We made it!

Well, we are officially with Uncle Matt and Aunt Jeanie as of two days ago. Our road trip is over. Now we are relaxing and enjoying not living out of a suitcase.

Oregon is beautiful. Matt and Jeanie's little town outside of Portland is storybook perfect, the weather is nice, and the view gorgeous. I am very glad to be here, although I have to admit that I am getting a little homesick. We visited the winery and the vineyards yesterday up at Illahe vineyards and got a tour of the place. I learned how wine was made, what equipment we would be using, and what to expect in the upcoming month. It's all pretty exciting! Winemaking seems like it will be a lot of fun, although a lot of hard work! We walked through the grapes yesterday (I couldn't stop eating them) and picked a few. We brought them back to the winery and I weighed them and found the average weight of two types of grapes, Pommard and 115, and then I stomped them with my feet! My first real winemaking experience. We then took the juice and measured the sugar level to determine how much riper the grapes needed to get before they were ready to be made into wine. Neither of them are there yet. Once I get back from Boston, the grapes should be good for picking. I hope the weather cools down by then! The view from Illahe is beautiful--green rolling hills, mountains in the distance, grape rows, cows, flowers, etc. Too bad it is so isolated!

We had appetizers on a rooftop bar in a cool old hotel, and then we went for dinner elsewhere and got a bunch of tapas, or little appetizer plates, to share. Completely vegan! I have not eaten anything that involves any kind of animal for almost 48 hours now! It's more of a test of willpower for me than anything, and believe me, it's been hard so far. Cutting out dairy is not fun. I should write a whole other blog just about what I eat during the day. The problem is, I still hate some vegetables, such as tomatoes and cucumbers, which are in almost everything labeled as vegan! I wish my taste buds would mature already.

WildAire wines are sold in a few places around here, which is exciting to see (WildAire is Matt and Jeanie's wine)! Uncle Matt and I went to a farmer's market type thing today, where we sold a taste of wine for a buck each. I only stayed for a couple of hours, but the day hopefully hasn't been too shabby for WildAire. I plan on heading back over in an hour or so to help out some more, although I don't think I was really helping too much to begin with! Haha. It's pretty simple.

I'll probably continue to post updates every week, just probably not every day. Harvest party tonight!