Dan and I went to Indianola, Iowa, just south of Des Moines for the final day of their grape harvest of the season. We were lucky to stay at our good friend Meg's the night before so we didn't have to get up and drive from Omaha to make it to the winery by 7:30 am. During breakfast the vintner told us we'd be picking the concord grapes that day. His list of rules for the day included not cutting off a finger and not being "that girl." Did ok on the first task. We also randomly ran into one of Dan's friends from Iowa State, Brad, and his girlfriend Sara.
We went into the fields to pick grapes. You're given a 5-gallon bucket and you'd be surprised how quickly it will fill up. Once your bucket is full, yell "BUCKET!!!" and these fabulous people just appear and take your full bucket away and an empty bucket is now yours to fill. Amazing. Dan thinks those guys get really tired of hearing the word "bucket" by the end of the day.
After a couple of hours we moved to pick a different type of grape (that I don't remember...awesome). That only took a little while and then it was wine time!
This is our little band of harvesters with the vintner, Ron.
Then we went back to the winery and had some lunch and watched the people stomp some grapes. Ok, who are we kidding, after lunch we went to stomp too.


And then Sara (Brad's girlfriend) fell in. She was "that girl". Then the boys thought they should give it a go.

After the grape stomping was finished, it was time to paint our shirts! Since Sara had fallen in, Brad only thought it would be appropriate to have her begin the shirt painting...with her butt.

Then the rest of us got our feet painted and walked on the back of our shirts. Super fun!

We had a blast and really want to return for next year's harvest!
I'm glad I got to check 2 more things off my list! With only about a moth to go, I've gotta get moving!
Have a glass of wine and enjoy the first days of fall!