35. Go wine tasting at a vineyard/winery

Virginia has so many winery and vineyard options and I'm a bit surprised it's taken me three and a half years to make it out to one. My roommate is probably Barrel Oak's number one fan and has to be a VIP customer - she has asked me several times to go with her, but I haven't ever been able to go, but have been determined to do so. This weekend I finally made it out to Barrel Oak Winery with Kerry and a fun group of folks to celebrate Karen's birthday.

Here's the birthday girl taking it all in during our wine tasting -- amazing view of the beautiful Virginia countryside from this winery's property. So, for those you who aren't familiar, basically at most of these wineries you can do a wine tasting where you get a couple of swallows of each of the wines that they make and sell, served to you by a knowledgeable employee who tells you a little bit about them.

At Barrel Oak, the staff is totally unpretentious, very laid back, and really friendly. No hoity-toity wine snobs that I could find. They also are extremely dog friendly at Barrel Oak....their initials are BOW after all. But more on that in a different post.

After our wine tasting, we parked it at one of their picnic benches and enjoyed bread, cheese, and preserves that Karen's boyfriend brought along for the birthday celebration, along with some Barrel Oak wine...and a very delicious pomegranate.

It was a pretty perfect day - blue skies, temperature near 70 degrees, beautiful vineyard all around us. We enjoyed ourselves and it was a great way to cross another item off my list.

I didn't take pictures in the evening, but we spent a little time around one of the fire pits after the sun went down and I chatted it up with a cub scout who was telling me how to perfectly roast a marshmallow. He was not a fan of catching marshmallows on fire. Hmph. To each his own.

Family and dog friendly, laid-back setting, great staff, and picturesque views, not to mention some really tasty wine --- Barrel Oak comes highly recommended from this first time visitor.

Cheers!