When I saw a deal from Living Social for a bike tour through the Conneaut Creek Wineries, I immediately jumped at the chance.
After learning how to use the bike rack, Brandon and I drove out to Conneaut, Ohio...which is approximately 1 hour and 9 minutes away (according to Google Maps).
The ride was a part-road, part-trail ride through Conneaut stopping at each four wineries for a tasting. The bike tour usually sells for $20 per person, but with the living social deal, we got it for $6 (+$4 for tastings at each winery). You get a snack at each winery and a few tastings and if you buy a bottle, they shuttle it back to your car for you. If you can't finish the whole loop, there is a shuttle that will pick you and your bike up and take you back to your car as well.
This is what the route looked like:
Ok, so this sounded totally fun! But I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Conneaut area...the route round trip is 19 miles!!! Don't get me wrong, I'm training to ride a 150 mile ride at the end of the summer! But 19 miles and wine...
Plus, holy hills!
We started at Tarsitano, but decided to taste their wines once we returned. So it was onto Markko first. We passed through a covered bridge (which I neglected to take a photo of) and the trail was mostly unpaved all the way there. Aaand we hit our first few hills.
Next, was our favorite stop, Buccia, where they had a covered patio that was decorated with the grape vines. And these were some HUGE vines that were about 30 years old! When we stopped at Buccia's we kicked up our feet on the patio and bought ourselves a cheese and crackers plate and two glasses of wine.
I had the Cabernet Franc and Brandon had the Seyval.
This kitty loved Brandon
...and so do I! This is my favorite picture of the day, hands down. I caught an awesome moment!
mmmmmmm. Vino.
The third vineyard was right on the lake, so not only did we taste a few wine samples, but we stopped by one of the beaches. Sometimes I forget that it's a lake an not an ocean. Seriously. As a girl who grew up by the ocean, that's a little silly.
Lake Erie is sooooo freaking big!
Just try to tell me that doesn't look like an ocean!
Instead of going back the way we came, we just went in a big circle (because we wanted to skip out on all the big hills that we coasted down). It started out pretty nice, but turned into a difficult ride on a state highway. Hmm, not our best choice.
But we made it back in one piece (each) and got to taste our last wines at Tarsitano and enjoy the beautiful day it had turned into. We admired the hills and the vines and sipped on delicious fermented grape juice ;)
Baby grapes!
I hope every one's weekend was as enjoyable as our was! Tis the season for bike riding and a cold, delicious glass of wine!
