a weekend in palisade, co

Four hours into the mountains under the plateau of Grand Mesa, there is a little town buried within vineyards, peach orchards, and dirty hippies. Welcome to Colorado Wine Country.



Stay at the Wine Vally Inn. Right in the middle of town, reasonable rates, free breakfast on the wrap around porch in the morning.



By Bike, in town:

• 2 minutes up the road, visit St. Kathryn and the Confre Cellars, in the same building, offer a variety of sweet and interesting wines. Be sure to try the Lavender White.
• Just behind it, the Grande River Vineyards : try the Coat D' Roan and Havin' a Cow Reds.
• The Plum Creek winery is a must see just a short ways down a farm road south of town,
• Then be sure to go to the Maison la Belle Vie, which just opened a beautiful tasting room.

By Car, atop the Mesa:

• The Carlson Vineyards has an amazing assortment of desert wines: try the hot peach maple syrup, the cherry with chocolate, and the raspberry wine lemonade.
• Whitewater Hill has beautiful views of the valley and some good dark reds and a sweet ice wine.
• Then be sure to visit Reeder Mesa; off of 50 and on a road winding into the hills on switchbacks, it is 8 miles to the top of the mesa. You will think you are lost, but instead you will be rewarded with wonderful views of the whole countryside, and a double gold Cab Franc.

In the evening:

• Back in the town of Palisade, go over to the Palisade Brewery on Peach St. Try out their homemade BBQ (Get the pulled pork Nachos), and the Dirty Hippie Beer. In peach season, be sure to try the Fuzzy Peach, and the No Belay IPA is also a must.
• If you're planning to keep the party going, head over to the Peach Street Distillers, and try their creative gin and brandies, and be sure to get one of their famous bloody marys.

Enjoy!

market bag

for Wendy in the last days of last summer


The summer is winding down with unusual force, and it's too hot for knitting or really doing much of anything except maybe drinking beer on the patio while the puppies play, or making limonchello, or ice cream sandwiches, or a picnic, or a trip to the farmer's market.

So I thought I would share with you the last of the summer knits, which I gifted to my now MIL, which she keeps her knitting in and takes to the beach. The pattern is the Market Tote by KnitPicks, made with CotLin which is the most wonderful of summer yarn.

How are you spending the last dog days of summer? I'll be spending them with my dog, but I'm ready for this heat to end, please!

Soca

The newest addition to our family!

This is Soca (pronounced SOh-ChA), she is named after the river in Slovenia that Ben and I took our epic bike trip along. My parents adopted her sister, and are calling her Sasha.

She is a cutie but quite a handful! I'm not really sure we were prepared, but we're doing the best we can to train her up and hopefully someday she will be the best little dog. We love her so much already.

beach house

For Carrie and John

Water color and ink. Based on a photo Carrie took of an old beach house near her family's property in Road Island, which is also where they are getting married! I am quite excited for them, and I've owed them a painting for quite some time now. Happy Engagement!

jump

life list: jump off of a cliff into water

On a trip to Aspen this past weekend, I jumped from that far ledge into the "Devil's Punchbowl" some 30ft below.

This turned out to be a poor life choice, as I had no idea what I was doing. I hit the water fine (no rocks), but went too deep, didn't breathe out correctly coming up, and messed up the pressure in my ears. I came to the surface dizzy and with a terrible headache that didn't let up for a day. Rest assured, I did finally get all the water out of my ear canals, and (fingers crossed), no infection.

What's life without some life lessons? Here's the correct way to jump off a cliff into water:

1. make sure you know where to jump from the ledge, and scout the water before jumping.
   
2. jump with your legs together, and plug your nose.
   
3. as soon as you hit the water, splay your limbs to prevent going too far down.
4. as you re-surface, breathe a steady stream of air out of your nose.

Now you know! Have fun!

into the wild woods

Life List # 42: Go to all the world's most famous frisbee tournaments.

Check one of the list: The world's biggest beach ultimate frisbee tournament in WILDWOOD, NJ.

Where we played with a Lafayette alum team and went to finals in our bracket. We were rocking, and raging, all weekend long. Awesome friends diner food good fun much beer very little sleep frisbee in the sun and sand + ocean.

It was so wonderful to see all our friends, it was like continuing the wedding celebration all over again!

I will bring you a nostalgic team picture as soon as I can get the DH to download them.