Idaho Wine Country!
Other then being greeted with long-stemmed roses and cocktails by the US men's gymnastics team, we try not to have too many expectations when we travel somewhere new, cause like, it's best to just experience a place for what it is, and not what you want it to be. And it keeps your travels full of surprises, like that one time we found out you're definitely not supposed to get off the tour bus in rural Cambodia and that other time we learned you should always follow that nice British couple to the Caribbean dance party under that one sandwich shop in Vancouver at 3 a.m. Just don't drink the punch. Never drink the punch.
Or that time when someone tells you Idaho has wine, and it turns out they really truly mean Idaho has incredible, delicious, carefully made wine that is grown in vineyards with gorgeous backdrops and amazingly devoted growers and winemakers who are more excited and passionate about their grapes then we are about breakfast burritos or those little coupon sale booklets at the front desk of Whole Foods. And, lucky for us, we got to drink allllll the wine joined by our other wine-loving friends, Molly and Katie!
Meredith, the winemaker from Ste. Chapelle let us taste wine at every single stage of its production, from fresh pressed grape juice to four weeks fermented to six months in oak to the final finished product out of the bottle, and obviously we were all about that because haveyoumetus/wealwayssayyestowine. And Greg, the owner and operator of Koenig Winery was one of the absolute kindest people we've probably ever met AND he like built his own tasting room from the ground up, which... damn OK. He also offers Carbernet Sauvignon ice wine which is one of the only Cabernet Sauvignon ice wines offered in North America and it was AMAZING.
But also beyond the wine, Idaho is actually pretty freakin' chill. We traveled to Boise with nothing but two bags, one camera, and three pairs of clean underwear (each, this time!) - we let Idaho give us the rest. We learned that there's a big Basque population which meant we got to eat delicious Basque foods at the Basque market. We also learned there's a really dope chocolate shop called the Chocolat Bar and we were even allowed to make chocolate covered caramels with flakey sea salt on top, all while getting filmed! LOL a teaser for the video is over there. ( ˘ ³˘)♥
After all the chocolate and wine, our trip ended with a little weiner roasting competition (which wasn't exactly a competition but we're pretty sure we still won) on a farm outside of Boise with Nik, Molly, Katie, and the Delicious Contents crew! There were also s'mores and three horses that we named Butterscotch, Sarah, and Other Sarah, even though that wasn't really our right. The farm guys that hosted us there were the sweetest dudes, and they showed us a neat trick with some weird plant that makes your mouth tingle when you bite it, and we're honestly not 100% sure it wasn't harmful but the risk definitely felt worth the experience.
SO it turns out Idaho has a lot more to offer than just potatoes, clearly. We're home now and we're honestly missing our little getaway so much but it's actually time to unironically sip pumpkin spice lattes and flip through the rest of our pictures, so ttyl, cuties!
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Thanks so much to Visit Boise and Delicious Contents for making this trip possible! We had a *BLAST*!
Cover photo credit: Katie Quinn