Our trip to the winery

Over the weekend Courtney & I finally go to do his Christmas present from me.  First we went to Weston, MO, to eat at O'Malleys.  They have a big pub that you have to walk down these crazy stairs & ramps to get to their dungeon....I can't imagine walking out of there drunk!  They also have a really good restaurant.  After eating we drove downtown and walked for a little bit because we had time.  While we were walking to a cigar shop we saw this alley.  They were playing Spanish music!  The alley (minus the Evergreen tree!) with the music playing so reminded us of Puerto Rico!!  We went to the cigar shop and it still reminded us of Puerto Rico.  They were rolling cigars & there were people at a table drinking beer & smoking cigars.  We sure miss Puerto Rico!  After that we drove to Platte City, MO, to the Jowler Creek Winery.  While we were driving we go to listen to the sub state girls finals which Sabetha was playing in.  I got to hear some of my girls names from when I taught 2nd grade there.  



 When we got to the winery this is how our tables were set up.  We had no idea what would happen!

 This was my part of the table.  As you can see we've got 3 cups of wine & juice.  The wine on the left was a "young" wine so it was pretty strong.  In the middle was grape juice - I have the exact same kind in my fridge!  And the wine on the right was really yummy.  You have 6 glasses & a medicine dropper.  You got to take drops from whatever cup you wanted & mix them all together.  You wrote down how many mL you dropped in the glass & that's how you recorded what you liked & didn't like.  Then you multiplied that number by 75 to fined out how much you needed for your big bottle.  It was a lot of fun mixing them together & tasting them all.  We tasted A LOT of wine!

 The wine maker that was in charge took our picture.

This is Courtney getting the "young" wine for his mix.

 Then you pour the wines into your bottle.

 I got some of the "young" stuff too.

 More of the table while we were mixing.

 I just thought this was a neat picture. 

 Courtney said this was the only time he'd be able to tell me to "Put a cork in it!" and get away with it.  I am so strong.  That cork didn't stand a chance against me!

 "Yeah, put a cork in it Marsh!"

 Here are our 2 bottles of wine!  We were told that we need to drink our wine fairly soon because the sugar from the juice will continue to make everything ferment.  That will cause the gas to build up and it can pop the cork off and send wine flying!

 All of their wines have a drawing of an animal on them.  This was my favorite of course because it's a squirrel.