Wine tasting with new friends

A couple weeks ago when I was interviewed at the hospital, I was taken around to meet the other therapists. When I met Kendra, a young and spunky OT, she invited Billie and me to the Sonoita wine tasting festival. After two weeks of no contact (as I've been waiting to start the job), Kendra got my number from the boss and called to follow up on the invitation. I was SO excited. And thankful too, for an opportunity to spend time with people our age. An answered prayer for sure.

Billie and I met the group early Saturday morning at Kendra and her husbands house. We started the day with omelets and Bailey's French toast (Billie- not me- ha). I soon learned that almost all of the other therapists and techs are around our age and are newly married. And they all came here from far away- Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio- looking for something different in the Southwest.

We started our day by caravan-ing to Sonoita- a beautiful drive and no cell phone service! We toured five wineries, just scraping the surface. We sampled 5-6 wines at every location. Thankfully, the samples were very small and I actually MISSED some of the samples because I was too busy talking!

Each winery had a unique style, a gorgeous vineyard view, and some sort of big guard dog... a Great Dane or Weimaraner. 

 Billie and I returned home with "Christmas in a Glass" from Wilhelm Vineyards and "Red Dessert Wine" from Callaghan Vineyards. The dessert wine was served with dark chocolate chips... I was sold. :)

When wine sampling hours ended at 5pm, we loaded up our cars and drove back to John and Kendra's house for a BBQ.

I had made paleo spinach artichoke dip and paleo coleslaw for the shindig. Kendra had told me that
she is vegan. The dip is naturally vegan, and I made the coleslaw vegan by cutting out the mayo (eggs) and the bacon. Paleo AND vegan... winning. :)

Everyone complimented the spinach artichoke dip! Kendra even text messaged me today asking for the recipe.

We had more food than I have ever seen! Marinated chicken, brats and burgers, salmon, salad, pesto with cheese and bread, crock pot meatballs, chips and dip... you get the picture. We ate until we couldn't eat anymore and sat outside to enjoy the gorgeous view and cool weather. I'm so thankful!