freo thunderstorms are ♥

Most of us girls at the first stop!Heather, Leah, Lacey, and myself.
♥

Lancaster Vineyard

The chocolate factory!!

us Portlanders embracing the rain!
let me tell you the picture does NO justice.

so its monday and what a monday it was, but i'll start with the weekend.

saturday morning we got up early and headed out to the swan valley for our long day of wine, cheese, chocolate, coffee, and beer tastings. it was a long day indeed. our first stop was at the sandalford vineyard. the lady put out a whole row of wines in front of us, starting with a light white and ending with a dark "port" red and basically said go. we went for it. i can honestly say i tried all of them and liked none of them. lets just say im not much of a wine person, i don't think i have that acquired taste bud. we went off to the next one called lancaster vineyard. this place was beautiful. although the first one was a gorgeous building and grounds, at lancaster we were out in the open vineyard and really felt like we were with the grapes. it was beautiful! that winery was a bit more organized and poured the wine for us and helped us think about the tastest more, but i didn't like that anymore than the last. at this point we were all pretty tired of the wine and we were ready to move on. the next stop. CHOCOLATE

the chocolate factory was beautiful and delicious! we tried all three of their chocolates in chip form and then went on from there. i sampled there caramel chocolate and also their cookies and cream chocolate. the caramel was DELICIOUS!! so exciting! and we got ice cream too! it was so good, but by the time that was over i was so tired and full! so full of chocolate and cheese (from the wine stops) that i was ready to move one. next stop coffee!

the coffee stop and beer stop get their own paragaph because i was basically dead through those two. im not a coffee drinker so during this stop i rested my head and sat outside with some others and enjoyed the sun. at the beer place as they were trying the beers, i was drinking a lot of water and enjoying the live singer. he was great! but at last it was time to go home! we finally made it after a real long and hot bus ride back.

sunday was the best beach day BY FAR. perfect. no waves, so we jsut floated so nicely, and no wind, so we didn't get pelted by sand. it was BRILLIANT! but then we saw a jellyfish right next to us and that was our cue to leave. it was still a blast!

AND MONDAY!! today was amazing! it started out pretty warm and me with a headache. doesn't really surprise me. i went to the post office and sent off a package to family and was ready for class. after class i skyped with some friends and it was time to start cooking....or so we thought. the thunderstorm came in and it was amazing! some of us went out to the roundhouse to watch the lightening and thunder and got caught in the rain. on our way back we see some fellow portlanders running to meet us! we got our jackets and stood in a DOWNPOUR and rain and lightening and thunder for a good 15-20 minutes. it was EPIC. but the whole storm went on for about an hour. the sky was lighting up every other second with some epic thunder to follow. it was amazing. megan, kurt, lacey, and i all cooked dinner tonight also and we made a wondeful feast and some GREAT dips, hamburgers, french fries, fruit salad, and an american themed cake for dessert. MONDAY WAS SUCCESFUL!!!!

but. i do miss the cherry blossoms at school. good thing i brought a picture of them from last spring. i think ill get over it. talk to you all soon!!!