MN Wine Trip, May 2012

Wine trip #5! This means we had to return to a quadrant of the state we have been to in the past. The great thing about MN is that there are hidden surprises in the hundreds of small towns scattered about, so no route will be a repeat! We traveled Southwest, which meant Faribault for lunch and a bit of shopping. Fantastic lunch at Cheese Cave! We even tried to get our server to come with us on the rest of the trip, he was super! Then we had the typical antique shopping and wandering. Faribault was much cuter than expected!

Time to check in to our hotel for the night. It was in the tiny town of St Clair, MN. The lodging for the night... an old church, Bell Tower Suites! Figured it was about time to stay in a joint that was originally created to worship the dude that turned water into wine! Plus, we have already stayed in a jail and a castle, a church was next logical choice. It was pretty amazing. 1400 square feet and stain glass filling the entire wall in the living room. We hung out a bit but it was time to hit our first winery, Indian Island Winery! They had a small restaurant that served burgers and wine, all a girl needs. This place is quite a compound! Large structure in the middle of farm land, wish the weather was better cuz the patio looked awesome. Thankfully they had live music inside to entertain us! And I couldn't get over it. White dude on the steel drums. How do you pick that up living in farm land?? Anyways, he was great!

Time to return to the church to pray. I mean play games and drink too much. :) Morning came quick and it was time to pack it up and head to the antique mecca in the area, Jordan MN. While we were shopping the storms started to brew, so we took cover in a coffee shop/diner/antique store. I think we hung out here for hours. Finally we could kill no more time, time to brave the storm and head to winery #2, Crofut. Now we had troubles with this winery the first time round in 2009, in that I didn't read their hours posted so we couldn't stop at the designated itinerary time. This time it was going to happen! Um, or not. We arrived to find a note on the door: Closed due to weather. Are you kidding me? It was raining. Sigh. Again, not meant to be. Nothing really left to do in this wet and dreary weather but to head to Chaksa. Our stop for the night.

So yes, Chaksa might be only 45 minutes out of the cities but that requires an overnight stay! Don't worry about it. We all put 2 and 2 together and realized it was Cinco de Mayo. So we had to dine at a Mexican restaurant! Turns out there was a brand new one in town that just opened. Perfect! Or not ... New wait staff,  new systems, busiest night of the year meant we waited 45 minutes just for a bill, then even longer to pay. Ugh. But we finally got out of there and trekked it to the wine shop down the road, Dolce Vita Wine Shop. Now, we had it on good authority that we'd love the place, but I didn't realize I'd love it that much! Super service, guy really knew his stuff, gave us all wine tastings and they have a super chiller that will chill a bottle of wine in minutes, cool thing! Time to return to the Best Western! Gotta give some praise to this joint, great price and underground parking (helpful when the storm hit at 2am).

Morning came and it was not sunny. The storm was still hanging around so no one wanted to stick with the original plan and tour Arboretum. Instead we played mini golf! Fun course. We worked up an appetite and headed to Lions Tap for lunch. 

**Bonus wine trip! Due to a schedule change we weren't able to stay at this B&B during wine weekend  but I didn't want to cancel our reservation. And am so glad I didn't! Turns out Belle Plaine doesn't have much entertainment besides bars, but the hidden gem is The Rectory! Before we could check in we had some time to kill. First brunch at Cindy's Kitchen. Yummy - real cooking. It was still a bit early for drinks so we hit the local thrift store and I rediscovered my love for bubble gum ice cream. OK! Now it was acceptable to hit the bars. Lots of townie bars, the no windows kind so it was hard to know what we were going to get into. But we found the cutest one! Huck's Shipwreck Saloon. Recently remodeled with murals and the full shipwreck theme. Super cute and clean!

After an afternoon drink, it was time to check in. We had a very thorough tour of the old rectory and learned all about the history from our wonderful hosts for the night. We then sat in the game room and played games with we munched on the wonderful cheese plate and sipped wine. Then it was dinner time, back to the townie bars! We heard the food at Johan's was good and I won't deny that, however the atmosphere was not like our earlier place. Things really got lively when the homemade pole dancing stage was assembled. Yikes. We retreated to our peaceful B&B for the night!


The next morning we started the day with the most amazing breakfast. It was course after course of deliciousness. Scones, poached peaches, stuffed french toast - all homemade. Times like this I wish my stomach was 10000 times bigger. I was sad to leave. But we were going to a winery so not too sad. :) on the earlier wine trip we stumbled upon a brand new winery that wasn't open yet, but by this weekend it was! Chankaska. Not a huge fan of the name. But the grounds are amazing, it is quite a winery. The workers actually understand the wine they are serving and are quite knowledgeable - great experience. 

Oh and I have to mention... there is one tourist attraction in Belle Plaine. The 2 story outhouse. You can't tour the inside, but you can get a good idea from the outside!