Palisade

A few weeks ago, our Denver village took a road trip to Palisade...Colorado's wine country. 
Can you believe that this place is only four hours west of Denver on 1-70?
We discovered this little gem of a town last year on a girls trip and decided that this year it would be fun to bring the boys for a quick weekend get away. 

Max took this picture on a mountain bike ride and it overlooks all of Palisade valley. 

We only had one agenda for the weekend, which was to spend time together and taste some wine.  We decided to start the day off with a great breakfast at the Palisdae Cafe...complete with a round of mimosas of course.

After breakfast, it was time to pack up our bikes and search for the perfect glass of wine. 

Chance was a trooper all day and had an absolute blast riding bicycles with all of his buddies. 

The girls
Megan, Katie, me, and Lauren

It was so much fun riding our bicycles in a big group from place to place.  Megan and Katie even rented a tandem bicycle for our entertainment.  It was actually kind of hard to ride.  Maybe I just don't like the feeling of not being in control of the steering and the brakes :)

Our first stop was at Canyon Wind Vineyards, which is still my favorite.  I just love the layout and the open court yard outside. 

Chance loved showing off  his wall walking skills to his honorary aunties. 

We stayed at Canyon Winds for a glass of wine under the shade tree and stopped long enough for a group photo. 

Our next stop was Clark Family Orchards for fresh peaches.  Nothing beats fresh fruit on a hot day.

After a long bike ride back into town, the gang stopped at Plum Creek.  Chance was zonked out and decided to nap so I sat this tasting out.  It's a good thing too because I had to chase some girl with a bachelorette party down when she tried to steal Nick's $3,000 mountain bike and leave him with her rental to ride.  She was quite shocked when she realized that I had wathced her calculate the whole switcheroo and called her on it.  She apologized and left quickly on the rental bike.  Shame on her...too bad her mother didn't teach her that stealing is not nice and gets you loads of bad karma :(

Our fourth stop was at Garfield Estates.  I honestly did not pay much attention to this stop because Chance was up and rested from his nap.  He was in a great mood and cracking me up by trying on all of the guys' hats and running up and down the vineyard rows.

Across the street from Garfield Estates was Maison la belle vie.  This place was fabulous! I could have sat under that tree and ate cheese and bread all day.  It was such a fun and relaxing spot! The wine was great also.

 

Finally, our last stop was at Grande River Vineyards.  This was towards the end of the day and everyeone was getting fun and fiesty. 

We started to care less about wine tasting and more about playing around with each other.  We sat on the picnic tables and had a dance party to Cook's music. 
Chance even got the group to teach him how to somersault in the grass.
Everyone that came in and out of the vineyard tasting room stopped to talk to us because we were all having such a blast! I love how much Chance makes strangers happy and want to know all about him! 

 

 

I know that a good time was had by all.  Our mission of finding good wine with good friends was definitely accomplished.  Until next year Palisade...keep it classy. 
We'll be back!