21. Happy Birthday to Lindsay!

Well, I think it was a pretty good day. At 9:00 we met our driver for the big tour of the Yarra Valley -- the Australian Napa Valley? The plan was to head to the valley, stop for coffee, have a barrel tasting at a winery, go to a dairy to taste cheese, then head to the cattle farm/vineyard for lunch and more.

We had a beautiful drive to the county... and Rob took us on a little detour to a place he thought might have kangaroos in the wild. We saw some very pretty scenery, but we didn't see any roos!

Rob took us to a very cool coffee/wine/cheese shop for morning tea. We browsed a bit, had a coffee, then headed off to our wine tasting.

The winery was in a very pretty setting, with tables on the lawn and a petanque game area. Inside, we were taken into the back, where the barrels are stored, for our private tasting (we got a few looks from the other tourists gathered for the public tastings...) We tasted two whites, a rose, a shiraz and a merlot. For the merlot, we tasted the young wine from two different barrels -- and were able to taste the differences in the two, probably from the difference in the wood of the barrels. Finally, we tasted the "finished" version of that wine, noting that it was much like a blend of the two younger wines. We learned a lot about wine making, grapes, and Australian wines in particular.
A little woozy, the next stop was the Yarra Valley Dairy were we tasted a number of goat cheeses. We really liked all but one! We browsed through the shop, trying to decide if we could get the cheese home to the US... decided it wouldn't work, so bought jam and an apron instead.

At about one pm, we pulled into the beautiful Tibooburra farm. We met Jo, one of the family members, and Billy the dog.

We started with a little wine and nuts and a stretch after our long ride. Jo provided a wonderful lunch of cheese, bread, quiche, salad and wine. After lunch, we headed off in the "farm truck" (a Mercedes SUV) to tour the farm. We saw what seemed like miles of vineyard, lots of cattle, lots of hay, waterfalls, ponds, and the homestead. It was all beautiful and very peaceful. It's impossible to capture the stunning views in photos. After the tour, we gathered around a table outside, tasted the Merlot, and talked about the workings of the farm and the vineyard, the wines, world events, fire and flood... until it was time to head back to town. Jo gave Lindsay the bouquet of roses from the table (grown on the farm) and a bottle of Chardonnay. It was a really nice afternoon.


Back to the city by 5:30! Dinner with Henry and Amanda and the girls at 6:30 at a very interesting new restaurant. The food was wonderful -- Lindsay had the steak of her life! -- and it was a great way to wrap up the birthday. We walked all the way back to the apartment, or rather Lindsay and Brigitte skipped all the way back! They were both pretty tired at the end.



So that makes two birthday celebrations down (Dinner at Movida and all day today) and only three more to go -- Colorado, Illinois, Tennessee. If she plays this right, I think Lindsay can stretch this birthday nearly all the way to the next one!

Happy 21, Lindsay!