Went to Alsace today. So pretty! Like something out of an alpine fairy tale. Flowers everywhere, hanging off window sills, lots of colorful homes. Met a winemaker who didn’t speak a lick of English, but we understood the word “tour”, so he led us to these super steep slopes—I had to crawl at some point and also hold onto the metal cords trellising the vines. It was so cool. Then he drove us around this super narrow road up high and we had a mind-boggling, awe-inspiring view of this perfect little Alsatian town surrounded by steep, beautiful vineyards. I saw a preying mantis up there and the guy picked it up and held it for a while. Then we saw butterflies, and these red bugs…he said each vineyard has different insects. He talked about the soil a lot, too. When we got back and started tasting, he had some rocks from the vineyards. He would rub them together and we would smell it and then taste the wines. It was cool, you actually could pick up the minerality. Another great day with a non-English speaking guy. He was so enthusiastic explaining everything to us. We met his dog, Lucky.