Friday, March 5, 2010

Plan B is not so bad

A few years ago as I was approaching a milestone I started to plan my dream birthday party. I wanted there to be lots of finger foods; various breads, cheeses, olives and fruit. There would be all different types of wines. Each guest would bring their own wine glass to use during the "wine" party and then they would leave it as a gift to me and memento of my 40th birthday celebration. I would have these glasses and each time I used one I could look back and think of the good times and remember the friend who gave it to me.

Well when my 40th birthday rolled around, I was pregnant (no wine for me) and my husband was in the hospital have 23 centimeters of his colon removed. Needless to say that party was put on hold indefinitely.

This year brought another milestone birthday around. It is my Mother’s 60th birthday. I struggled for a while on what to do/get her for such a big birthday. Then it hit me… Hey! She likes wine too! I could plan something that she would like and I could live vicariously and we’ll both be happy.

The plan was for the hubby and I to take the kids and my Mom on a road trip. My Mother loves to spend “everyday” time with the kids. She likes to see them in the morning, at bedtime, during meals, while they play; she could watch them all day. I figured riding six plus hours in the van and spending the weekend in a hotel would be more than enough to fill her “kid fix” and on top of that we going to cover a wine trail. There is a trail in the southeast corner of Pennsylvania that has seven local wineries within a few miles of each other. It’s called the Brandywine Valley wine trail.
All the wineries are mapped out and you can go from one to the other and sample wines at your own speed.


Did I mention when this trip was???? Remember that blizzard that hit the northeast, dumping 2 feet of snow and putting everyone into a state of emergency. Yep. Good timing huh?

Well, the trip went on just with a slight “detour” to plan B. As we headed into town on Friday, we were able to make stops at two of the wineries. The first one was the Twin Brook winery.


It was a nice easy way to get in the mood. We were there for about 30 minutes or so and sampled about 5 wines for free. The wines were fairy good but not the best during the trip.

From there we followed the map and found our way to Stargazers Vineyard.




It would have been really nice to read the fine print that said they are only open on Saturday and Sunday. Ooops. It looked like a cool place and we thought we might get to go back on Saturday if the weather forecast was wrong. (That didn’t happen).

Next we headed closer to the hotel and made a stop at Chaddsford Winery.




The state of Pennsylvania has over 200 wineries and this one is ranked number ONE. It was such a good find for us. We had a wonderful visit there. We were there for a little over an hour. There the fee was $8.00 pp and you get to sample 8 wines and keep the glass as a memento. We left there with a case and a half of wine.

As we walked out it was just starting to snow. Within 20 minutes we were in our hotel and had ordered out for dinner.

In the morning we woke to find the city covered in that white stuff and everything was shut down. Thankfully, I had a cooler full of food, bags of toys and actives for the kids, we had 21 bottles of wine, room service, an indoor swimming pool, 2 adjoining suits with plenty of space and 4 televisions. If you’re going to be snowed in this is the way to do it!!!!


We midded out on going to wineries on Saturday but on Sunday we checked out and found our way to one more winery. I was determined to try for another before the long drive home.








Penns Woods Winery was the closest to our road home. We stopped there for about 45 minutes. Mom and I bought 2 bottles each.

All-in-all a good trip even if it was plan B. And the most amazing thing was what I found when we got home. Remember the 2 feet of snow that dumped on us while we were traveling fools???









Our next-door neighbor shoveled enough space at the end of the drive so we could pull off the road and then shoveled a path to the door so we could just come inside. What an Angle!!!!!

Thanks Anne!!!!

4 comments:

Intense Guy said...

Your friend Anne is indeed an angel!

And it sounds like you were on about plan D or E with the alternate planning due to the snow and stuff - but all in all - it sounds like you had a marvelous trip!

So happy (rather belated) 40th birthday to you and happy (less) belated birthday to your mom!

I've seen signs for Twin Brooks - but never turned down the driveway - and yes, Chadd's Ford makes some mighty good drinking goodies. :)

I'll have to keep the "wine glass" share idea in mine - I've encountered some really nice looking wine glasses while visiting wineries - and if I see one that says "This Mom's Many Hats" to me - I'll get it for ya.

Teaching Heart Mom said...

I love your wine glass idea.

It was so neat to read about your trip. I know I heard you tell me about it, but I got a better picture through this post! What a fun idea. I would love this. This sounds like a fun trip to take with the girls too! Spring time would be awesome.

I was most excited to see your post pop-up! I miss reading you... I saw the title and thought you would pop up with a picture of your new digs!

Have a good weekend!

Alexis AKA MOM said...

Anne that really was so sweet and thoughtful! What angel you have there!

Wow that looks like so much fun! I'm so jealous, it's so beautiful!

Liz Mays said...

Your neighbor rocks! And a winery tour sounds like SO much fun! I'm sorry it didn't go as planned, but so glad you got to what may have been the best one of them all.