Labor Day Lake Festivities

Husband has a bit of restless everything syndrome (don’t you love how I start out most of my posts talking about Husband’s quirks?).  Contrary to his ability to do nothing while sipping mojitos by the pool in Mexico the man has a hard time relaxing.  So typically weekends at the lake spent sitting on the dock staring at the ripples in the water aren’t exactly his fancy.  To compromise I promised this lake trip we would explore Morganton and hit up the Lake James Cellars Winery.

I had been warned it wasn’t a large facility.

But however small it was a quaint little store with and antiques shop attached where Sister and I scored some awesome vintage jewelry.

Our tasting fees paid we bellied up to the bar and got to business.

Wine connoisseurs 😉

Betty (our tasting guide) surprised us with some delicious viognier grapes that her son had brought to her that morning.

We couldn’t help but pop a few in our mouths.  The flavor bursted onto our tongues. Not typically being a big white wine drinker I’ve never tried viognier before…but I need to give it a try based on these grapes.

 Considering we had drank a good two glasses of wine before even eating lunch we left the winery and made our way to Root & Vine anticipating the raved about local fare.

But it was closed.

So we walked around downtown Mo-town until we came across Murray’s.

I ordered the special which was a grilled salmon wrap with avocado, cream cheese, sunflower seeds and fresh veggies.  It was nothing short of divine…especially since it came with sweet potato fries!

Back at the casa we finally made it onto the boat for a sunset cruise.

For some reason both of the dogs were in glamor shot mode that afternoon.

What a ham!

I made Husband do a little photo shoot of the Sister and I.

Good thing I did because not five minutes later these glasses found a new home at the bottom of the lake 🙁

Worn out from boating Sophie decided to take a dip lay when we got back.

Life is tough for these dogs…

We spent the rest of the weekend laid up in the house watching Food Network thanks to the rain.  Not that I was disappointed, that’s one of my favorite past times.

On our rainy way home Husband and I stopped for lunch and a pot of tea at the Dobra tea room. I tend to rave about restaurants from time to time. I love food and when I find some that is good I feel I need to shout it from the rooftops.  Food aside, I rarely talk about a place for its drinks.  But on a rainy cold afternoon when nothing sounded better that a cozy cushion and something warm to sip on nothing could have been better than spending a few hours talking to Husband and drinking tea.

I hardly had the attention span to decipher the extensive tea menu so Husband chose the Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) for us to enjoy while I ordered up some hummus and miso soup.

To describe this place to you, its dark, covered in rich look tapestries and everyone is sitting at squat little tables on cushions (on the floor, shoeless) with adorable little tea pots on wooden trays in front of them.  You can just tell all kinds of intelligent conversation is going on.

It was cozy, dark, warm and perfect.

The rest of our afternoon was spent crafting homemade whole wheat pumpkin ravioli.

With parmesan, herbs de provence and a brown butter sauce.

Thank God for food! And a wonderful weekend with family.