From The Good Life - Nebraska Wine and Balloon Festival

After several consecutive weeks of heat and humidity, last weekend we were treated to almost Fall like temperatures. What do people do when they've been held hostage in their house by this heat for weeks, they celebrate by attending the Nebraska Wine and Balloon Festival.



Along with thousand's of other Nebraskan's we enjoyed a beautiful evening of balloons, wine and music. Many of our favorite Nebraska wineries were in attendance. We sampled a couple of old favorites and discovered a new wine or two. My favorite was Dryline White from Superior Estates in Superior Nebraska. The Dryline White is one of the wines in their Tornado Alley Series. A perfect name for a wine from a winery on the Kansas/Nebraska line, tornado alley for sure!



Wine seems to be the weekend theme in August. Next up this weekend, the Riverfront Wine Festival. Unfortunately, due to flooding it isn't being held on the riverfront.

From The Good Life

Last weekend we went camping at Pawnee Lake, a beautiful state recreation area about an hour west of Omaha. Despite the closed roads due to flooding, our friends Karen and Larry made the trip up to join us.

Saturday we visited three wineries in the area. Our first stop was Deer Springs Winery, just outside of Lincoln. We tasted four whites and one red. We really enjoyed the Bianca. Biana is a cold hardy Vitis Vinifera cross developed in Hungary, where it is also known as Bianka or Ergi Csillagok. From Deer Creek we traveled to Raymond, the home of James Arthur, Nebraska's largest winery. We tasted six wines, I think it was four whites and two reds. We did enjoy the Nebraska White and the Nebraska Red, how original?! My favorite part of the visit to James Arthur was their wine cupcakes, a Red Velvet infused with the Nebraska Red. Our winery of the day was Windcrest, just down the road from James Arthur. Unlike James Arthur where the tasting room was crowded and somewhat commercial, we were greeted by the wine maker. He shared his thoughts on the flavor profiles and production of his wines. Our favorite was a wine that actually didn't contain any grapes. The wine was made from cherries and there's only one word to describe it, YUMMY!!!



After a fun day, we headed back to the campground. There were clouds in the area and we were hoping to get dinner in before the rain began. No such luck, we grilled between thunderstorms. Parts of Lincoln received heavy rain and 60 mile per hour winds. The rain kept us inside the camper and set up for an encore game of Farkle!

Despite the rain, we had a wonderful weekend with good friends!!!

From The Good Life -

Over the 4th of July weekend, Tim and I camped at Prairie Rose State Park, one of our favorite state parks. Friday was hot and humid but Saturday brought cooler temperatures and the rest of the weekend was beautiful.



On Saturday, we took a drive to see the Bridges of Madison County. You know the ones from the movie with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. Tim was disappointed, he said he expected them to be larger, functioning bridges. After seeing the birthplace of John Wayne, we enjoyed a picnic lunch at the park in Winterset.



From Winterset we headed east to St. Charles to check out the Madison County Winery. It so happened on this particular day they were celebrating the grand opening of their brewery. Despite the crowd, we managed to belly up to the bar. We were served by the owners daughter who shared with us the bar was made from the crushed wine bottles her father had saved for 5 years. After tasting seven wines, we purchased a bottle of Summer Blonde, a semi sweet white wine.

Our travels then took us north to to Adel and Penoach Winery. The tasting room is in a 1917 barn. Not sure how many wines we tasted, our cordial host just keep saying oh try this one, now this one. We chose a Windmill Red, a red that reminded us of a Pinot Noir, which is quite unusual since Iowa wines tend to be sweeter. The last wine we tried was an apple wine made from local apples. We've tried apple wines before but this one had a touch of cinnamon. It will be wonderful to enjoy this wine, warm around the campfire this fall.

The balance of our holiday weekend was spent enjoying the beauty of Prairie Rose State Park!