The Tedeschi Vineyard (in dedication to Kara)

Aloha! The adventures continue! Today was very windy, but Bunny and I took refuge up-country to check out the winery. Although the winery is about 5 miles from Kihei as the bird flies, no road connects the two locations. Instead, we had to drive to the north side of the island, then back around up the mountain. It took over an hour to get there! But it did provide amazing scenery. I love driving through fields of crops and seeing open space all around me.

The winery was much smaller than I anticipated, but just great. We arrived in time for the 1:30 p.m. tour, which included a walk around the grounds and a view of the wine-making machinery. The winery is operated on a piece of historic property. While I'm sure curious readers can learn more on the winery's website, the gist is: a retired navy captain brought his family to live here after seeing the property from the sea during his career. He was very wealthy and quickly made a mini-village out of the place that was pretty much self-sufficient. The King of Hawaii liked the place a lot and came for a merry time (he was called The Merry King because he was always down to party). The grounds are filled with enormous, impressive trees from all over the world. One in particular is from Australia (or New Zealand? I can't remember) that is/was commonly used for making ship masts. It hadn't ever occurred to me before that ship masts are TALL and yet need to be made of one solid trunk. Not many trees are tall enough or straight enough to fill such an order. I was very impressed by this unique tree. It also made me think of John John; I wonder if he's seen any on his voyage.

The wine was wonderful. Four complimentary glasses were offered in addition to the free tour (can you believe it!? Free?!). I had a blush (GOOD), a sparkling wine made from Pineapple (smelled like ham, strangely enough, but tasted good. Tasted more like sparkling cider than wine, though), and something called "Splash," which was also made of pineapple (and smell of cheese...?) that tasted DELICIOUS!!! The last was a dessert Raspberry wine. I LOVED the smell of this one! But man, I wouldn't want more than a few sips. It was great, but so sweet!

The next few days will be windy, so I'm putting off my hiking trip until Monday. Saturday I'll be helping Laura's hula dance team with a fundraiser and I'll attempt to find another church in walking distance on Sunday.

FYI, today is my six month anniversary with Scott. Shout out to us.

Today I am a gecko and peach wine, if there is such a thing.

Here are some pictures of both my 5 mile (one way) beach walk and the scenery from today's winery trip. The beach ones are dark because it was freaking early, not because it isn't sunny here. Cuz it is. (haha to you!) And really, would you guys start leaving more comments for me?