Sundays are meant for relaxing….well at least for us they are.  With the busy season in full swing for Mitch, Sundays are his only day off for the next few months.  Life as an HVAC tech is no fun this time of year. 

Our 13th Wedding Anniversary was on May 18th.  We spent our special day at our favorite Virginia Winery, Rappahannock Cellars, in Rappahannock Virginia.  It is about a two hour drive for us, but well worth the trip.  We are club members, so we got to taste in the members only room and got to taste the members only wines.  While we were there, we picked up the case of wine we had waiting for us from our membership.  🙂
The only downside to this winery is the no dogs allowed in the tasting room rule.  So we did our tasting and headed out a few minutes down the road to Desert Rose Winery.  They are very dog friendly.  We did another tasting and then  got a bottle to share out on the deck with our friends Judy and Alexis.

Pippi was very curious about all the “goodies” we brought to go along with the wine.

We don’t allow our pups people food or table scraps on a regular basis, but we make exceptions, especially on special days.  They all enjoyed their pieces of cheese.

We have been doggie sitting Ms. McGann for a few weeks.  We believe this was her first winery trip.  She was wondering where I was going while Heidi got some loving from Auntie Alexis.

Maggie, formerly known as Lizzie, is not camera shy and comes over to check out all the action.

Ziva, Cueball and Sandy were all pooped from the car ride up to the winery and laid down almost the entire time.

Sweet Jackson was taking it all in.

This photo made me laugh when I downloaded the images from my camera.  Ms. McGann and Maggie look like how I felt that day.  A day out in the sun drinking several glasses of wine.  I think you get the idea.  🙂

All in all, it was a great day with good wine, friends and of course the hounds.  When we arrived home, Ms. McGann quickly claimed her spot on the couch.

Today, we also spent the day at another great winery, Cooper Vineyards.  This was their 10th Annual Lucy’s Weekend event, in honor of their hound Lucy who is now at the bridge, and benefiting the Richmond SPCA.

We had lovely weather with a nice breeze throughout the day.

We set up the ex-pen and canopy for shade for the hounds.

7 hounds in the ex-pen.  Can you find all of them? I am pretty sure we could have fit 3 more in with room to spare.  Those ex-pens were a great purchase all those years ago. No regrets.

Mitch enjoying a well deserved day off and some of the shade.

And our good friend Judy enjoying the day.

We enjoyed live music.

While the hounds enjoyed all the sites and smells.

It was another great Sunday spent relaxing.  We have a few more outings planned over the next couple of weeks.  Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day!

The last weekend of April we went to the Greyhounds in Gettysburg event (www.greyhoundsingettysburg.com).  Mitch and I went to this event in 2007 with Maggie and Booyah.  We just went up for one day and did a ton of shopping.  I will be honest it was not our favorite event and we did not really have a desire to go again.  We decided to go to this event this year to hear Dr. Couto speak, but we enjoyed a lot more of the event than just his speech.  If you have the opportunity to hear Dr. Couto speak, make sure you do.  He is amazing and continues doing wonderful work for the wellness of all sighthounds and is a greyt resource to the Sighthound community, even from afar.  If you are on Facebook, you may want to check out his new page “The Greyhound Health Initiative”.

We were both pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had and plan to attend again next year.  We arrived mid afternoon on Friday, had lunch and did a bit of shopping and walking around visiting with greyhound friends. After day one of walking around and shopping, the kids, except for Ziva, were pretty tired and slept very well in our hotel room.

Our sweet Pippi girl.

Cueball sleeping with one ear up to make sure he doesn’t miss out on any adventures.

Ziva enjoys her first hotel bed.

We stayed in the 1863 Hotel right in Downtown Gettysburg.  Which put us within walking distance of battlefields, shops, and restaurants.

We went out to dinner at Sweeney’s Tavern just done the road from our hotel on Friday evening. It is very similar to the Farnsworth Inn and actually has the same menu. I had the Game Pie (Duck, Turkey and Pheasant) and it was fantastic! It was a period time dining experience. We learned some neat things about the Tavern. During the filming of the movie Gettysburg, the film crew spent a lot of time at the Tavern. In 1992, the Tavern purchased the Gettysburg movie props from Turner and has the case proudly displayed along the wall of the restaurant.

On Saturday, we took a short morning walk around one of the battlefields that was close to our hotel. We did not go on any organized battlefield tours but would like to do that at next year’s event.

Mitch and the kids pose for a family picture.

After our walk, we headed to the Expo Center to hear Dr. Couto speak, which was the highlight of our trip. I never get tired of hearing this man talk. He spoke for 1 1/2 hours and then took questions for another 1/2 hour. We learned a lot and it never hurts to hear information you have heard again. 🙂

Saturday was a beautiful day. We ate lunch outside with the kids and then relaxed for a bit before heading back in to do some more shopping and visiting.

Lady, who you may remember from our recent post “Greyt wines and Recently Retired Hounds”, came by to visit with us. She is doing great and enjoying her retirement. 🙂

She is a stunningly beautiful large fawn female.

Pippi is our touchy-feely hound and frequently uses other hounds to rest her head. Cueball doesn’t seem to mind too much.

Ziva was intrigued by the Iggy’s having their turn in the fun run area.

After a fun filled day, we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap and bite to eat.

Ziva proudly displaying the toy she picked out from VAGA’s booth while we were shopping.

While the kids rested at the hotel, we went for a walk through downtown Gettysburg. We met these two lovely siblings.

And the lovely Oreo, who was giving carriage rides through downtown.

We stopped for some ice cream at Kilwins before heading out to the winery event at Hauser Winery.

Unfortunately, it was so windy at the winery that after 45 minutes we pulled the van around to where we were sitting in the grassy area and put the kids in the van. I was hoping to get a lot of pictures at the winery, but it was just too windy. These were the only two shots I was able to get. We did enjoy good conversation and some good wine.

We packed up and headed home early on Sunday. All in all, it was a great trip and we look forward to attending again next year.