(Click image above for more pics of wine country)

The first weekend of march we went up to wine country for the Russian River Wine Road Barrel Tasting Weekend. You buy a glass and the go around to just about any winery in the Russian River, Dry Creek, or Alexander Valley and taste the wines they'll be bottling soon straight from the barrel. It's a lot of fun but the price has gone up to $20 this year, so we decided to make a weekend of it and spent the night up there as well. As always I had my camera with me, and Amy caught me in the act above. I think one of our favorite new discoveries from the weekend was Paradise Ridge Winery, just on the outskirts of Santa Rosa. Their wines were pleasant enough, but what was neat about the winery is that they have a large sculpture garden in the woods in front of the winery to walk around. If you'd like to see more pics from the weekend, including many of the sculptures from Paradise Ridge, click the above photo.