The BIG 3-0!

My 30th birthday was last week and it was one of the best so far! I’m not sure why, but turning 27 was much harder than 30 for me? Mike kept quiet about our plans for the weekend, but he did let me know that I needed to be packed and ready to leave by lunch time on Friday. It was so fun to have the whole weekend planned without having to do any of it myself! Mike was so sweet and really put a lot of thought into the weekend. I can’t believe he was able to keep it a secret! We left around 2 and right around 3:15 mike said he needed to stop to go to the bathroom. Turns out, we were already at our destination!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE wine! I was beyond excited when I realized that we were staying at Chateau Elan for the weekend! Mike booked a ‘Romantic Retreat’ package, and it didn’t disappoint. Our room was incredible, complete with rose petals on the bed!

For dinner on Friday night we ate at Versailles and it was so good. We were too busy eating to get any pictures of our dinner, but our waitress was so sweet and brought me a vanilla bean crème brulee for dessert. Easily the best I have ever had!

Saturday morning, we woke up and had breakfast and then decided to rent bikes for the morning. We rode all around the Vineyard, and then ditched the bikes to walk on some of the nature trails on the property.


One more thing we needed to check off of our fall bucket list was jumping in a pile of leaves and we just happened to find a huge pile on our walk.

After our walk we changes, and had some lunch and then headed to the Winery for our wine tour/tasting.
Where the magic happens!!

This was an actual antique cask that held up to 1840 GALLONS of wine! Yes, please


After the tour is was time for the tasting!


We learned the proper way to taste wine: See, Smell, Sip. And for the Sip step, you actually take a sip, swish it around, swallow and then smack your mouth. I was glad to hear that you only really do it that way when you are actually doing a tasting!
For the record, the Scarlett 211 was my favorite! I also really enjoyed the Port…Chateau Elan’s Port is 60% Zinfandel, 40% Brandy. They served it with chocolate and it was sooooo good!

After the tasting we walked around the Winery for a while until it was time for our Culinary Demonstration.  There were about 20 ‘students’ and our chef showed us how to make Herb Chicken in Rice Paper with Goat Cheesse. So so so good. As soon as I can find somewhere to buy rice paper, I am all over this recipe!!

When the chef asked for helpers, I quickly threw my hand in the air. I was one of 2 official rice paper chicken wrappers!

My final product:

The Chef had some really great tips and was really entertaining. (One tip was to use regular Olive Oil (not Extra Virgin) if you plan on cooking with it. Saves you lots of money and tastes the same. Save the Extra Virgin Olive Oil for dressing salads and pastas, or eating with bread.)

Chef Jessi!

After the demonstration, we were exhausted (er….tipsy??) and so we headed back to the room for a little nap….Which turned into a 2 hour nap for me, and a short trip to Paddy’s Irish Pub for Mike We opted to go back to Versailles for dinner and each had an amazing Filet Minon. We were way to full to eat dessert so we brought our 1 POUND CHEESSECAKE home with us.
When we got back to the room, we were greeted with this:

So romantic!! Mike and I had such an amazing weekend and I’m so grateful to have such a thoughtful husband. He made this birthday one I will never forget!
And a HUGE thank you to Mom and Russ who wrestled with our 2 crazy kiddos all weekend! It’s so much easier to relax and have a good time when we know our babies are in such good hands!