"Lilac Wine"

Another weekend, another cool travel story.

This time I didn't really go far, but did have a great time. This weekend was a double birthday weekend; my sister and my girlfriend. Actually, it was also the birthday weekend of an aunt in Florida and a cousin in the Southwest. But we're not here to talk about them.

Friday night got to a late start and didn't really perk up. In fact, due to general bad feelings all around, and a tendency not to want to fight in public, my girlfriend and I drove south on 28 for a while. A good long while. Eventually we talked, turned the car around, and ate "dinner" late at Denny's in Fairfax. I don't know exactly when we left, but it was well past the witching hour. Heck, we didn't even get back to the Fairfax area until close to 1:00 AM. But all was well in the world and we were planning on an "early" (for us that means 10:00 AM) start Saturday morning.

I'll spare you the details, but I was up by 6:30 in the morning and in lots of pain. I should not eat greasy breakfast food and drink coffee at 1:00 in the morning and expect to be cool like I was at twenty. So by the time I talked to my girlfriend, I was tired and in pain and ready to bail, except that it was her birthday so... I bucked up and got in the car and drove. It was the right decision, I felt fine throughout the day. I'm really glad I didn't wuss out.

So I told her to dress for outdoors in the sun, comfortable clothes and good shoes for walking. I still hadn't told her what I was doing for her birthday. Hee hee! I love surprises. Clarification: I love surprises when they are not on me. Note to others, I hate surprises on me. When she got in the car she was on the phone with her godmother. Later I would learn that she had been on that call for an hour. So we got in my car and drove west on 50. When we passed the Loudon County Parkway I looked over, and gave her a slightly peevish look. She made her apologies, hung up the phone and I wished her Happy Birthday. She had been on the phone for 94 minutes. With one person. I don't know how girls do that. After refusing to tell her where I was taking her, she got on the phone with her folks and they wished her a happy birthday. I could hear her telling them that I was taking her somewhere and she didn't know where. She began to look around and declared it "bupkis Virginia". That's when we passed Gilbert's Corner. That's the corner of 50 and 15 by the way. So, not really bupkis, in fact, not even Middleburg yet, but because we live in NoVa, we get really used to seeing a Starbucks every block or two. US 50 just gets rural really fast. Take a look at Google Maps and see how dense the suburbia is on 50 to the east of Dulles Airport, and notice how fast it changes when you go west.

Anyway... after Gilbert's Corner comes this tiny town called Aldie. From the road, Aldie appears to support itself by being quaint. They had signs for various fall festivals, an old mill you could tour and take pictures of, and more antique shops than any person could reasonably visit in one day. Even the closed gas station looked more like a set piece than an actually out of business company. Just past Albie we made a left onto Champe Ford Road. Calling it a road is a bit generous. It was not only not paved, it wasn't even graveled. So we drove about a mile and a half down a dirt/mud/gravel path that was wide enough for two cars except when it wasn't. Finally we found it: Chrysalis Vineyards.

There's a little lake, and fields of grapes, and it was beautiful. They were throwing a wine tasting and bluegrass festival. The bluegrass was fun, they did some good traditional pieces, and a great cover of "Don't Let Me Down". I think it was the same band for the whole time we were there, just taking some breaks. We tried nine wines at the tasting, and another two or three at various points during the day. The food was really nice, and the people were smart and friendly. The festival was to celebrate and focus on the Norton grape, an American grape (most wine is made from European grapes even here in America) said to resemble a blueberry. The winery is really proud of it's Norton grape wines, and all of its reds. I do not drink wine. But may I just say, I liked the whites, and could not finish many of the reds. Less than an ounce of wine and I was still passing it to my girlfriend. Oh well, I'm not a wine snob. Maybe the reds were just above my palate.

We stayed for a few hours, generally having a great time. She bought some wine, I bought some candy (a truer insight into our vices has never been put to paper) and we headed back to Reston. She changed clothes and then I gave her her present, a pair of earrings that I had bought at the Highland Games while she was distracted. I was particularly proud of both the purchase and the giving, but neither story writes well. You'll have to trust me that I tell I very humorus version of how I bought the earings right under her nose. They look like this but silver, and on her ears. Then we drove to my place, and I changed clothes.

We went to Coastal Flats in Fairfax. Good stuff. Same family of restaurants as Silverado, Sweetwater, Mike's and the rest. We were seated quickly and our server was a very easy to relate to guy. We had an appetizer that ultimately I would not order again. It was a crab imperial with what amounted to pita chips. I forget how much it was, but it was "OK". The entrees however were great. On my suggestion, my girlfriend got the Sauteed Shrimp & Creamy Grit Cake. I really dig this dish, but it is a little salty. She enjoyed it. I tried something new, the Short Smoked Salmon Fillet. Great fish. It was cheap considering the rest of the menu, and really good. The flavor was like it was right off a wood fire, and it flaked in large pieces perfect for my fork. The side was mashed cauliflower. Let's face it, it was cauliflower. I am not a fan. But mashed was something new, so I ate it, and it's better for me than mashed potatoes. We passed on dessert and walked around Fairfax Corner. They are not done with the construction of the water fountain no mater what the website says. We had a good time just walking and talking, dipping into stores to look for something for my sister the next day, and then headed to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream.

Ultimately I did I good job on the birthday planning thing, and am really glad she had a good time. She is one of those people always cursed with crummy birthdays; but we're all about breaking trends.

The next morning she helped me pick out a gift for my sister and we were at my folks for birthday appetizers and dessert. This is kind of a Cruz favorite. We all love a nice spaghetti dinner, or taco night, or what have you, but we are also fans of the Americanized version of tapas. We had cracked pepper cheese slices on bread slices, fresh guacamole, port wine cheese spread on crackers, hummus on bagel chips, POCs with dip, and then grilled a couple of brats and Italian hot sausages with sauteed peppers and onions. With the almost record high temperatures it really felt like summer rather than the first week of October. So of course the really cool winter cape I gave my sister is going to sit in the closet for weeks. But she liked it so I'm happy. For desert we did ice cream sundaes.

We left soon after, and my girlfriend went back to her place, and I went to game. Great weekend, and next weekend I'm headed to the Peanut Festival! We did take some pictures, and I'll try to get them up soon.

Don't forget the quiz in the post below this one. Three brave souls so far!