Wine fun in Washington!

Since moving to Washington State I've learned that I live in the second largest wine making state in the country!  Those stats don't lie, there are wineries EVERYWHERE! It's amazing.  Even though I moved here before RoB, I checked out a few wineries on my own (which can be awkward, depending on the place, for example, Hamilton was great about it).  But I did get to try a LOT of local wineries during the spring barrel weekend. Some of my coworkers decided to get a limo for the occasion (for one day) and for other two days of the weekend a couple of us hard-core tasters checked out some others.

Spring Barrel is a special weekend in the spring when wineries let you try some of the samples straight form the barrels (as well as regular tasting, obviously).  Many of the wineries are on a passport that we bought.  These magical passes meant we didn't have to pay tasting fees for any wineries in the passport (not that it's a big deal since most wineries will refund a tasting fee if you buy a bottle) and if you get stamps from at least six wineries you get a commemorative glass!

For the best recap I will link to all of my yelp reviews for the wineries we went to!  We started at Airfield (even though it was bigger, still fun!), then went to Thurston Wolfe (great), and Gamache (meh).  These three were all walking distance from each other and there were a lot more within walking, but they weren't on our passports so we saved them for another time.  Next we headed north to Barrel Springs (a bit off the beaten path but beautiful and very friendly) and we ate lunch there because it was so nice!  Last stop in Prosser was Kestral (a bit snooty for my taste).  The limo made a final stop in Benton City at Chandler Reach before taking us back the starting point which was conveniently enough in the parking lot for our final winery of the day, Thomas O'Neil.

That was only day one of the weekend, the next day we went to Kitzke (a bit uppity), Goose Ridge (great wine, big estate), and Kiona (love!).  Then, on day three we went to JBell Cellars, Two Mountain, Wineglass Cellars, and had dinner out in Yakima.  We could decide which place to go since there were a couple listed in our wine passport so we just had appetizers at two places, 5 North and Second Street Grill.

I'm glad I got to taste so much over the weekend, but in general these special weekends aren't the best to go tasting.  For most people they are just out to drink, not out to try some good wine and learn about it. In general I wouldn't say the weekend passport is worth buying since almost all wineries refund your tasting fee with a purchase and I tend to purchase wine almost everywhere I taste.  I also prefer to go when the wineries can pay more attention to each individual person.  I have already checked out many other wineries and hope to share some of my favorites soon!

Currently

First, lets check in with my monthly blog goals:

• Reviewed 2 (here and here) of my unreviewed 12 books (I need to step up)
• Sent 1 review to Jagged Edge (I need to contribute more)
• Completed 1 link up with the.book.chat (Characters)
• Still need to complete my personal posts (I have 3 of them)

And now onto some fun things.  This is a weekly link-up with siddathornton, and I thought it would add some fun to this post!  I am currently:

reading: The Maze Runner and loving it, I'm only about a quarter of the way through but I have a hard time putting it down every night.
writing: Lots of yelp reviews, those will be included in an upcoming post!
listening: To the upcoming soccer match, GO USA!!
thinking: About all the fun things I will do when my parents come to visit.
smelling: The dinner RoB is cooking, I come home to deliciousness every day (I don't know what I'll do when he gets a job)
wishing: I was better at volleyball (we played in a pick up game last night and I was one of the worst out there)
hoping: The weather will be perfect for the weekend...
wearing: Boots and a raincoat. I was told it didn't rain in the desert but someone lied to me.
loving: That I got to play volleyball last night and soccer tonight!
wanting: The USA to beat Honduras tonight.
needing: A library card
feeling: Cold, the rain plus the strong AC at work has kept me chilled all day :(
clicking: A new way to read my blogs, since google reader will be going away very soon, I haven't found one that I love yet...any suggestions?

Book Review - Hera, Queen of Gods by TD Thomas

Why did I read this book?
I was contacted by the author for a copy of this book if I would provide my review in return.   This was  another one I read on my kindle!  The topic sounded interesting and I thought a fantasy book involving Greek gods might be kinda cool.

First Lines:
"Life is about one thing and one thing only. Power." (Thomas 1)

What is it about?
A group of Gods has come to earth and taken over the bodies of some high schoolers to rescue the missing fates.  As soon as they come to earth they are under attack by many different dark creatures.  They also meet up with some witches and a couple mortals who become very helpful in their journey.

Why you should read it!
Well, I'm going to back pedal a bit here, I didn't really like this book.  I don't know a lot about mythology and that might've made me more interested (given me a back story) but most of the other reason I didn't like it don't have to do with the topic.  As soon as the story started they were under attack and it just kept coming, one bad creature after another.  I felt like this didn't give enough time for a story to develop, they were always running and fighting.  I also felt like there was no regard for the lives of anyone they were dealing with.  The human bodies they took over were disposable, everyone who helped them wanted nothing more than to die for them, I find this unbelievable and very unrelatable.  The love story was also very weak and half hearted I think part of the problem were that the characters had no depth.  This book didn't work for me and I can't honestly recommend it to anyone.

Reviews from around the blogosphere:
Zigzag Timeline
City of Books
myseryniti

Did you read this book and review it on your blog? Let me know in the comments and I'll add your link!