Wine Tasting and Chocolate!!

Teri knows how to plan a day - coffee, chocolate and wine tasting!! Doesn't get much better than that!!

With coffee in hand, we headed toward Saugatuck - a pleasant 45 minute drive through rolling hills of grapevines and fruit trees - truly a beautiful drive!! Our first stop of the day was at "The Chocolate Garden", described as "cute and innocent outside, shamelessly decadent inside". And that's the truth!!

This place is nationally known for its' truffles - made in a kitchen, not a factory - which makes their silky, sensuous texture melt in your mouth!! I headed for the dark truffles and after looking quite a long time, I settled on darkest dark chocolate and dark chocolate raspberry!! But then I decided I needed a couple of white chocolate ones too so I went for the white chocolate strawberry!! YUM!!

Our next stop was just down the road at a place that advertised "chocolate bacon"!! That was a MUST stop place!! The outside of the place had the most beautiful grapevines!

I really wasn't interested in the bacon chocolate but did get a bag of chocolate covered blueberries - oh my gosh - they are SO good that I wish I would have bought a pound of them!!!

Our next stop was the McIntosh Apple Orchard and Wine Cellar - what a neat place!! We looked around for a while and then did a wine tasting! It was fun visiting with the gal in the place who had made the wine called "Blushing Bare" (her last name was Bare so the wine was named after her and is going to the wine festival for judging in August!!) Of course we ended up buying some wine there - I also picked up a bag of dried cherries and a couple of tins of dry ingredients to mix with olive oil to make a dipping sauce!!

We FINALLY made it to Saugatuck - a cute touristy town on Lake Michigan! It was enjoyable walking down by the lake and seeing all the huge boats and yachts!! We ate at a fun place for lunch - great BBQ with all the fixins!!

One more wine tasting at Finn Valley Wines where Teri had recently bought some wine from and she was thrilled to discover that it was now sold in the box!!

It was now time to head back to Grand Rapids as Teri's daughter Amanda had arrived the night before with her 2 kids, Pierce and Lauren - it was great to see Amanda again as it had been a while since I'd seen her and also to meet the 2 kids. They are as sweet as can be and extremely well behaved!!

Jay was cooking up a storm for that nights' Picnic Pops - a huge outdoor event where you bring your chairs, blankets, food and drink and listen to the symphony for the evening!! We were there when the gates opened and set up our "camp" in their usual spot!! Teri's other daughter Emily joined us and we had a great evening!!

The weather was pretty hot for a while and we were glad there were a couple of umbrellas to sit under!! Emily had brought "girly" drinks for us and they sure tasted good in that hot sun!! Jay's meal was delicious and we enjoyed the pre-show attraction of 3 singers with guitars and fiddle just as much as the symphony!!

Lauren had fun just hanging out on her blanket and taking her shoes off and on!!!

At the end of the program, it was getting pretty dark and the symphony had the evening timed out just perfectly - the full moon was rising as they played the 1812 Overture and the fireworks were also lighting up the sky at the same time!! What a great night!! Tired but happy, we hit the sack after another wonderful day.........To Be Cont'd.......