool to get into...and somehow I managed to smash my knees on the side railing of the bed trying to climb down--OUCH! (I was too excited by the big bed.) So we went to dinner after checking in to the roost and I had Very sore knees--Seriously I had two large knots on my knees that turned into nasty bruises. For dinner we went to a local brewery (Stone Cellar Brew Pub). I ate a yummy burger and Rob had some pasta thing. The food was good. I ate a lot more than I thought I would. YUM!

The next morning we walked around Appleton. Shared drinks at a coffee shop and played some games. We then headed home. We needed to get home in time for Ky's soccer game and Nana needed to get home. So we hit 4 wineries in one day. Pretty impressive! We will definitely have to do this again. It was a great anniversary and I look forward to many many many more years with my wonderful husband!