The day began at 630 am as I awoke to greet the morning with my multi-visit to the washroom after yet another night of paralyzers and coffees. George and I grabbed a couple muffins and headed out to the golf course at Tanunda. It was a twenty minute amazing drive through the beautiful scenic countryside with grape vines intermixed with fields of ripe wheat within rolling hills that were lush with old mature trees covered in leaves. It was like Saskatchewan meets Italy in the late summer.
We arrived just before 8, paid the bill and set off to the 5th hole to avoid the slow starters ahead of us. The game was a bit of a nightmare as I was using very different clubs and George hadn’t played golf in forever. I started with a 12. Nice. Worst score on a hole in 20 years. Ended up with 55 on the front and back – haven’t shot that poorly in over 20 years as well. Weather was phenomenal, views were sensational and the company was superb. The golf was brutal. Not having your own clubs makes such a difference, as well as the crazy mossy rough that you cant hit out of provided the biggest challenges Ive ever faced on a golf course. We completed the round in around 3 hours as we flew around with our power cart. I bought a hat and we took a few pictures before heading back out on the road.
We stopped at Miranda winery and bought a bottle of chocolate port as we weren’t sure if we would make it back to this winery before it closed. We did a bit of sampling while we were there just to make sure we didn’t miss anything. We arrived home around noon and wolfed down some grub while the girls went off shopping for a couple hours. We had the kids fed and in the pool for a few hours to keep them entertained.
Once the girls arrived home, we had a neighbour couple come over and watch our 6 kids along with their four while we toodled off to do some wine tasting. There are nearly 100 wineries within a 150km drive. We began at the furthest at Wolf Blass and sampled many wines that are unavailable in Canada. We bought two such bottles and are eager to share once we arrive home in Canada. We drank a fair bit as we weren’t driving, then toodled off to the next one at Penfolds. We sampled and bought another bottle there as well. We stopped in at a small local winery and bought a couple nice bottles there. We snuck away hoping to get to Jacob`s creek before they closed at 5pm but were not allowed in after 445, so we headed toward home. Krista spotted a sign for a winery open til 530, so we popped in at Trevor Jones Kellermeister and tried a few more. We bought a bottle of chocolate port as well and headed for home for 530pm.
After a couple beverages and a hearty game of soccer with the kids, we had supper. The kids ate in the kitchen and the adults ate in the dining room. We had an amazing meal of ribs and salads with some Verae wine we had purchased at Wolf Blass earlier in the day. Darren was surprised outdoors with dessert for everyone as a cake was presented with a robust version of Happy Birthday to Darren from everyone. After dessert, we got the kids ready for bed and settled in for the rubber match of Canasta! We had Brandon and Michaelita to join us and the boys polished off the girls in three hands. There was disappointment; but an agreement to play one more hand for some redemption from their crushing defeat. We soundly trounced them in the final hand and got ready for bed. It had been a great day with friends and a birthday to be remembered and treasured forever.
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