GWO - Girls Weekend Out

For several months, some of my girlfriends and I have been planning our weekend away. Lynette had been to this beautiful vineyard in Minnesota and heard about their annual "Food and Wine Festival" in September, and the plans were made. We rented a house on a lake just outside of Alexandria, MN and headed to the Carlos Creek Winery's Food and Wine Festival. While wine is not my thing, the food and festival part definitely called my name. Nine of us loaded into 2 cars for the 3 1/2 hour drive on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day in Carrington, but not so much in Alexandria. After we checked into our gorgeous lake home, we set out for the vineyard, in the rain and mud. There were about 300 vendors selling their goods (think Swiss Days, all you Utah people), but it was raining and freezing. After braving the weather for about an hour, we had enough of the vineyard and decided to do some regular shopping in downtown Alexandria. It was such a fun girls day, despite the rain. Browsing antique shops and boutiques. Giggling like a bunch of little girls. After a few hours of shopping, we went back to the house to dry off and then headed out to dinner. The restaurant we choose was PACKED. Hour and a half wait for a table, but we waited and then had a great meal. They had pool tables and fooze ball to make the wait more enjoyable. After dinner it was back to the house for a slumber party. How long has it been since we had a slumber party? It was great. We were all in our pajamas, playing games and gossiping until the wee hours of the morning. Here's a few pictures from the trip. This is all of us enjoying a slight reprieve from rain. Anna, Rene, Patty, Carla, Faye, Angela, Lynette, and up front is Stephanie and Me. It was one of those self timer shots and I think the look on my face is "is it going to work?" This is Anna and Carla "hooding up" to run through the rain and mud. Our house. All those windows looked out onto a gorgeous lake. Angela, Anna, and I engaging in a friendly and long game of pool. It took us forever to finish, because we suck! A very competitive game of Fooze Ball. Much yelling and screaming ensued during this game. We had all kinds of people watching and cheering for us. Back at the house, in our pajamas, listening to Faye sing.
This was our view from all those windows. Some sunshine would have been nice, but it was beautiful anyway.