Hello again. Well day two in Murphys started out a little cloudy and I don't mean the sky! Actually the weather in the Gold Country was quite beautiful that morning. We were lucky enough to stay at my friends brother's home up above Murphys and had a wonderful view of the hillsides! Our first stop of the day was for breakfast in Murphys on Main Street. We went to Grounds. It was a lovely place with inside and outside seating. We enjoyed the morning outside with Bloody Mary's and Mimosa's. The second day at Murphys (there is no apostrophe; you will read why when you click on the link) was saved to visit the outlying areas of the Gold Country. At breakfast we mapped out the wineries we wanted to visit. But before we left Main Street we stopped at one last winery, Frog's Tooth. They had some lovely wines and the staff was very nice!
Now we are off to visit the first Gold Country wineries off of Main Street, Ironstone Vineyards.
Ironstone is a very 
large winery with a huge tasting room/deli, a museum and an amphitheatre where they hold concerts. When you first enter Ironstone you see these amazing wine barrels planted with tulips and daffodils. It is so beautiful and I couldn't get over the amazing colors. We were tasting a few wines when in walked a gold mine - really he was! He showed us the gold he had taken from the river, but he wouldn't tell us where for fear we would want to start panning for gold. He was a very interesting character with many stories. Ironstone has gold panning on their property. 
As we were getting ready to leave, John Kautz (Kautz family owns Ironstone Vineyards) came in. I introduced
myself and he offered to give us a tour of the jewelry shoppe/museum. The museum is filled with historical artifacts. Here is John showing us some of the many historical pieces he has curated for the museum. One he is especially proud of is the Gold Leaf specimen. It is housed in a bank safe-type room for temperature and security reasons. We then set off to visit some other wineries, Indian Rock and Coppermine. Indian Rock is a small winery with a lovely pond to have a picnic around. On Saturdays they BBQ for their winery guests. Indian Rock had a lovely Barbera that made its way home with me! Coppermine was next. They provided you with pub tables to do your tasting. They also paired their wine with 
potato chips and chocolate. I could not have asked for a better combination!! 
Last but not least we went to visit Twisted Oak Winery. You drive up a twisted road with many roadside attractions along the way
. It is a fun drive through the vineyards and it overlooks the hills of the Gold Country.
Here we tasted a few wines that were not in their tasting room on Main Street. As we left 
the winery there is a large frog that looks like a rubber chicken. In our travels we saw a few of these large frogs and the story is that Calaveras County (where Murphys is located) is known for their jumping frog contests. So here we are at our last stop with a frog that looks like a rubber chicken!
As we are leaving I stop to take one more picture and I feel like I am on top of the world or at least
"Queen of The Sierra." 
It was a wonderful two days in the Gold Country. It is easily a day trip and you can stay at one of the Sacramento area hotels and enjoy one day visiting Sacramento, California, attractions, like Old Sacramento. Or make a weekend of it and stay in one of the lovely and quaint Gold Country hotels!! That is all for now. I hope you enjoyed the tale of Murphys. Until next time, CHEERS!!
