Let me just say that it would be a good policy for the towns of Fraser and Winter Park to give everyone entering town a free wine tasting, and everyone would then leave more of their tourist dollars in town.
Our first stop upon returning to Fraser was the Winter Park Winery. I saw the “Wine Tasting” sign and thought that would be a fine way to spend some time while we were waiting for my brother and his family to finish skiing.
I think they have you taste 7 wines, I don’t know, I kind of lost track. My issue is that I instantly know whether I like a wine or not, so then I just shoot the rest of it down and move onto the next one. So I consumed that wine pretty quickly (not a large quantity of each, but cumulatively…..) I am a sweet wine person (I like some reds, but not “big” reds, and I like reds with lower tannin.) So we bought two bottles of the Riesling (one for Wade and his wive) and one for us, a bottle of their port, and a bottle of “Grateful Red” which isn’t even ready to drink yet but I couldn’t resist. We are supposed to hold off until at least this summer, so I didn’t get to taste it. But it was “Grateful Red” so I had to have it. Good marketing on their part.
I had a hard time taking this picture, MaryAnne thought it should be “Still Life with Wine and Cat.”
While we were rounding the block to park at the winery, I saw two signs – “Art Gallery” and “Thrift Store” which I knew would be our next stops.
They were both in the same building, the historic Fraser mercantile building. The thrift store doesn’t have a website, but the art gallery does. The Elizabeth Kurtak Art Gallery – they had recently had an open house, and so were sold out of some paintings and prints, but I still found a print I liked (picture from her website since I forgot to take one).
I liked this one as well “Spring Fox,” as it has more complex shapes (I am learning more about what I like in art from my color theory/design class), but she was sold out of that one right now.
Then to the thrift store, I hadn’t really seen anything that caught my eye (other than the two cats in the store, Ken was busy playing with them and hoping I wouldn’t find anything weird) – but then I saw the door that said “Furniture, Man Stuff and Oddities.” Well, you can’t keep me away from oddities, and I think I purchased the item that they were referring to.
Yes, it’s a crab. A crab soap dish.
See, it opens up and you can put your soap in there. Or, you can chase your husband around, clacking it at him. I will not tell you what he said he was going to do to Cyril the Crab if I didn’t stop that. NOT nice.
And Cyril needed someone to keep him company. These birds will look lovely on the wall in the sunroom, if I can find some other bright decorative items to go with them.
We got out of there before I could find anything else I needed.
We headed back into Winter Park and went to nest.Artistic Home, a great store full of original and local arts and crafts. I couldn’t resist an original watercolor by Grand Lake artist Richard Koller. Apparently he is trying to paint one picture a day. I am glad to have this one.
Luckily for our budget, the skiiers were down off the mountain, so we went to see them and left the retail adventure! Quite a good day, I’d say.
Cute crab! Thanks for sharing. I like sweet wines, too! I am, like my grandmother, partial to Mogen David (yes, grape juice posing as wine).
LOVE the crab!!
What fun! Love the crab, also love the birds!
Any chance you still have the red crab soap dish. Our was broken today and my 4 years old is super sad.
I had that crab and it fell apart, been looking for another one believe it or not my husband loved it and I was trying to find him another one for fathers day. Where did you get it or is yours for sale?