Chardonnay is not for sippy cups

Jeff and I took off late Thursday afternoon for a weekend adventure to celebrate our second anniversary. Needless to say, we owed each other some face time to reconnect thanks to this adventure we call raising a ten-month old! After we convinced Harper to stay home with the all important job of taking care of Wrigley (with Grammy's help, of course), we headed off to the Texas Hill Country.

Though it was easier to say we were going to Fredericksburg, our actual destination was Becker Vineyards in Stonewall, Texas, which is about fifteen miles east of that pesky tourist town. Of the three routes we could have taken, we chose the one that took us through Austin. Duh! We tarried around ATX for as long as we could. After dinner at Trudy's (also the scene of our very first date), we sauntered through West Campus so Jeff could reminisce on his rowdy UT days. (It's probably a good thing we didn't know each other in our college years!) Our last pit stop in Austin was at Whole Foods aka "Whole Paycheck." I'm convinced the lone reason for that stop was for Jeff to witness "beer alley" for himself. Tell me, was it all that you thought it would be, Clamjam? ;)

We finally arrived at Becker Vineyards late Thursday night. Our humble adode for two nights was quaint, rustic and--my favorite part--very well air-conditioned! The cabin consisted of a living room, kitchen, bathroom and loft bedroom. The word "bedroom" couldn't be any more fitting, because, literally, the bed filled the entire room. No wasted space here! There was no TV and no Internet, unless you count an iPhone with spotty reception.

Our cabin. It was built in 1890 and housed a family of six. I'm not sure where they stored everyone, because that place was tiny. Jeff and I barely fit ourselves, and we are small people!

View to the right of the living room immediately upon entering the cabin. Stairs lead up to the loft bedroom, which Jeff dubbed "the tree house."

Other half of the living room. Not much to it! Off to the left of the kitchen was a cute little bathroom with a claw foot tub. I took a nice, quiet soak in the tub, and it was deservedly relaxing. I can't say if I missed bathing beneath Harper's frog toy pod or her mini-basketball hoop. There is something to be said for a game of one-on-none shower hoops!

The "tree house" bedroom was complete with a sloped roof. Doesn't this bench look comfy?

The kitchen. You can't see the fridge, but I assure you there was one present. I'm pretty sure that the microwave and coffee maker were authentic to the 1890's. ;) Friday morning, we treated ourselves to a continental breakfast (aka carb breakfast) before heading next door to the winery. Jeff suggested the bag of grapes in the fridge might have come straight off the Becker vines. Yeah, either that or they came straight from HEB!

The winery was a mere stone's throw from our cabin. Jeff plotted to leave one of the winery doors unlocked, so that we might have snuck back over after hours. Yeah, 'cuz that would have worked!

Bags o' grapes! Jeff listened intently to the lesson on wine-making during our private tour.

Friday just so happened to be a day for bottling. Pretty nifty machinery!

Full barrels of wine that weigh 300 lbs each. Wouldn't have minded rolling one or two of those on over to the ol' cabin!

Downstairs in the cellar for extra barrel storage.

Tasting some Cabernet franc straight out of the barrel made possible by the wine thief. Not too shabby!

We also drove to Blanco, Texas, to tour the Real Ale Brewery. Despite my love for Fireman's Four, we were less than impressed at this joint. The tasting left much to be desired, and the tour was steaming hot. We should have known to turn around when we saw two AC repair trucks parked in front of the building! Seriously, we snuck out of the building after five minutes into the tour, and headed back to BV for some more wine. Why mess with a good thing?!

All in all, the trip was veddddy nice. If it weren't for that tasteless Mamacita's dinner Jeff picked out on Friday night, I would have given it a ten. Oh wait, Mamacita's was my own doing. My apologies! Apparently, I romanticized my memories of the green sauce and how much fun we had at the M's in San Marcos during my college days/daze. But I digress...

I could have done without that pesky sinus infection, but even that wasn't enough to put a wrinkle in our mini-vacay. We enjoyed the break, and we relished in Harper's welcome reception when we came home on Saturday night. Until next time, th-th-th-th-th-that's all folks!