Anna Maria

Below are Christmas photos taken from Anna Maria. Highlights of the trip included E.G. and Leah kayaking with dolphins, Bev getting searched at the airport (just kidding) and all of us enjoying dinner on the beach. Thank you Candace, E.G., Beverly and Ben for a great time!

Chicago

Our week in Chicago was fantastic. We took advantage of the advice provided to us by Trif, Merder and Phil (Giordano’s Pizza, Garrett Popcorn, Carmine’s, Grant Park and Navy Pier). Chicago is truly one of the best cities in the country. Leah and I met Jason on Wednesday evening. He guided us to Greek Town where we ate dinner at Athena before the three of us headed to his neighborhood for a few beers. Just like Leah got carried away with seal pictures in San Diego, I was a little excited to be at a Wrigley Field.

Fort Davis

Due to Harry Potter, Leah no longer has time to participate in this blog. Hopefully, she will be back with us when she finishes reading the book within the next couple of days. We stopped at an El Paso bookstore on the way to Fort Davis on Saturday. Fortunately, there were still Harry Potter books left! Fort Davis is very green due to the rain. While we enjoyed our previous stops, Leah and I are happy to be at our second home. Tomorrow, we will meet Ben and Beverly in Alpine. Stay tuned as we will provide updates for our Chicago trip next week.

Heading Back East

We had a good 18 hours in San Diego. Last night, Leah and I walked a couple of blocks from our hotel to grab a beer in Old Town. Afterwards, we ate at a great Italian restaurant. This morning, I took Leah to Mission Beach and La Jolla. The weather was cloudy and 70 degrees in contrast to the sunny beach weather that we experienced in L.A. on Thursday. On the way out of town, I drove Leah to La Jolla to see the seals. As you can tell from the slide show, we got a little carried away with seal photos. All of the images from this particular slide show were taken in La Jolla. After lunch and the cookie purchase, we drove a little over 400 miles to Tucson. The temperature was 72 degrees when we left San Diego at around 1:30 P.M. The car thermometer read 103 degrees in Yuma. We arrived in 98 degree Tucson shortly after sunset. Our plan is to drive about 500 miles to Fort Davis on Saturday where we will camp through Tuesday. Both Leah and I are looking forward to relaxing in the Davis Mountains and meeting up with Ben and Beverly in Alpine.

San Diego & Tired Travelers!

Well, we are tired out! Our beach camping was a bust as all the camp locations were full - oh well. We went to Malibu and Pepperdine University - not your typical university campus! WOW. Then we had lunch on the Santa Monica Pier and walked the beach. We headed towards San Diego and tried for a hotel downtown, but alas, they were ALL booked too due to several conventions. We headed for I-8 in search of a hotel/motel, but saw a Holiday Inn Express (now we can use the line - "No, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express Once") in Old Town San Diego. We got the last room which was a suite and it's nice - boy, we lucked out.

Our plan is to go to an Irish Pub within walking distance and then hit Mission Beach tomorrow after we check out in the morning. We'll stay on the beach for a few hours and then start heading back tomorrow afternoon and find a motel on the interstate when we get tired.

Wednesday, July 18th

Wednesday was devoted totally to wine tasting. We visited six wineries. Leah and I both enjoyed the first two wineries that we visited (Alma Rosa and Sanford Winery). The host at Alma Rosa was in Sideways. The last four wineries that we visited were a little too impersonal and commercial for us (Foley, Babcock, Longoria and Roblar). We were a little frustrated in that there were a few locations that we either could not find or were closed for wine tasting. The day ended on a good note as we ate at the Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café (remember the double date on Sideways) and I found out that one of my research articles was accepted to a prestigious journal! Tomorrow, we head south to the warm beaches of San Diego.

July 17 - Beach & Wine

What a Tuesday! Beach in the morning and wine tasting in the afternoon. After eating breakfast in Solvang, Leah and I drove north on HWY 101 for about 60 miles to check out Avila Beach and Pismo Beach. We walked along the fishing peir in Avila Beach, where we observed commercial fishermen going to work. The weather was a balmy 62 degrees. We then drove about 5 miles south to the town of Pismo Beach. This is a vacation destination for the local farmers of Central California according to our guide books. The water was quite a bit colder than the Florida Atlantic or Gulf. I could only walk ankle deep in the water. Most of the surfers and about half of the recreation beach visitors wore wet suits. We sat on the beach and read for about an hour. After grabbing two beers, a crab melt sandwich and a french dip sandwich at a restaurant off of the beach, we headed for the San Luis Obispo Wine Trail.

Leah and I have both concluded that we will have to re-evaluate how we purchase and consume wine after this trip. The local wine is fantastic! We stopped at four wineries along the trail before heading south back to our version of a Days Inn.

We concluded the evening playing Trivial Pursuit, while eating cheese and enjoying a bottle of Fess Parker Pinot Noir. Our plan on Wednesday is to do laundry in the morning before visiting a few more wineries. We are going to have dinner at a restaurant in Los Olivos. This is the location of the infamous "merlot quote" from the movie Sideways.

Wineries we visited:

Edna Valley Vineyard
Saucelito Canyon Vineyard
Domaine Alfred
Talley Vineyard