Tag Archives: vineyards

During our trip to Temecula, we knew we had to visit at least one local vineyard while we were there.  It is wine country after all!  After attending the Balloon and Wine Festival, taking a hot air balloon ride, and a generally action packed schedule we only had the energy to visit one winery on the last day of our vacation.

I really wish we could have visited more, but boy, did we pick a good one for our only wine tasting stop!

Wilson Creek Winery is known for their Almond Champagne, which we figured must be pretty popular when we saw their hot air balloon during the “Balloon Glow” at the Balloon and Wine Festival.

Obviously we had try it, and wow, it did not disappoint!  If you’re a fan of sparkling wine, you must try it!  It’s the perfect wine to drink during those hot summer days in Temecula!

Wine tastings are $15 per person on weekdays and $20 per person on weekends.  We did two tastings and shared both of them, which is what we usually do so we can try more.  Not sure if they changed their policy on that and if you can still share, as this was a couple of years ago, but it’s definitely worth a try!

We tried a variety of reds, whites, sparkling and ports, and loved everything!  They also serve food at their onsite restaurant, although we were there too early for lunch so we didn’t get to try anything.  Everything sounded really good though!  After our tastings, we spent most of our time exploring the grounds, which are absolutely gorgeous.  Take a look at these photos and I’m sure you’ll agree!

I’m sure you can tell from the photos that they do a lot of weddings here.  If you’re in the market for a fairytale wedding at a beautiful vineyard, be sure to check out their website for all the details!

If you have the time to visit more vineyards, you should definitely do so – I doubt you’ll have a bad experience at any of them.  But if your schedule is too packed and you can only visit one like we did, I hope this post helped with your decision.  Remember to try the almond champagne, and then let me know how much you liked it in the comments section below!

And if you’re looking for more things to do in Temecula, be sure to check out my post!  You’ll find food suggestions, hotel recommendations, and lots more!

Hey guys, long time no see!  Sorry for the lack of posts lately, things have been pretty hectic around here, and I haven’t been able to get as many posts written as I’d like.  BUT I hope this next series of travel posts will make up for it a little!  I am super excited to share one of my favorite weekend getaways, and the most amazing festival I’ve attended to date!

A few years ago, I decided to surprise my boyfriend Daniel with a trip to Temecula, CA.  Daniel has always surprised me with weekend getaways for my birthday, and I was finally in a position where I could reciprocate.  Since I knew it would be a weekend trip, I was mainly looking for travel ideas in California (as we were still living in Los Angeles at the time).  During my research, I came across the Balloon and Wine Festival in Temecula, which you can read all about here.  I pretty much knew it was the winner as soon as I saw it – I mean… hot air balloons?  Wine?  Sold!

Temecula is about 2-3 hours away from Los Angeles, and is a great place to visit if you want to see some California wine country without traveling too far (if you’re in LA).  Now, obviously the festival was going to be an amazing activity, but we were only planning on attending one of the days.  And since we were staying for a 3-day weekend, I still needed other things to do in Temecula to make Daniel’s birthday extra special.  While I was searching for things to do, I knew we absolutely had to take a hot air balloon ride.  I went a little overboard, since I wasn’t sure if I’d get the opportunity to spoil my guy again next year.  I splurged on a private hot air balloon ride for two, and It. Was. INCREDIBLE!  Read all the details here!

Besides extravagant activities, you can also just explore Old Town, which is a very charming area of Temecula.  Everything looks like it’s out of an old Western movie, and there are a lot of great shops and places to eat.  Check out some photos below!

The Old Town Rootbeer Company is a fun shop to explore while you’re in Old Town.  There was literally every flavor of soda you could possibly think of!

We bought a few bottles to enjoy at home, and it was a nice way to remember our vacation as were were instantly thrust back into the work week!

If you’ll be enjoying your soda in Temecula, be sure to add your bottle cap to the collection below!

While we were walking around Old Town, we stopped to eat at Sweet Lumpy’s BBQ for lunch.  The food was delicious, and the restaurant had a good outdoor seating area for catching some sun.  I highly recommend checking it out if you’re in the mood for a quiet, casual lunch with some amazing BBQ!

Another tasty lunch spot is Daniel’s Cafe.  Yes, we did go there because it had Daniel’s name in the title… Don’t judge though, because the food was fantastic! It looked like a cute place to dine-in at, but we actually took our food to go so we could it eat at a near by duck pond and park.  It was a lovely place to have a picnic, be sure to check it out during your stay!

If you’re looking for an amazing Italian restaurant for dinner, head on over to Palumbo’s Ristorante in Old Town.  The service and atmosphere was great, and the food was amazing.  Take a look!

Another must do activity in Temecula is exploring a vineyard and going wine tasting.  It is wine country after all!  I wish we could have visited more wineries, but since we had a pretty full schedule we ended up just going to Wilson Creek Winery.  Luckily, we chose one of the most beautiful locations to be our one and only stop, read all about our visit here.

And if you’re looking for an inexpensive hotel option, we stayed at the Old Town Ramada Inn.  It was very central to Old Town, vineyards, and the Balloon and Wine Festival.  Plus, it has a pool and spa, complimentary wifi, and a continental breakfast.  It’s the not fanciest hotel, but you don’t want to be stuck in a hotel room anyway!  It was quiet and clean, and just what we needed to grab some sleep before our next exciting activity.

As you can see, there are many wonderful things to do in Temecula, and we didn’t even scratch the surface!  If you’re looking for a unique and memorable vacation, definitely think about visiting Temecula.  You won’t regret it!

Daniel and I love wine tasting, and when we heard there were great vineyards in Oregon we definitely wanted to check them out.  If you saw my Rockaway Beach post, you know that we decided to stop at a few on our way to the Oregon coast.  We chose to do wine tasting in Forest Grove because it was the closest to our original route.  It’s only about 45 minutes outside of Portland, so it’s also doable as just a day trip.

Our first stop was the David Hill Winery and Vineyard!

The wine tastings are in this adorable house below.

The David Hill Vineyard had really great reviews on Google, which was one of the reasons we stopped there first.  And no wonder!  The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable, and it wasn’t overly crowded, so we were able to ask as many questions as we wanted.

They had a nice variety of wine, and everything I tried was excellent.  Wine tasting is only $5 for 7 wines!  Pretty big difference from when we used to go tasting in Santa Barbara, CA!  While there were a number of wines I would have loved to take home, we decided on a bottle of their Estate Gewürztraminer.  Highly recommend if you like a refreshing white!

They also have a variety of other local products available for purchase in the tasting room.  Including cheese, crackers, and sausages.

While it was a bit too cold when we went, during the nicer months it would be fun to by a bottle and snacks, and have a picnic!

They have a few picnic tables outside, as you can see from the picture.  Their grounds are really pretty, it would be a great atmosphere for a relaxing lunch outside.

But don’t take my word for it, take a look at the photos below!

I think we’ll definitely be coming back here!

Our 2nd stop was Shafer Vineyard Cellars, which had one of the best views by far!

The draw to this vineyard was the complimentary cheese and crackers, which I’m a total sucker for.  They also had good reviews on Google.

This seemed like a smaller, more family run vineyard than the last.  In fact, the only person in the tasting room was the wife of the late owner.  She was so incredibly nice, and she even waived our tasting fee (which was only $5 to begin with)!

Shafer Vineyard also had a great variety of wines, and we decided to buy a bottle of their “Holiday Magic Wine,” which is a gluhwein.  Can’t wait to have it over the holidays!

The tasting room was a little small and a bit busier, but luckily they had a huge Christmas shop to explore in between tastings!

They seriously had any kind of ornament you could possibly think of!  It was also fun to see these huge tanks of wine!

I would definitely recommend this vineyard.  Here are a few more pictures of the gorgeous grounds!

A fountain was recently installed as a memorial for the late owner of the vineyard, Harvey Shafer.

Another place we were hoping to check out was Bull Run Cider, but unfortunately they were closed when we were there on a Sunday.  We certainly have not even scratched the surface of vineyards in Oregon, but this was a great start.  If you are headed towards the Oregon Coast or looking for a day trip, definitely check these vineyards out!  And if you’re looking for more things to do on your way to the coast, don’t miss my full romantic getaway post!

So my boyfriend works for this great vacation rentals company called Vacasa Rentals.  You can rent amazing vacation homes, often for the same price (or less) as a hotel, but with a lot more space and privacy!  And if you’re a homeowner, Vacasa manages your property and takes care of housecleaning, so you can easily make some extra cash when you’re not using it!

Well, obviously since he works for a vacation rentals company, we wanted to utilize this great service and take a vacation ourselves!  So… Right before Halloween, Daniel took me to the Oregon Coast in Rockaway Beach, OR for a romantic getaway.  Lucky girl, right?!

We were super excited to finally see the coast, but we were also excited to make some stops along the way.  A friend of ours gave us the idea to stop and do some wine tasting, which was right up our alley.  When we used to live in LA our weekend getaway spot was Santa Barbara, and our favorite activity was bicycle wine tasting!  I had heard that Oregon had great wine and vineyards, but I had no idea HOW MANY!  Seriously, go to Google Maps and search “vineyards near Portland, OR” and then zoom out a bit… I was not expecting all of those red dots!  We stopped in Forest Grove because it was the closest to our route to Rockaway.  You can read about the vineyards we stopped at here.

Side note:  while on the way to the vineyards, I totally saw a sign for Roloff Farms!  Umm, has anyone else watched Little People, Big World?!  I used to watch that show when I was younger, and I maybe got a little too excited when I saw that…

Ahem, anyway, another stop we made on the way was at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  This is a must!  If you love all things dairy, this is heaven.  Read about what we did in Tillamook and the cheese factory here.

After our last stop we finished our journey to Rockaway, which is about 20-30 minutes away.   Read more »