11.10.2009

Cowboy boots - Wedding at the ranch

This weekend I met the DG girls in Big Spring, TX for Morgan and Matt's wedding. Morgan lives in Dallas, but her family has a ranch (Morgan Ranch) outside of Big Spring. And it is beeeaaaauuutiful. It is so peaceful and serene, and it truly was a picture-perfect setting for Morgan's wedding.

Friday night we tried to find some local 'joints' to eat and and then enjoy some cocktails...it was pretty apparent that we were the outsiders anywhere we went :) We finally found Wesley John's Pick Pocket Billiards. They serve two types of beer and two types of wine and two types of wine coolers. I am pretty convinced that the wine and the wine coolers were one in the same, but who knows....


Saturday morning we checked out Ward's Boots - again, it was obvious that "we weren't from around here...."

Saturday was a perfect Texas day for a wedding on the ranch. The colors were beautiful, the weather was fantastic, and the cowboy boots were a-plenty. I started the evening out in my heels...but quickly had to turn them in for my way-more-comfortable cowboy boots.

We had a great time at the reception - I taught Andrea/Mike and Laura/Dave how to two-step. I would like to think that I did my midwestern-civic-duty. I told them to take those skills and love of two stepping and pass it along. We owe it to society.

11.02.2009

Arizona Wine Country

Thanks to Nevada Day...I had last Friday off. Pretty ironic that Nevada Day falls on Halloween weekend...it seems pretty fitting for Las Vegas. Three day weekends are perfect for going down to Tucson to visit B. So even though I was going to miss out on a few Halloween parties (halloween isn't one of my favorite holidays anyway....sorry Rhonda!), I took a much anticipated trip down south.

B doesn't have school on Friday, so we had the whole day to play in Southern Arizona Wine Country . Yes....there are vineyards in southern Arizona. The more south you go from Tucson, and the closer you get to Mexico (obviously), and the Arizona desert landscape morphs into more rolling hills and green trees and plants (as opposed to cacti). When we were done with wine country, we drove to the border of Mexico in Nogales. Interesting fact about Jess: she has a weird obsession with the Mexican border and immigrants. I got really excited anytime we saw border control. I'm weird.

Moral of the story, we were pleasantly surprised by what these wineries had to offer. We left with 4 bottles of wine, and two of them were gone by the end of the night. Woops.

Stop #1 - Callaghan Vineyard

Stop #2 - Kief Joshua

(Midget) sheep from the vineyard:


Stop #3 - Canello Hills Vineyard

Break for lunch - we were the only ones in the cafe....


Stop #4 - Dos Cabezas Winery