Category: Wine Travel Page 2 of 3

Wineries of the Hill Country

On May 3, 2021

In Road Trip, Travel, Travel Tips, Wine Travel

Wine Glass

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One of the things the Texas Hill Country is known for is wineries. There are over 50 tasting rooms to visit all around the Hill Country but Fredericksburg is kind of the epicenter of the action. If you don’t have a car or aren’t planning on heading out of town, there are more than ten winery tasting rooms right on Main Street. That being said, I highly recommend taking the drive out of town to see the vineyards if you have the time.

Winery on the Gruene

While I frequently tout TripAdvisor for trip planning, it’s not my go-to when planning a wine trip. I find that people’s differing opinions on wine have left me disappointed by their recommendations. Instead, I turn to the professionals at Wine Traveler. They have pointed me in the direction of some spectacular wine I wouldn’t have found otherwise. Another source I used to plan this trip is a Lonely Planet guidebook, Wine Trails of the United States and Canada. All of the wineries they recommended were wonderful as well.

One thing we learned on this trip is that there is a little bit of political drama involved in Texas wine right now. Currently, a wine can be labeled a Texas Wine if at least 75% of grapes were grown in Texas. I’ve been told this is not uncommon in a new wine region. A few of the wineries are trying to change this now that Texas is growing more and more grapes. The wineries that use 100% Texas grapes are very proud of that fact and will point you to other wineries that do the same.

Because of COVID, most of the wineries were requiring reservations if you want to do a tasting. Some of them allowed you to just sit outside with a glass or bottle without a reservation, but it is important to do some research before you arrive. It would be a bummer to drive all the way out to a winery and be turned away because there’s not space for you!

In the barrel room at Kuhlman Cellars

One of the most unique experiences we had was doing what they call the “Estate Experience” at Kuhlman Cellars. We got a private tour where we got to go into the barrel room and taste wine right out of the barrel. At Lewis Wines, we had a private tasting with the winemaker. At Newsom Vineyards, we got to talk to the owner and winemaker who everyone in the Texas wine industry seems to know. We had some wonderful wines at Becker Vineyards served by some of the most attentive and friendly staff. William Chris had some of the best wines we tasted on this trip and they had a beautiful lawn with live music that I would’ve loved to hang out in if we had a little more time. If you’re planning a wine trip the Hill Country, these are my top picks!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to come back next week to read about our time exploring LBJ’s ranch. To read more about this trip, check out the Texas Hill Country Road Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.

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Fredericksburg, Texas

By Ashleigh

On April 19, 2021

In Travel, Wine Travel

When planning our time in the Texas Hill Country, I did a ton of research, saving places to TripAdvisor. When I looked at the map, most of those pins were near Fredericksburg, so we planned to spend extra time in that area. Fredericksburg was also mentioned heavily in the Hill Country episode of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love which I have written about in previous installments of this trip report as one of the inspirations for this after-Christmas trip.

Fredericksburg, like many of the other towns in the Hill Country, was founded by German immigrants in the mid-19th century fleeing from religious persecution back home. Today, the German feel is alive and well in Fredericksburg and from the architecture to the food. We had a wonderful German meal at Austlander, right on Main Street downtown. We also had a great breakfast and took some amazing pastries back to the hotel from The Old Germany Bakery. Honestly, the pastries may have been better than the ones we got from Naeglins in New Braunfels.

Christmas Lights in the Marketplatz

Fredericksburg is also home to the National Museum of the Pacific War. Fredericksburg was the home of Admiral Chester Nimitz who was a fleet commander of the United States Navy during World War II. One of the sites that makes up the museum is the Admiral Nimitz Gallery which is housed in the old Nimitz Hotel that was run by Nimitz’ grandfather when it was built in the mid-1800s.

The museum is dedicated exclusively to the Pacific theater of the war. Part of the museum is the Pacific Combat Zone which features a re-creation of a Pacific island battlefield, including a Quonset Hut, a PT boat and base, a Japanese tank, palm trees, and machine gun placements. In the 1970s, the museum was gifted with a Japanese Garden of Peace and in 1995, the museum added a Plaza of the presidents that pays tribute to the ten United States Presidents who served during the war.

Another big draw to the area is the many wineries. If you read the trip report outline of this trip, you know we visited a lot of them. I will dedicate next week’s blog post to that exploration!

Thanks for stopping by! To read more about this trip, check out the Texas Hill Country Road Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.

Texas Hill Country Road Trip

By Ashleigh

On March 8, 2021

In Road Trip, Travel, Wine Travel

A little over a year ago we took our last getaway before everything shut down and the world changed. February 2020, we scored cheap flights for a long weekend in Austin, Texas and even though it was unseasonably cold (although not as unseasonably cold as Texas this February) we fell in love with Austin.

While we were stuck at home social distancing, we found a new love, travel shows, and one of our favorites is Samantha Brown: Places to Love. Since we had recently took a tour of Austin and the Texas Hill Country, one of the first episodes we watched was about the Texas Hill Country and we realized that the tour we took didn’t even scratch the surface of the Hill Country. When we were looking to use up our flight credit from our canceled spring break trip, we found a deal to fly back to Austin to fully explore the area.

After what may possibly have been too much research, I came up with with following itinerary:

December 28: Fly into Austin
December 29: New Braunfels, San Antonio Riverwalk, and Boat Cruise
December 30: San Antonio Missions National Historic Park
December 31: Cascade Caverns, Hill Country Wineries
January 1: Fredericksburg and Wineries
January 2: Lyndon Johnson National Historic Site and Wineries
January 3: Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge and back to Austin
January 4: Flight to Orlando ~~and then connecting back to Detroit~~
January 5: Tampa and Disney Springs
January 6: Flying back to Michigan for real

This ended being a great trip and we have been looking back on it a lot since it has been so cold here. You might notice in my above itinerary that our connecting flight home from Orlando got canceled and the earliest flight they were able to get us on was two days later. This cancellation resulted from flight delays due to the closure of Jacksonville air traffic control due to a COVID outbreak. Needless to say, it has made us nervous to take any other flights right now.

Be sure to check back here every week as I tell the stories of our road trip around the Hill Country! Thanks for stopping by! To read about some of our previous trips, click here. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updated Gear Page.

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Off Season Camping: Warren Dunes State Park

By Ashleigh

On February 21, 2021

In Camping, Michigan, Project: State Parks, Wine Travel

Warren Dunes State Park is located in Michigan’s southwest corner. Its gorgeous beach (above) and the proximity to Chicago make it one of the most visited parks in the state. Even with 230 campsites, it is hard to get a site here in the summer. I had heard wonderful things about this park so once we had the camper, I was able to find an available site only a few weeks in advance in early fall.

There are two parts to the campground at Warren Dunes, there is a large modern section with electrical hookups and modern restrooms and there is a smaller, rustic section. Even though we were able to get a site only a few weeks out, the modern campground was pretty full and I was surprised at how many tent campers were there with lows in the 40s. The sites were decently spaced apart and one of the things I liked the best was that even the sites in the inside loop had trees separating them. It is very common for Michigan state parks for the campsites in the inside loop to be in a big open field. This added privacy that all the sites had here was a great surprise. The biggest downside of this park is the road noise caused by the proximity to I-94. My site was pretty near the front of the park so it’s possible that it was quieter towards that back of the campground. If we were still tent camping, this would’ve been very annoying. Luckily, our little camper offers a little more of a sound barrier to the outside world than a tent.

One of the main reasons we chose Warren Dunes for this trip, besides the fact that I’ve wanted to check it off my list of Michigan State Parks =, is the proximity to many wineries on the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail. I won’t go into a lot of detail about the wineries in the area, except to say that we loved everything we had at Hickory Creek and the restaurant at Tabor Hill is a great spot nearby for lunch. Tabor Hill also has some hiking trails through their vineyards that are fun to check out! If you are looking for quality wine in the southwesternmost part of Michigan, those were two of our favorites!

Thanks for stopping by! To read about some of our previous trips, click here. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my updatedGear Page.

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Looking Back on Door County

By Ashleigh

On November 30, 2020

In Road Trip, Travel, Wine Travel

During our time in Door County, we kept comparing it to our favorite Northern Michigan destinations like Traverse City and Leelanau. Both Leelanau and Door County are peninsulas jutting into Northern Lake Michigan. They both are dotted with parks and lighthouses. Both are popular summer destinations with a winery scene.

Door County has the wineries and the food but one thing it is missing is the accessibility of the water that surrounds it. A few of the towns on the Door Peninsula have a downtown on the water but it just didn’t feel the same as on Leelanau. We drove to Northport, on the tip of the peninsula, and all that was there was a line of cars waiting for the ferry to Washington Island. Northport at the tip of Leelanau is home to Leelanau State park with a lighthouse, campground, and hiking trails.

Maybe my love of Northern Michigan is clouding this judgment, but I just don’t think Door County lives up to what I was hoping it would be. It is a beautiful place and I would definitely like to go back when things are back to normal and take the ferry to Rock Island, but its not a place that I feel like I have to rush back to. If you are in Wisconsin or the Chicago area, it is a beautiful place to visit. Is it worth it for someone from southeast Michigan to make the trek around Lake Michigan to see it? I’d say save the milage and go to Leelanau instead.

Thanks for stopping by! To read more about our summer road trip, check out the Great Lakes – Great Summer Road Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, click here. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.

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Eating and Drinking in Door County

By Ashleigh

On November 24, 2020

In Road Trip, Travel, Wine Travel

Fish Creek from the Peninsula State Park

When planning our time in Door County, I found lighthouses, parks and outdoor recreation, restaurants, and lots of wineries. If you’ve read this blog before you should be familiar with our love of food and wine tourism. When we travel, we love to eat the local food and try the small local winery, even if they aren’t always great.

One thing that was interesting the learn is that most of the wineries in Door County use grapes from California or other parts of the country. Some of them are starting to grow their own grapes, but the production is not where they can make wine exclusively from estate-grown grapes.

Goat grazing on the roof at Al Johnson’s Swedish restaurant in Sister Bay.

We enjoyed most of the wines we tried in Door County and came home with more bottles when we expected to. Door Peninsula Winery was one of our favorites. They are the biggest wine producer in all of Wisconsin producing inexpensive, quality wines. The Door County Distillery is also on-site, producing spirits you can’t find anywhere else. Von Stiehl Winery was another one of our favorites. The oldest operating winery in Wisconsin, Von Stiehl was the last winery we visited in Wisconsin and the quality of the wines really outshined all the others.

After scouring TripAdvisor for where to eat in Door County, I settled on Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant (left). It’s not often you encounter Swedish Food outside of the IKEA cafe so I was excited to give it a try. One thing that surprised me when we got to the restaurant was the goats grazing on the grass roof. That was unlike anything I had ever seen before for sure. When we got home, we discovered you can watch the goats from the comfort of your home from Al Johnson’s goat cam. The goats are not on the roof in winter, so be sure to bookmark that page and check it out in May when they come back for the season.

Thanks for stopping by! To read more about this trip, check out the Great Lakes – Great Summer Road Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, click here. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.

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Great Lakes – Great Summer Road Trip

By Ashleigh

On August 4, 2020

In Michigan, Project: State Parks, Road Trip, Travel, Wine Travel

Lake Michigan on Fire at Sunset

I am back from another epic road trip around the great lakes. Due to COVID-19, we had a difficult time planning our summer vacation. I believe this was our 5th or 6th different vacation plan. From canceled flights to mandatory quarantines, it is not easy to plan a trip in 2020. Because of this, we ended up staying close to home.

Here’s a look at our itinerary and the trip report to come:

Day 1: Straits State Park – exploring St. Ignace, Manistique, Kitch-iti-Kipi

Day 2: Fayette State Park – exploring the historic townsite

Day 3: Heading west – Laughing Whitefish Falls, Canyon Falls, Lake of the Clouds

Day 4: Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park – Adventure Mine, Presque Isle Waterfalls

Day 5: Porcupine Mountains – paddling Lake Superior, Union Bay Campground

Day 6: Heading south – Agate Falls, Bond Falls

Day 7: Door County – Peninsula State Park, Cana Island Lighthouse, Wine Tasting

Day 8: Back to Michigan – Bailey’s Harbor Lighthouse, SS Badger

Day 9: Ludington State Park & White River Light Station

As with our other big road trips, this was a very busy trip, but it was good to get out into nature after so long being stuck at home. We were not the only people to have this idea, though. Everyone near the Porcupine Mountains area told us that it was much busier than the typical summer. The campgrounds we stayed at were packed pretty much every night we were out. If you are heading into nature this summer, just be aware that you are not the only people doing this. Prepare to be around people and be sure to take the necessary precautions to keep you and your family safe.

Wine Tasting in the Finger Lakes

By Ashleigh

On February 4, 2020

In Travel, Wine Travel

Vineyard on Keuka Lake

The Finger Lakes was recently named the number 1 wine region in the country by 10best.com. It beat out Napa and Sonoma in California. Michigan’s Leelanau peninsula actually came in second, but more about that another time. The last time we were in the Finger Lakes, we mostly stayed on the east side of Seneca Lake and we weren’t impressed by what we tasted. This trip, we had more time in the area and we were able to explore more of the area.

Atwater Estates

As I mentioned before, coming down from Buffalo, we stopped at 3 wineries on the west side of Seneca Lake: Ravines, Billsboro, and Fox Run. On our way to Ithaca, we stopped at our favorite winery from our last time, Atwater Estates. We got there right after they opened and were their first customers of the day. As we remembered, all of the wines we tasted at Atwater were phenomenal and between us, we ended up buying a whole case. They have two force carbonated wines that are unlike anything I’ve had before and I highly recommend you give them a try if you are in the area. Atwater has the best view of any of the wineries we visited on Seneca Lake. I only wish we were there on a warm, sunny day to enjoy the outdoor patio.

On our final day, before heading home, we made our way out to a few wineries on Keuka Lake. The first one we tried was Pleasant Valley which had the biggest facility and a very large selection of wines, but they seemed to appeal to sweet wine drinkers. There weren’t a ton of dry wines available, but there prices were very reasonable so we ended up with a few bottles.

After Pleasant Valley, we stopped at Bully Hill. We were there early on their first day in their new tasting room so I don’t feel like we got a great feel for the experience as the employees were busy unpacking and getting the tasting room ready. All the wines we tried were good and the new tasting room has a great view out to the vineyards and the lake below. I will have to come back when they are more settled to get the full experience.

And our final stop was possibly the best of the whole trip! While in a wine store in Corning, we found bottles from a vineyard called Dr. Frank. I thought that was a funny name for a vineyard so I looked them up when we got back to the car. It turns out, Dr. Konstantin Frank was the man that brought winemaking to the Finger Lakes region and was the first one to use grafting to be able to grow European grapes in the United States. Dr. Frank currently has the second oldest vines in the country and their Old Vine Pinot Noir is probably one of the best wines I’ve ever had. We ended up buying a lot of wine there, but when we drink it all, I will probably be going online to order more. If you are in the area and like a good wine, definitely stop at Dr. Frank!

We bought more wine on this trip than I imagined we would but the wine was all so good! We have really gotten into wine traveling lately and the wines from the Finger Lakes are far and above the wine from other places we’ve recently been. This wine has totally spoiled me. I’m a wine snob now. No doubt about it. Grocery store wine will no longer do it for me. If you enjoy wine touring, definitely plan a trip to the Finger Lakes. You will not regret it.

Niagara Falls in Winter

By Ashleigh

On January 6, 2020

In Travel, Wine Travel

Mist over the falls from the Canadian side.

Bright and early, a few days after Christmas, we headed off to the Finger Lakes area of New York. We decided to drive through Canada on the way there to be able to stop at Niagara Falls. Shortly after we arrived in Niagara Falls, dark clouds rolled in. As we walked along the path at the falls viewing area rain began to fall. It was hard to tell if this was just mist from the falls or if it was really raining. One thing I know for sure is that it made for some really spooky looking photos!

American Falls from Niagara Falls State Park

I had been to the falls once before, back in 2003. We only had a short time to view the Canadian falls from the Canadian side. It was much more crowded this time. I don’t know if it is always this crowded nowadays or if it was just because it was the week between Christmas and New Years, but it was a madhouse. It was hard to get pictures of the falls without getting other people in them. We didn’t stay on the Canadian side too long before getting in the car and crossing the Rainbow Bridge back to the U.S.

The border crossings took a lot less time than we budgeted for so we decided to check out the State Park on the New York side. I was really happy we did because it was much less crowded! I was always told you could only see the American Falls from New York, but that is not true at all! The state park puts you right on top of Horseshoe Falls and gives you a totally different perspective from the Canadian side. In the summer, you can walk practically to the top of Horseshoe Falls. Many paths close to the water close for winter, but it was still worth stopping! I would love to come back to the New York side when it’s warmer and you can get closer to the water!

Photo by Sally Mowers After leaving Niagara, we headed to Buffalo for lunch at The Anchor Bar (left), the birthplace of Buffalo Wings. The last time we were in the area, we tried Duff’s because we didn’t have to drive too far off of the freeway to get there, but coming from Canada, it didn’t take us too far out of the way to go to the original in downtown Buffalo. Chris is kind of obsessed with wings, so this was a pilgrimage of sorts. Of course, the wings were delicious and I learned that there is an Anchor Bar in Rochester Hills, Michigan that we may have to visit sometime.

Photo by Sally Mowers

After lunch, we continued to our final destination. We took a route that took us down the west side of Seneca Lake and allowed us to stop at a few wineries on our way to Corning. This day, we stopped at Ravines, Billsboro, and Fox Run before heading to our AirBNB in Corning. I think I will talk about our experience with Finger Lakes wineries in an upcoming post. Be sure to stop back in the next few weeks to hear more about this trip!

Weekend in Canada

By Ashleigh

On December 3, 2019

In Travel, Wine Travel

The view out the window at our AirBNB in Essex.

A few weeks ago we took a getaway for a weekend in Essex, Canada. Only half an hour from Detroit, Essex is on the shore of Lake Erie and is known as Ontario’s wine country. We rented an AirBNB right on the water. Even though it was too cold to spend time on the beach, it was nice to sit in front of the fireplace and hear the waves crashing out the window. It was a very relaxing winter weekend.

We chose Essex because of the location. It was closer than most of our favorite places on the water in Michigan. Houses in Essex were much cheaper than equivilant homes on Lake Michigan. Factor in the exchange rate that the American dollar currently gets you about $1.25 Canadian, a weekend in Canada can be a really good deal!

Windsor Sculpture Park makes for an interesting view of the Detroit skyline.

Of course, going into Canada, you have to worry about border crossings. We crossed the border so late we were the only car in line and it couldn’t have even taken 5 minutes. Coming home on Sunday was a little busier, but it was pretty quick too, maybe ten minutes. If you time it right, crossing the border isn’t too bad.

Probably the hardest thing about taking a weekend in a foreign country is having to worry about customs. Normally, when you’re on vacation its not a big deal to bring leftovers home, but crossing the border makes that tricky. We had to buy the smallest quantities of food to cook so we didn’t waste too much and tried not to have leftovers from restaurants because there are stringent rules about what you can and cannot bring across the border. I don’t know how strict they are about enforcing those rules, but I didn’t really want to find out. To find out more information about what can be brought back from Canada, visit Customs and Border Control.

Detroit Skyline from Windsor

This was the first time I had been to Canada since I was an adult. Even though it is only an hour away, the border crossing was something that intimidated me. Now that I have done it, it really wasn’t a big deal. We will probably go to Canada more frequently now that we’ve done it and realized how easy it is.