A Search and A Clean Car

Now that we’re slowing our pace, our days are not quite so adventure-filled, which makes coming up with exciting journal updates somewhat challenging.

A few years ago,  my sister Ann and her husband Bob lived in Salem, Oregon.  On a couple of our visits to them, we toured several wineries in the vicinity.  One of our favorites was run by a fellow who made an especially tasty peach wine.  We wanted to make another visit to this place, so yesterday we decided to see if we could find it.  I’d also looked up a few other wineries in the area, since we weren’t sure if the one we wanted to visit was still there.

Our first stop was right in Salem, at the Honeywood Winery.  They had some very nice fruit wines, including a pear and a peach wine – we got one bottle of each.

On to the next stop, Orchard Heights, a few miles outside of Salem:

There are still beautiful blooms around:

While we were here, we asked about the place we hoped to find, Oak Grove Winery, and found out that the man ho owned it passed away a few years ago, and to their knowledge, no one had taken over the winery.  We made the drive to the address anyway, hoping maybe we’d gotten incorrect information.  No, we hadn’t, we found the property, but it was deserted.  Ah well, time moves on!

We have visited Bethel Heights Winery before.  It’s pretty upscale, with some bottles for sale over $50 each.  Luckily, our tastes are a lot more simple!

They do have an extensive vineyard:

After our wine tour, we stopped for lunch before heading back home.

Today was car care day.  Jim took the Saturn over to Walmart to have the oil changed.  I guess part of their routine service is to check the tires, when he got home, he found two tires had gone flat.  Evidently they didn’t tighten the Pressure Pro sensors correctly, and they both leaked.  Thank goodness for our air compressor. Once that little issue was handled, we washed and waxed the car.

After all that work, we spent the rest of the day relaxing, until it was time to cook dinner.  Tonight I made a new recipe, Chicken Marsala.  That’s one of my very favorite dishes, but I’d never tried making it before, and it turned out good, I think it’s a keeper.