I'm Glad You Came...

As I came down off the high of another fantastic Crush Festival visit to Chelan with some of my favorite ladies, all I can say is I'm glad you came.  That includes those who were there this year and those who have come in the past.  Each year has been different and each year has been great.  It's the friendship we have experienced during these yearly visits that truly matters.  It proves year after year that although we may not be a part of each others daily activities we are always part of each others hearts.

A perfect symbol of our 2012 Crush Adventure

We had a fantastic turnout this year for Crush - eleven ladies were able to join in the fun.  We laughed, we cried (mostly from too much laughter) and we enjoyed the break from reality while sipping great wine with friends.  Each year we find favorite new traditions, refine old ones and even make notes for ourselves for next year.  This year we tried out a new event - we did a Friday night wine tasting at Mellisoni. Mellisoni has always been a favorite of ours, because we love the wine, the dream and that Rob and Donna are right there on site making every visit an event.  In past years we had felt rushed at Mellisoni as we tried to maximize our Saturday so this year we made the time and truly enjoyed our time to the fullest.  The wine and food pairings were amazing as was the amount of cheese we consumed!  Carrie also lead a group in a mini flash mob dance which was enjoyed by all.

Our first toast of Crush 2012!

Our traditional pyramid - wonder what year we'll give this up?

After Mellisoni we headed home to Grandma's house across the street from the real Grandma and Grandpa C's house and we decorated white trash wine glasses, courtesy of Carrie.  A yearly art project involving something wine related is antoher of our wonderful traditions.

Kim modeling her white trash wine glass.

Saturday morning we had a nice leisurely breakfast and then some of us ran downtown for Starbucks or to the scrap booking store and others just relaxed and waited for the real fun to begin.  We also had Carrie doing everyone's hair so we were all rocking the bump-it look, yet another tradition.  We had our usual driver Duane back with us this year.  He always shows us a great time on the party bus.

Getting ready to head out!

On our way.

Our first stop was at Fromaggio, a cheese shop in Manson.  We decided we didn't have enough cheese on Friday night so we bought more.  Mostly we got more of our favorites from Friday night.  So many new flavors of cheese we'd never had before.  Once we were sure we had enough snacks to last us, we hit the wineries.  Four Lakes Winery was our first destination, we didn't make it out to this one last year so it was on our must do list.  We had some nice whites and some very flavorful reds while seated out on their deck enjoying the views of the lakes.  There was also pumpkins galore around the deck which gave it a great fall feeling.

Every seat here has a beautiful view.

Next on our list was our all time favorite, must do stop, Hard Row To Hoe.  As usual they didn't disappoint.  In addition to their wonderful staff, interesting decorations they had a very unique experience that you could buy into.  Kenda decided she just had to do it and she was able to actually crush grapes with her feet that will go into a private batch of wine that she partially owns.  It was so much fun to see someone from our group do it.  Now we can all visit Kenda's wine with her next year and see how it's doing!  The wine at Hard Row To Hoe is a favorite with our group.  This year they had a new concept of half bottles of wine called Lickety Split which is perfect for enjoying without the guilt of wasting wine if you want to open it without company over.

Kenda making wine.

Joined by the only guy we let in wine weekend pictures - Rudy!

After Hard Row we crossed to the other side of the lake to go to Karma, which we missed last year because they closed early for a private event.  We enjoyed some flights of wine here and took a lot of great pictures in the vineyard.  It was nice to sit and enjoy their peaceful setting before we headed to explore more wine.

Love that these girls put up with my crazy ideas.

 Our last stop was at Tsillan Cellars where we have spent many a happy hour during Crush.  They had completed their addition to their tasting room and restaurant area since we were there last and the setting continues to be amazing.  We enjoyed quite a bit of their wine and each others company before heading back to Grandma's house.

Enjoying every bit of the day.

Sunday morning was busy with breakfast, clean up and sorting out our purchases.  We are always amazed when we pull together everyone's collections at the end of the weekend how much wine we actually purchased.

The spoils of our adventure.

Everyone was still standing at the end of the weekend.

Another great year in the books!

 As always already counting down the days until next Crush.  I'm always glad to share the experience with all who come.  A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa C for putting up with all of us and for having fun with Kenzie and Ben while the ladies were enjoying themselves.