Hiking and Wineries.....and more wineries!

August 20

The day started with an amazing sunrise.....

We headed out today for a hike, but first we dropped Keith off at a car rental as he decided to take the more "independent man" route and explore the area.  We asked at the rental car place and they advised us an "easy" hike was "close by" and so we headed off to Ijams Nature area.  The walk was largely through the shaded woods, then down a rock "staircase" to a boardwalk which ran along the Tennessee River.  It was pretty cool.

We then looked for a place for lunch and found the "Applewood" complex which had a winery, a restaurant, several shops and an ice cream shop.  So we went to the restaurant and had the best, THE BEST apple fritters which were deep fried, covered in powdered sugar, and you topped it off with apple butter.  It was a wonderful lunch.

We headed next door to the winery and began sampling wines.  One was so good - a strawberry sweet wine that I bought a bottle.  Little did I know it was the beginning of a "groundhog day" like experience as we continued on to not one, not two, but three other wineries!  By the time we'd finished our day, around 5 pm when we climbed high back in the mountains to the condo we'd been to four wineries and I had FOUR bottles of wine :)  And closed the day with a gorgeous sunset, again.