Decanter!

As I mentioned in my 101 and 1001 post, I really want to go to Preakness. Preakness Stakes is the second race of the Triple Crown. We live less than an hour away from Pimlico, so there's definitely no reason not to go while we're living up here! The other two races are the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes in NY.  I would like to go to those eventually, but we'll just focus on Preakness for now. Haha. It didn't work out for us to go this year or last year, but we're planning to go next year!

I heard about Decanter, which is pretty much a celebration of MD wine and horse racing. Um, wine AND horses...yes please. 

We got there a little before the races started, so we tried a couple of wines until they announced that the first race was starting soon, then we made our way outside to find our spots. 

Right before our first race!

It's amazing how fast they can go!

After the first race, we went back inside to try some more wines, then we went to search for food. We were stuck between crab cakes and Jamaican BBQ. We went with the BBQ, that was a mistake. The sides were just OK, but the BBQ wasn't good at all to me. Not only was it super greasy, it just wasn't good. I'm a Southern girl and I know how I like my BBQ. Smothered in Jerk seasoning is not how I like my BBQ. You couldn't even taste the pork, and it was WAY too spicy for my taste. Josh said he thought it was alright, but it just made me appreciate good 'ole BBQ even more than I already do!

We went in to wash away that flavor with some more wine, then Josh started to get annoyed with the crowd and started hinting that he was ready to go. I wanted to watch one more race before we did, so we went outside to wait for the next one. We were right beside the track for this one...much better view!

Waiting for the race.

  

Before each race, all the horses walk around the track and you get a good look at them. We didn't bet on any of the races, but it's still much more fun when you have a horse to pull for! So, Josh and I each picked a horse. I don't know what Josh's reasoning was, but I picked the darkest one out there because I thought she was gorgeous. And for some reason it seemed like the shiny black horse would run faster. Haha. I chose #6 and Josh chose #10. Guess who won?!?

Beautiful!

We had a really great time, and I'm definitely looking forward to going to more horse races. The wine festival part wasn't impressive. MD has a LOT of wineries, so it is nice to be able to try a couple wines before you drive an hour or so to get to the winery. However, it is not nice to wait in a line for all the tiny samples you get. It's good for a while, but it gets old fast. We were so tired of the lines, we probably didn't even visit half of the booths. Next time I think we'll just go to a  horse race since that was the most enjoyable part for both of us. :-)