Memorial Day weekend: Saturday

This Memorial Day weekend we made plans to visit my parents in Santa Cruz and invited Kevin's parents to join us. It was a busy 3 days but so much fun and reminded how grateful we are to have such fantastic parents that we enjoy spending time with (and who genuinely enjoy spending time with each other!).

We started the weekend with a wine tasting tour of Santa Cruz county, our first stop was Hunter Hill. Hunter Hill had great wines (and they provided a delicious cheese spread)and a gorgeously landscaped property (if we were to get married again, I would definitely do it here!). It was a great opportunity for us to take lovey-dovey couple pictures :) Kevin and me:

My parents (Jon and JoAnn):

Kevin's parents (Jim and Joan):

We also got a great group shot:

Our next stop was Bargetto winery, which was also in a beautiful location overlooking the Soquel Creek. The Bargetto's are an Italian family so Kevin attempted (very poorly) an Italian accent and the result was this look from me

I recovered and we took a nice wine toasting picture ;)

and a lovely pic with the Soquel Creek in the background


We then headed over to the West Side to visit a few more tasting rooms and have dinner. This is me with "jazz hands" in front of the wine barrels at Santa Cruz Mountain winery (it was a bit chilly on the west side, and sweaters were brought out)

Our final destination on Saturday was the Cellar Door at Bonny Doon vineyard's tasting room. They had this fantastic "mural" made from large wine bottles...can you see the image of a bottle of red wine being poured?

my mom tried to catch some in her glass

Here we are at our dinner table, please overlook all the glasses...at least half were for water ;)

The food was delicious! But, I have to admit I am a bit persnickety about food (some might even call me "strange" and "picky" but I prefer persnickety) and when I was outvoted on the prix fixe/family style menu 5 to 1 I had to suck it up and be food adventurous. The first course was asparagus, no problems there, I L-O-V-E asparagus (this might be why I married a man from Stockton, home of the asparagus festival). The problem was the second course, Duck confit...DUCK...I am a chicken, pig, cow person...and what the heck does confit mean???? So, my mom called the chef over to convince me (insert look of severe embarrassment here) that HIS duck was worth stepping out of my food box for. Ok, I relented (oh, confit means slow roasted or something like that) and chanted "it's chicken, it's chicken, it's CHICKEN" all the way to my mouth. Oh my goodness...it was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! And my reason for this long-winded duck tale, is to explain this photo which shows my amazement and not only eating but enjoying my little leg of duck confit :)