Temecula Anniversary Celebration...

 I cant believe it's been 1 year already!  Pat and I tied the knot almost 1 year ago today.  We have a lot going on right now with the kid, my upcoming hysterectomy and still having a rather large puppy it's hard to get a pup sitter for, so we opted to at least get away for one night.  Mom volunteered to take Poe for a Thursday night so we had a plan!  Our anniversary is on May 1st but we took Thur and Fri April 27/28 to celebrate our love out in Temecula Wine Country.  And it was absolutely perfect!

We dropped Poe off at "gramma's" house around 9:30 and off we went.  We stopped 1st in Old Town Temecula to wander around and have some lunch.  I also got a couple of geocaches in as well!  (Because of course I did).  We  wandered into this really cute Lavender Store and I picked up some yummy spelling goodies for mom as a thank you.

The 1st geocache was by a theater!  Well I HAD to get that one!  It was a pretty easy find and really cool to see Temecula has what looks to be a really cool community theater!  I'd love to come back sometime when I can wander inside and take a look around.

1st Temecula Find!

For lunch we decided on The Goad and Vine.  It was really good!  Very cute inside.  They looked to be known for their pizzas, but Pat & I opted for some sandwiches.  Yummy!

This was called a Lavender Haze and it was delightful!

After this we hit up one more geocache then headed toward the wineries.  This one was a bit tricky.  We were staring right at it before it clicked and Pat pulled it down - very clever!

He's actually a better geocacher than me

Notice something off?

We hit up Oak Mountain Winery as our 1st wine tasting stop.  I had read it had pretty views - and it sure did!  They had a restaurant that's dog friendly (You can bring dogs into the winery too!)  We went inside to the nice cool winery that's actually a cave!  It was super cool.  Our wine dude was super cool and very generous with his pours.  In fact...we think he was trying to get Pat drunk!  LOL  I did a white tasting and Pat just opted for a glass - but he kept giving Pat random reds to try!  It was hilarious.  We ended up getting a bottle of their Sparking Sangria which was friggin amazing.  They're known for their bubblys he said.  All the whites I tasted were quite good, but that Sangria was the bomb.  We also of course left him a huge tip.  LOL.

Pretty view!

Hai!

Time to taste!

Our 1st purchase

We decided to head to our hotel to see if we could check in early.  They weren't quite ready for us so we opted to just get a bottle of bubbly (It was so hot...so something cold sounded lovely - and we're celebrating!) and chill at one of their two wineries.  

***giggle***

Celebrating us

We stayed at Europa Village.  It's a pretty penny but it's awesome!  So they're on a winery and have two locations.  The Inn and The Casitas.  They're also in the process of building a third location that will be huge.  A hotel with a pool, ballroom, etc.  The Casitas are Spain inspired.  The Inn is French.  There is a Cest Le Vie winery (that's where we were) then the Bolero Winery and restaurant at the Casitas where we were staying.  The grounds are really pretty and when that third one is built it's going to be pretty amazing.

We checked into our very cool room with it's own patio and had dinner at the restaurant Bolero.  It was so friggin good!!  It's tapas style and we had 4 dishes.  All amazing.  Our waitress was great as well and we had an awesome dinner!

 

Hell yes I took a Lavender Bubble Bath in that!

 

Finishing our bubbly on our patio before dinner

Potatoe Croquettes

Pork Belly bites

Drunken Shrimp on Olive Oil Bread

Skirt Steak

After dinner, back to the room, where yes - you can just imagine.  **giggle**

The next morning we had breakfast at the same restaurant - they gave us a breakfast voucher for $40 off so that was cool.  Breakfast was just as friggin good.  Then we wandered the grounds a bit waiting for the winery to open up since we also had a voucher for 2 free tastings.  We were going to hit up the Bolero Winery but they didn't open until 11 and us early birds had been up and needed to head back to Poe so the Cest La Vie Winery we hit up opened at 10.  So that's where we landed.  And it was awesome.  Our wine gal was Courtney and she was super cool.  We chatted with her and did a couple of tastings.  In fact - WE JOINED THE WINE CLUB!!!  I'm so excited!  I've always wanted to join a wine club and now we did!  Pat and I were saying how nice it will be to just come down for a day and pick up our wine and bring friends.  I can't wait to see what our new membership has in store for us!  Oh and this place is also dog friendly!  The Bolero one isn't but this one is, so I'm sure Poe will join us when the weather is cooler.

Breakfast time

Short Rib Benedict and Smoked Salmon Toast

Our casitas

Our casitas from above

I love us

Tasting that got us to join the club

I snuck a pick of these ladies and sent it to Libby/Robin saying "Us in 20 years" and they ended up toasting us and welcoming us to the wine club.  They're of course members.  The best.

Wine Club Members!

Awwwww yessssssssssssss

 

After that we took our 2 bottles from our now wine club and headed home.  Big thank you to mom for Poe-sitting!  It was the perfect little anniversary get away.  We ate, we drank, we saw some beautiful scenery, met some cool people, joined a wine club and the best part of all - celebrated our love for one another.  One Year Married.  Happy Anniversary to us!