A Trip to the Vineyard

As soon as we got back from picking up (via walking) the kids from school on Thursday, we all jumped in the van and hit the road. We headed out of the city to this fabulous restaurant set on the hillside, in the middle of a vineyard. Our #1 goal was to simply have an adventure outside the house.

We had reservations at Forsters Wein Terrassen (Forsters Wine Terrace). This is the second time the family had been here, and my first. Over here, the first day of first grade (which is when "real school" begins) is a big deal. It includes a special church service, lots of gifts, and a party for the whole family. Forsters Wein Terrassen is where they celebrated for Princess Ballerina's first day of first grade. We were all excited to go through the country side, on the winding road, off the beaten path......well, to be honest, the adults were excited....the kids were the opposite of excited.

The view was spectacular! This just gives you a tiny glimpse of the hillsides covered in neat rows of grapevines. There were a lot of people out walking what I call the terrace roads. It was so peaceful and pretty. If it had been just a wee bit warmer (actually a lot warmer for me) it would have been lovely to sit out on the balcony for lunch, but even with the blanket they offered, I would have been freezing. 

This photo is for my CFA who wants me to start liking wine so we can enjoy a glass of wine together. I am just drinking their very fine grape juice, but it looks like wine. And is probably the closest I'll ever get to liking the taste of wine. CFA - Is this close enough?

As we were having fun taking photos and enjoying the sunshine, I offered to take my sunglasses off for the photo and International J's reply was priceless...."No, leave them on. That's how we know you."

Our next stop on the adventure is a quaint village we discovered on my last trip. It reminds me of Galena and an outdoor shopping mall combined. The last time I was here I found a great pair of short boots. This time I was on the hunt for a pair of tall black boots. Instead I found a new winter coat. Some of our favorite stores were closed for Karneval or just closed all together. 

This is totally my type of town. Not too big, and not too far from both the city and the country. When we were leaving the vineyard we drove by a house for sale. That one was really out in the middle of nowhere and I started wondering what my life would look like if I moved to such a house. If you could have seen the house and the setting I think you would have asked yourself the same question. It looked like a house from a story book. 

But alas, like all good stories there is a mix of highs and lows. My low for the day was that my camera broke that morning while we were picking up the kids from school. Right in the middle of taking photos of friends and teachers in their costumes I got the following error. 

It was very hard for me to go on such a beautiful adventure and not have my camera, but I am so thankful that E.H.B. let me use her smartphone. As soon as we got home that night, I jumped online and did some "research" to see if it is something I could fix. 

I diagnosed the problem, got the camera apart, and was able to temporarily fix it.

Do you see that little red "line" on the bottom? That is the gear wheel for the shutter. I oiled it and can get it to take a few photos before it gives me the error again. When the error message pops up, the whole camera locks up. It is so frustrating. I took it apart and put it back together again - because I thought I had it fixed - three times. I even tried to take off another "layer" of the camera to get farther into the mechanics, but it was going to be too complicated to keep trying. I just wiped away my tears and decided I could survive without it. But it just makes me sick to my stomach to see lots of beautiful photo opps go to waste. 

I have prayed for a miracle that it would start working again. And I am reluctantly praying that I can learn the lesson God is trying to teach me through this. So far here are some options that come to mind...

A) God is telling me it is time to buy a new camera.

B) God is answering Captain America's prayer that I would stop taking so many photos...especially of him.

C) God is trying to teach me to just be present and simply enjoy the beauty or the moment.

D) God wants me to work on my memory skills so I remember the details without a photo.

E) Some other reason I haven't heard yet.