Combining art and wine? What a great idea!

A Visit to Abacela Vineyards by Way of Wildlife Safari

My wife had coupons for the Wildlife Safari in Winston Oregon so we made a play date. Beautiful day for a drive and little traffic. We got there about 15 minutes early and walked around looking at the animals, including these flamingos.

When they opened we got tickets to the lion feeding and training session. Sorry, but I was so mesmerized by the cats that I did not take any pictures.
They have two big dads, two females and one little boy of 4 who is getting close to leaving. He is with his mom and starting to mature.
Next, we visited the Tiger. He is a small male and has to be feed chicken as red meat does not work for him. He would not last long in the wild so he has lots of room to explore but when they feed him they do it in a small cage. He RAN into the cage when they opened the outside door.

After the close encounter, we decided to take a lunch break and headed for one of our favourite wineries, Abacela, for lunch and a tasting.

They charge a $10 tasting fee but waive it if you buy two bottles. We bought four. My favourite white from them is the Albarino and Linda chose two of the Dolcetto. We had a cheese plate and the Hummus plate and left full, happy, and with some great wines.

Back to the animals! 

We drove through and were greeted by some very large and curious Watusi Cattle.

They seemed to think we had food or were at least interesting enough to visit with. 

Next, we saw the Giraffe baby we met last year. We did a Giraffe visit last year and met the tallest one in around; 17 feet!

When we left and went to the next winery Linda ask if they had a sink as she had to wash off the Giraffe spit. The woman in the tasting room got a good laugh over that.

Next time you are on the freeway and need to forget about your worries for a while, pull off and enjoy some time watching the animals wander free.

PS, do NOT roll down the windows for very long;)