Anniversary Wine Bottles

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

We discussed the idea with each other on the way here: we’ll save the various wine bottles we collected on our elopement trip and open them on different anniversaries.

We briefly discussed with the staff at the Pillar Bluff Vineyard how different wines age. Based on her recommendation of which of their wines age better and a little internet research, we determined which wines would be best for which anniversaries. Hopefully we’re doing this right, and they don’t turn to vinegar before we open them.

We’ve labeled and photographed the bottles to keep track of when we plan to consume them:

Wedding Oak: Bridal Blush (2013) – Now
Wedding Oak: Viognier (2012) – 1st Anniversary
Pilot Knob: PK Cuvee (2014) – 3rd Anniversary
Pillar Bluff: Orange Merlot – “Kitty” (2009) – 5th Anniversary
Pillar Bluff: Cabernet Sauvignon (2010) – 10th Anniversary

Our Trip Home

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

It’s been a long caffeine-fueled trip home, but we made it!

It’s actually not that far from Austin to Houston. It’s about 3 hours plus stops, in a perfect world at least. We stopped at a gas station to get coffee as we were leaving Austin… Then we stopped again at a Kroger to get gas and switch drivers… Then again at Buc-ee’s in Giddings to get more coffee … Then again at a Starbuck’s in Brenham to get coffee and switch again.

The worst part was that once we got into Houston, we found out that both Beltway 8 East and I-610 East were closed!!!! After a very long detour through the city and a failed bathroom break, which added an extra 35 minutes to our trip, we finally got home just past midnight.

It’s nice to be home, to be married, and to sleep in our bed again. And after our long day, we are definitely ready for bed. Good night!

-Kori & Eileen

Arriving in Austin

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

After an entire day of driving, we made it to Austin. We took quite a while to get here, with all the photo-op stops, and the great wineries we have already stopped at. We got to town and immediately started taking photos of local street art.

We were debating the various restaurants with the best reviews we could find. We settled on a Japanese restaurant called Daito. We had a little of everything they had, from sushi to tempura to udon, and it was all delicious.

After grabbing a bite to eat, and taking a few more pictures, we’ve finally gotten in for the night. We’re staying fairly close to downtown. We plan on visiting a few of the popular street art locations tomorrow. For now, we’re going to pop open a bottle of wine and spend the night chatting about how great our adventure has been so far.

-Kori & Eileen

Arriving in Brownwood

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

We’re here! Albeit at nearly 9 PM…

We ended up stopping at too many places…. We saw wind turbines and a few more quaint little towns on the way, but we ended up getting here past dark. Which was a lot worse than we thought, particularly because of all the deer running out into the road! We saw SO MANY, with one here to greet us as we drove up to the Hideout.

We didn’t stop to get anything to eat since Austin, and there is absolutely nothing out here besides dirt roads, cactus, and trees for miles. Thankfully there’s a little restaurant and bar here at the Hideout, so we just grabbed ourselves some food. Now we have to get everything put away and prepared for tomorrow. We’ve almost got everything laid out and organized the best we can, until morning. This is our last night of being engaged, tomorrow we’ll be a married couple. We both have a lot of emotions tonight, from feeling rushed to get everything in the room and ready, to the weight of exactly what we’re doing here. We’re excited, we’re nervous, but most of all we’re happy to be with each other and can’t wait to be joined together tomorrow.

-Kori & Eileen