Sea and Vines

Spent a lovely day down at the McLaren Vale Sea & Vines Festival today with OH. It takes about an hour to drive down there from here, so we got there about midday (after a public holiday lie-in, throwing in another load of washing, a big bowl of porridge and taking the devil dog out - or at least OH and DS took her out!).

Visited Shingleback Winery (http://www.shingleback.com.au/) first - nice plate of tapas to share, nice glass of wine each, and some good live music. Enjoyed watching one or two brave couples who got up to dance - they obviously knew what they were doing, but they always look so serious, these people who've been to dancing lessons together! If they could only smile and look as though they were enjoying themselves, rather than counting 1..2...3...and swirl in their heads! Still, I wouldn't have the nerve, so good on them. Next stop was Maxwell's (http://www.maxwellwines.com.au/)- a lovely little winery with some great music, and Korean food to snack on - lots of people dancing there! Realised it must be hell on earth being the driver of one of Des's Mini Busses (http://www.dessminibus.com.au/) and having a bus-full of cackling, steadily more-drunken women!

Next stop Rosemount Winery (http://www.rosemountestate.com.au/)- fantastic location right at the top of a hill with wonderful views. Great music too, although a bit more "late night jazz-y" than mid afternoon, nice plate of cheese to snack on there, and bumped into Brother- and Sister-in-law with nephew and niece - Adelaide always amazes me with how small a place it really is! Of all the wineries we could have chosen, and the relatively short time we'd been staying at each, what were the odds of meeting up by chance with our only other rellies this side of the world!? It's always good to see them though as, despite living in the same town, we're actually about 45 minutes drive apart so don't get together as often as we should - and nephew and niece seem to be growing up at a tremendous pace!

Next winery - Wirra Wirra (http://www.wirrawirra.com/default.aspx)- was the only slight disappointment of the day - mainly because they'd run out of chocolate bread and butter pudding and didn't have an alternative dessert on offer - and we were both in the mood for some chocolate, but also because the music there sounded like a bad karaoke singer - not sure if the original band listed might have finished early and handed over to this guy, but it was not pretty! If you get a chance to go there though, take a look at their fantastic wooden fences - certainly a cut above the average!

Headed off to final stop at Scarpantoni Wines, http://scarpantoniwines.com/, absolutely jumping there with just about everyone in the marquee on the dance floor, and a very acceptable steamed chocolate pudding with whipped cream - yum!

After spending the rest of the weekend almost housebound - I'm booked in for my laser eye surgery assessment on Wednesday so am in the throes of the "no lenses for five days beforehand" regime and wearing my incredibly nerdy, $59 from Specsavers, hopefully-never-to-be-worn-again, glasses! - this was a really nice day out. Next year we're definitely going to get a group together and hire a minibus with driver - although I will do my best not to become one of those cackling women!

Home just in time to take DS to his soccer training. Luckily we timed it just right so the infamous Adelaide one-way freeway was running in the right direction for us both on the way down there and the way back. Everytime we use that road though, we ask ourselves who on earth ever thought that was good idea (apart, of course, from the South Road Traders' Association who were worried about missing out on passing trade!) - any time you meet someone interstate and say you're from Adelaide, that's one of the first things they mention. It's a bit of a laughing stock! Still at least the Festival State can still do Festivals well - especially ones based on food and wine - two of my favourite things!!