Art and Wine Tour

 Our friend Leah is a great one for organizing adventures. One of them included an art and wine tour. She planned it on a weekend when a number of Prescott artists had opened their studios to the public. We met at noon and headed for our first stop, Granite Creek Winery in Chino Valley. It was a lovely spot, with a large red barn and a collection of smaller buildings on this lovely shady lot. The live entertainment was an added plus.

 Leah had made advance arrangements, and they had reserved a table for us on the lawn. We had a wine tasting in the tasting room, then headed out to our table with a glass of wine and a pot luck picnic which included bread, prosciutto, three types of cheeses, crackers, and fresh watermelon and cantaloupe fresh-picked from the garden. We enjoyed it so much that we took a group consensus and decided to skip the two art stops in favor of staying longer.

 So our trip became a winery tour. Our next stop was Juniper Wells. Here's the juniper and well house that gave the winery its name.

 Here is a horse that was grazing nearby.

 The grounds at Juniper Wells were not as inviting, but they did have all these wonderful juniper trees. Dan Raugh became enraptured with this tree, which stood across from the tasting room and next to the vineyard. He just kept laughing and taking pictures.

 It was such a nice tree, we all posed in front of it for a group photo.

We ended our evening with pizza at the T-bird cafe in Peeples Valley. It was a beautiful night, so we ate outside under the canopy of a black walnut tree. We lit the tiki torches at our tables, which gave the whole scene a lovely glow. The owner, Chery, and her husband entertained us.

I got the biggest kick our of this guy who was had a walrus mustache and an orange T-shirt that was so bright it practically glowed. He was sitting at a table next to ours. I could hardly believe it when he got up on stage and started playing a washtub string bass. I have to admit, it sounded pretty darn good. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.