North Carolina Wine Festival

This weekend was the North Carolina Wine Festival, held at Tanglewood Park, in Clemmons, N.C., which is about 35 minutes from Greensboro, but still in the Triad area.  While this time of year inspires several wine festivals throughout the state, this is the largest annual festival, with over 20 local wineries presenting tastings and samples.

Vlad and I spent the day wandering through the park enjoying the sunshine and a few glasses of wine.  Represented among the booths was Rocky River Winery located near my hometown of Concord, and several wineries from around the Triad area.  I loved trying the wine that had titles and flavors revolving around life in North Carolina, like the Loggerhead Red, or the Carolina Blush.  But the most impressive item for sampling for me was the wine ice cream!  I don't about you guys, but that pretty much puts two of my favorite things into one savory dessert!  With 5-6% alcohol and real fruit pieces, the peach was my favorite with black cherry (a lavender colored ice cream) as a close second!

We ended up visiting about eight of the booths, but our favorite was the first booth of the day, Slightly Askewed Winery from Elkin, NC.  Before we left we made sure to stop back by and snag a bottle of pomegranate wine to enjoy later!  Most of the wineries were having tastings of their sweet and fruit wine selections for summer, but some of them were just entirely to sweet for my taste.  However Slightly Askewed also had peach, black cherry, and blackberry acai wine that were delicious and all while fruity and full of flavor, were not too sweet to sip on!

It was a beautiful day for the festival, with the willow trees swaying in the wind and the elegant sun hats to shield the rays, it was a southern event for the season!  This was my first wine festival and I'm already excited for next year!

An Afternoon in Salem

"Old Salem, Salem was founded in 1766 by the Moravians – a Protestant group of people that began in what is now known as the Czech Republic.  The Moravian Church and Salem residents kept meticulous records and accounts of their lives, their interactions, their buildings and landscapes, and their evolution into the town of Winston-Salem. These records, diaries, and accounts provide accurate details to tell the stories of those living and working in Salem. From the tavern keeper to the doctor, the gunsmith to the boys’ schoolteacher, every person in Salem played a vital role. Today, visitors can interact with costumed staff members through engaging conversation and by participating in hands-on activities." 

Old Salem was a prime field trip destination for elementary schools all over North Carolina.  I went there a few times through my elementary-middle school career.  However being under the age of 16, I was more excited to be out of the classroom then I was to be visiting somewhere new.  So at the end of a hard week, Vlad surprised me with afternoon tickets to Old Salem on Friday!  We got to spend  a little time in the sunshine and fresh air.

It's always interesting when you find places that embrace the time past and the present.  It's a unique moment when you can almost straddle the line between the two and see how far we've come and where we once were.  At the inn you can stand in the parlor were President George Washington once stood on those very same floorboards in a time where a women's s ribbon was a symbol of her marital status.  It's good to be reminded that time moves on and that it always continues to move forward with the good or the bad;  It carries us through.

Lexington BBQ Festival

          This past Saturday was the 29th annual BBQ festival in Lexington, NC, which is only 30 minutes or so  away from Greensboro.  So Vlad and I decided to venture over and check it out.  I had been once before several years ago but this year's seemed bigger than I remembered.
           The streets of uptown Lexington were stacked with vendors side by side, selling everything from decorated coolers to homemade BBQ sauce.  Face painters filled the streets with kids who had vivid faces of pumpkins and tiger stripes.  Rodney Adkins and Dustin Lynch were just two of the artists who took the stage, playing so the entire festival could hear!
          The food cart menus listed everything imaginable....deep fried.  With more variety than the fair, there was deep fried bacon, deep fried butter, and deep fried cheesecake.  Not including the usual funnel cakes, blooming onions, and the general food that is known for its deep fried qualities.  Of course, how could I forget to mention the BBQ stands!  Hot sandwiches or trays filled to the brim with a combination of sliced BBQ and red slaw, paired with a side of homemade curly fries for a southern treat only found in Lexington.  It's events like these that attract a more than interesting crowd, that reminds me just how southern North Carolina really is.

This year's gigantic sandcastle design

Look who we found!

The Davidson County Beekeeper's Association Booth Display

The Candy Factory

          The Candy Factory, which had a line to get in, is such a fun place to explore!  It's a time machine selling retro candy that can be hard to find now.  It's vintage decor and knick knacks create an atmosphere of times past and it becomes a candy playground with barrels of licorice pieces and cinnamon swirls, walls of jelly bean jars, and windows of chocolate fudge displays. I could have stayed for hours taking pictures, but with it so crowded and out of respect for others waiting to get in, I only got a few!

The Blowing Rock

        Saturday morning we ventured to The Blowing Rock, named after a Chickasaw legend of love and honor, which had breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and was strewn with purple and yellow wildflowers.  Spending the day surrounded by natural beauty decorated in brilliant golden hues in the crisp mountain air was the perfect way relax and take a moment to embrace the grandeur of the season.