oregon travels, part 3: wine country, day 2

we awoke craving another breakfast from community plate, so there we went. i had the daily quiche + cricket had the steel cut oats with berries. the berries were some of the most amazing berries i've ever tasted!

then, we headed south. we were expected in springfield, oregon around 5pm for flower picking for the wedding, so we just spent the day leisurely lingering between the small towns. the bride called to see if we could pick up her wine club shipment at a winery on our way, so it was a perfect "anchor" of our route. here's a google map of our entire wine country tour, the purple/pink is day 2....

• st. innocent: it shares a location with zenith vineyards, which is apparently really just an event facility. the wines weren't anything special.
• johan: the tasting room is very small, but it's a pretty drive that neighbors left coast cellars. the winemaker had had special visitors earlier in the day, so he'd opened a reserve bottle that made it to the tasting menu, so that was nice.
• left coast cellars: a must-stop if you're in the area. they have a cute tasting room + cafe. after the tasting, we sat on the patio to enjoy lunch. i had the amazing sundried tomato mac + cheese, while cricket ordered a smoked salmon baguette. both were really really good. the best part, we had a visit from bambi while we dined! turns out, the former winemaker was actually at the wedding, too. 

[holy moly mac & cheese]

[lunchtime visit from bambi]

• van duzer vineyards: we may be biased. my sis had joined their wine club in order to get a case discount for their wedding wine. they treated us like wine club members, since we were there to pick up her seasonal shipment. we spent a good while there, and very much enjoyed the wines. of the day's vineyards, this view was tops. they have a nice patio + were planning their wine club pick-up party. everyone was very friendly. 

[van duzer tasting]

[van duzer patio pic]

we headed on towards corvallis, where we met my sis for ice cream en route to the flower-pickin' farm.  the farm is a hobby of the owners, who designated it a "farm" for tax purposes. i felt like i was in their backyard garden picking the flowers, much against the rule my mom taught me many years ago. luckily, she was there too. not scolding, but picking away.

after picking bucket loads of flowers, we headed to mckenzie bridge, oregon for the wedding festivities!

more oregon adventures coming up...