May is one of my favorite months, everything is green and vibrant and each day brings a different bloom. Weather is in that sweet spot, more sunny days than not and warm enough for sandals and bare shoulders. This month I had the opportunity to explore two of the best wine regions in the United States with people close to me, and really does it get much better than that? Let’s take at where May took me.
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Every spring Steve’s mom comes to visit for a few weeks and I like to take her for a weekend away while she is her. This time around we went up to Charlottesville for a quick getaway. Charlottesville is best known as home to the University of Virginia but the surrounding hills are home to some of the best wineries in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and the stunning Blue Ridge Mountains.Our home for the weekend was the charming Dinsmore House Inn, which was constructed by and was the home to Monticello’s chief architect John Dinsmore. In addition to centuries of history a stay at the Dinsmore House Inn comes with breakfast at the Farm Bell Kitchen and let me tell you, there is no better way to start the day than banana beignets with bourbon pecan sauce (worth every single calorie!).
While in Charlottesville we took Steve’s mom up to Monticello,home to former president and founding father Thomas Jefferson. I’m typically not a guided tour type of gal but I’ve always been very impressed with informative and engaging tours offered at Monticello. Aside from the life of Thomas Jefferson I think Monticello does an excellent job focusing on the lives of the 200 enslaved people that lived and worked there, they don’t shy away from the dark realities of slavery either.
We also visited a couple of Chorlottesville’s best wineries, one was a new stop for me and one was a new favorite. Our first wine stop of the weekend was Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyards, a favorite winery of many of my friends and immediately upon arriving I could easily see why. The tasting room opens up onto an expansive lawn with stunning views of their vineyards and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Our second wine visit was Blenheim Vineyards, owned by Dave Matthews (yes, that Dave Matthews) who also creates the label art each year for the Painted Red and the Painted White. The A-frame tasting room is as comfortable as your favorite pair of jeans and the deck has great vineyard views.
A couple weeks later I was jetting off to Santa Barbara for my first visit to the West Coast in over 8 years ( I can’t believe it has been that long!). I met up with a couple of my besties; Daniella and I served in the Navy together and she now calls Alaska home, through her I met Andrea who is a former engineer and now a SAHM to twin 4 yo boys. We were long overdue for a girls’ trip and there are few better places to meet up than Santa Barbara for a relaxing California weekend.
I’ll have some upcoming on how to best spend a weekend in Santa Barbara but we had a fantastic time exploring this town nestled in between the Pacific Ocean and Santa Ynez Mountains. Using the seaside Hotel Milo as our base we had a great weekend of wine, spa and reconnecting. The countryside surrounding Santa Barbara produces some amazing wine and whether we were sipping at the tasting rooms in Santa Barbara’s Urban Wine Trail or heading out on a private wine tour with Rooted Vine Tours we tasted some of the best wine California had to offer
Things I’m Loving
My friend Jessica of the Dining Traveler just published her book The Dining Traveler’s Guide to Puerto Rico and her gorgeous pictures and recommendations have me wanting to book a flight to San Juan stat.
I recently reconnected with an old high school friend who also happens to be a food blogger at Cosette’s Kitchen. Check out her recipe for toum, an addictive garlic sauce you didn’t know you needed in your life or her scrumptious lamb kofta burgers with sumac yogurt sauce.
Summer is here and these minimalist sandals from Nisolo go with everything you own and are super comfy.
Matt says
Brianna
Thanks for sharing. Loved the relaxed pictures. BTW a mino typo in the sentence, with missing an E, her instead of here.
” I like to take her for a weekend away while she is her.”
Keep up the good work
Greetings from New Zealand
Matt
Andi says
Like the bicoastal wine trips, I mean exploring wine in all parts of the US is important right, oh what we do in the name of research !
VacationsAlabama says
Brianna we have some great wine here in Alabama, believe it or not. If you ever get down this way, you will enjoy it! We have a ton of parks, waterfalls, beaches and even beautiful mountains. Thanks for sharing your adventure, i am going to follow you 😉
Brianna says
I’ve heard the hills north of Huntsville are stunning! Thanks for joining along 🙂