Today I packed up the boys and we headed to Laurita Winery in New Egypt, New Jersey. They were having a Fall Harvest Festival this weekend. It was our first time there and we had so much fun.
There was so much to do at the festival. There were pony and wagon rides.
Thanks to my alpaca friends Kevin and Tammi from My Poppy's Alpacas they told me about the festival.
I am so glad they told me about it! They had two of their alpacas at the festival and they were a huge hit.
How funny are these guys!?
They boys bought some special treats and we found a place to sit and enjoy them.
We had such a pretty view. The views are breathtaking anywhere you are on the property.
The main building was built using the materials from two barns. The wood was salvaged and reused to make this amazing building.
Look a horse!
There goes another one.
There were lots of vendors selling all types of things.
Taking a break.
There are concrete picnic tables all over the vineyard. Some were decorated with mason jars and flowers.
The vineyard is open to the public and people are welcome to come and use the property for walks or stop and have a packed lunch. I think this is a great place for a photo shoot.
Oh and there was lots of wine. I unfortunately didn't have any so I took a few pictures of other people enjoying their wine at the playground. hee hee. It was such a fun atmosphere to watch parents eating cheese and drinking wine while the kids were having so much fun on the playground. Fun times.
If you are planning on going to the Festival you can bring your own chair and set up camp. There is live music and there is food there, oh and wine :) Do you see the solar panel in the shot below? The vineyard is 100% solar powered.
We took a tour of the vineyard. They have really nice trailers that are pulled by tractors. You can only imagine how exciting it was for the boys.
This is a spring fed pond. It is 17 feet deep (at least I think that is what he said).
They have weddings at the vineyard and I can only imagine how beautiful an October wedding would be here.
Below is a bat house. There are 1500 bats living in there!
I am not sure what this building is for, but it was fun to photograph.
We were very lucky to have Nicolaas Opdam (on the right) on our tour. He is the wine maker!
Nick told us that they get 4 bottles of wine from one vine. They have a lot of vines! I forget the total count, but there are lots and lots. He also said with proper care a vine will live for 70 years. That's a lot of wine.
Around the base of the building that have dirt piled up to form hills. This helps with temperature control. All the wine making equipment is in the cellar. The hills form great hills for rolling!
We absolutely loved our trip to Laurita Winery. As we were walking back to our car Brady looked up to me and asked, "Mommy can we come back here again." I promised him we would. It was such a fun time.
