We slept in a little this morning and then went down to the restaurant to enjoy our free breakfast. It's good to be Diamond members at the Hilton. They always take good care of us. After breakfast we got out our maps and wine book and planned our day. We are headed to Palisade to do some wine, beer and liquor tasting.

We also decided that this needs to be scouting trip for bringing Lesley and Ray here in September when they are visiting us from Australia so we stopped by The Wine Country Inn to check it out. This turned out to be a really cute place with wraparound porches with rockers and a really nice pool and hot tub area. They also offer free breakfast and afternoon wine tasting. I definitely think we will be staying here. The best part is that they have complimentary bikes and several wineries within biking distance so you can go wine tasting and not have to drive.

After we left the Inn we stopped by 4 Cellar Doors to do some tasting. My favorite was St Kathryn's fruit wine. Eric and I decided we have to try making more fruit wine. It is delicious. It is extremely slow here this time of year so we get to take our time and chat with the wine makers. It's pretty great.

We decided to head over to the brewpub for lunch but found it a little disappointing. The menu was limited to burgers and pizza and french fries. Not really our thing. They have a beer called "the dirty hippie" and once we got there we quickly figured out why. The place was full of locals that looked like they had not showered in a while and the beer felt like it was made by young kids for their friends. We tried a couple and weren't that impressed so went to the Palisade Grill for lunch. This turned out to be perfect and really inexpensive.

After lunch we went back around the corner to the distillery. I should explain that in the middle of Palisade there is an intersection that has the hippie brewery, the distillery, a winery and a medical marijuana shop (which thanks to amendment 64 is now just a pot shop.) Needless to say it is not the best section of town but it could be one stop shopping for some. Anyway, Eric tasted the tequilas and bourbons and was quite impressed. I decided to take over the driving so passed on the liquor.

Our last stop of the day was Varaison Winery. We met the Assistant Wine Maker Alex who was also a chemical engineer. He was a quirky, upbeat fellow who told us we were not just going to taste wine but have a lesson in wine tasting. At first he was a little annoying but after a while he really grew on us. He did have a lot of knowledge and being slow season he had a lot of time on his hands. We spent an hour with Alex and learned a lot. His Mom and Dad own the vineyard and his Dad stopped by to say hi. Ron and Alex both signed my wine book on the Varaison page. Too bad this was our last stop I would have loved to have had all the wine makers sign the book. Oh well next time.

Eric and I went back to our room and made dinner in the crock pot and enjoyed a bottle of wine we purchased during the day. It was really nice to relax and watch the sunset from our room and cuddle on the couch. So far this trip has been amazing.