Hello, friends!

I’m back to share the rest of my weekend adventures up north with friends Tina, Ashley, and Theodora!

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Our first order of business Sunday was breakfast! As part of our media passes for the weekend, we were offered a complimentary breakfast both days at the Seasons Buffet  inside Mohegan Sun. It was actually an AWESOME buffet – massive and with tons of options. Great fresh fruit, too. While waiting in line for omelettes, Tina and I demolished about 4 pounds of watermelon and fresh pineapple. :)

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I had pretty much the same breakfast both days – I always like keeping breakfast on the healthy side when I travel to start off the day right. I enjoyed about half of a veggie omelette topped with smoked salmon, even more fruit, and some oatmeal with cottage cheese.

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Horrible lighting = horrible photos… sorry. You get the idea. :)

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After breakfast, we made a quick visit to the slot machines “just to say we did”…

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…and then decided we were in need of some fresh air and sunshine. (I loathe the fact that casinos still allow smoking. So gross and my only complaint about the otherwise lovely Mohegan Sun! Thank goodness the convention center where the winefest was held didn’t allow smoking!)

We drove down to nearby Mystic, Connecticut, a cute coastal town, for lunch and some walking around.

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It was adorable! And the weather was cooperating quite nicely as well – cold, but sunny.

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I love the water. It felt nice to be outside!

Oh, and did you guys know that I apparently have a boat docked in Mystic? Look – boat Anne! :)

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:)

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Best sign ever:

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And look – do you guys recognize this place from the awesome 80’s movie classic Mystic Pizza? :)  

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After wandering around and exploring the area by foot, the girls and I ended up at Oyster Club, a cool new farm & sea to table restaurant. Apparently it was recently reviewed by the NY Times and got rave reviews!

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It was super cute and cozy inside – lots of pretty wood and wine, and very open with a lot of sunshine and big windows. Just my style.

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I started with the green salad with roasted Rome apples, toasted almonds, feta, cider soaked raisins, and a ginger–maple dressing. Major yum – great combination of flavors.

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I also enjoyed the Quahog chowder with bacon, celery, potato, leeks and fresh parsley. The broth was outstanding – so flavorful and rich, but without any cream.

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Unfortunately they ran out of Quahog (a type of clam – and also reminds me of the TV show Family Guy), so we had another type of fish in the chowder instead. I can’t remember what it was but it was good! I wish there’d been a little more seafood though. :)

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After lunch, the girls and I enjoyed a nice stroll back to the car. We were sad the weekend went by so quickly!

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Tina and I took Theodora and Ashley to the train station and then drove back to Boston – straight to the airport for me! My flight was delayed, blah blah, so I ended up not getting home until about 10:30. I basically went straight to bed and slept like a rock.

Thanks for the fun weekend, ladies! And another thank you to Mohegan Sun for inviting us out for the Sun Winefest. Hands down the best wine fest I’ve ever been to given the massive size and variety of vendors alone! The company was pretty sweet. too. :)

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Time to get back after it – class, homework, and real life await! Happy Monday, friends!

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    24 Comments on Jan 30th 2012

    Whew, what an awesome whirlwind of a weekend I had at the Mohegan Sun Winefest with friends Theodora, Ashley, and Tina!

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    As I mentioned in my last post, we were invited as “media guests” to the event this weekend – a big thank you to Mohegan Sun for the awesome opportunity.

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    We headed to the wine fest around noon after our run and breakfast – and look who the first person we saw was upon entry! Why, it’s Bobby Flay!

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    We didn’t wait in line to say hello but seeing him was cool. :) We had wine to drink!

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    The grand tasting was held in a huge convention room in Mohegan Sun; there were over 1,000 wine (and beer!) brands available for tasting. Wow!

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    We got right down to business.

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    I loved this Valley of the Moon brand from California – not only were the labels cool (and creepy), but their Syrah was outstanding.

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    Other brands I was excited to see there but didn’t get a photo of:

    And many more whose names I simply forgot to write down because I was too busy tasting them. :)

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    The girls and I obviously had an awesome time wandering around and tasting wine. I mean, who wouldn’t? Our photos quickly changed from professional:

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    To silly:

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    :) Don’t worry, we also filled our wine glasses with water frequently!

    There were also some food vendors around – both snack type samples as well as lunch food (for purchase). I had some unpictured chicken tacos for lunch, and a major tasting highlight was this amazing Black Bean Sweet Potato Dip pictured below from Wicked Natural. I was REALLY tempted to buy a jar but I didn’t want to check my bag to fly home – perhaps I’ll pick some up online? It was THAT good. And ya’ll know how I feel about black beans and sweet potatoes together. :)

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    After the wine tasting, we took a breather for some coffee and chair massages (randomly free and awesome), and then headed back for more. But this time, we headed for the beer!

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    Tina also bought us some tickets to the gun show. ;)

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    I’m not usually a huge beer person but I really liked a lot of the ones I tasted, including some old favorites like Magic Hat #9. I hadn’t had that in way too long!

    This was apparently the weekend of the photo bomb. These dudes in the photo below got us bad. Ha!

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    The girls and I had big plans to go out to dinner at Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain inside the hotel following our day of tasting on Staurday, but we weren’t able to get a reservation until 10 p.m. By the time the winefest ended at 5 we were starving, so we ended up just going back to our hotel room, ordering pizza, and having a silly girls night in. It was a blast. :)

    I’m on the flight home to Raleigh right now (yay for in-flight wi-fi!) – I can’t believe how quickly this weekend went by! I’ll share the rest of our weekend adventures tomorrow.

    Have a great night, friends!

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      5 Comments on Jan 29th 2012

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