Friday, December 28, 2007
Anna Maria
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Chicago
Monday, July 23, 2007
Fort Davis
Friday, July 20, 2007
Heading Back East
Thursday, July 19, 2007
San Diego & Tired Travelers!
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 18, 2007
Wednesday, July 18th
July 17 - Beach & Wine
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
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
July 16 - Wine Country part II.
Monday, July 16th
Today, we visited six wineries along the Santa Maria and Foxen Canyon Wine Trails. I think that this was one of the best days of our trip up to this point. We arrived at our first stop, which was Rancho Sisquoc Winery at around 10:30 A.M. where we shared a sample of 11 wines for $5.00! Leah and I reminded each other of the “sip, swirl and dump” rule as we had a long day ahead of us. Rancho Sisquoc is a peaceful, laid back setting. Our next stop on the way to Kenneth Volk winery was Cambria winery. While the wine and service was excellent, the Cambria Winery was a little too commercial for us. We chose not to purchase a bottle of Cambria since we can buy this product in Texas. Kenneth Volk was my favorite winery of the day. This was the only stop of the day to where Leah and I did not share samples. We spent over an hour talking to the Kenneth Volk representative who was nice enough to provide us a container more suitable to transport wine bottles in addition to a wine cookbook for Leah. He said we were fun and enjoyed our visit. He was just as interesting and full of great information.
After purchasing several Volk Wines, we went to Zaca Mesa winery and shared another tasting, purchased a bottle of Syrah and a snack box of cheese, nuts, dried fruit and crackers. We hadn't eaten lunch yet and it was 3:00, so we sat under a tree at a picnic table and ate. After lunch, we went to two more wineries, Koehler where Leah found the tuxedo cat and Firestone, but we didn't sample wines. We were exhausted from our day! We came back to our camp, cooked dinner and went to bed!
It's so very dry here and the hills are brown, but the grape vines are beautiful and just what we imagined. Today we'll head to a few beaches close to San Louis Obispo and hit one or two wineries along the way and back.
Click on this page for a description of the wine trail and links to information about the wineries with a few pictures.
- Rancho Sisquoc Winery
- Cambria
- Kenneth Volk
- Zaca Mesa
- Koehler
- Firestone
Monday, July 16, 2007
The Wine Country!
After setting camp, we drove around a bit and went to the very Dutch town of Solvang and tried two wineries on the “urban” wine trail. Cabana and Presido – it was at Presido that we bought our first bottle of Syrah – something they call “artistic license.” We’re trying not to show too much of our wine ignorance and are sure to hide the wine cube from Target for fear that we’ll be tarred and feathered!
We ate a wonderful dinner at the Hitching Post – the famous restaurant featured in Sideways and had two fantastic glasses of their wine. We were in bed by 9:00 and up by 7:30 this morning and are now planning our day. We will hit the wineries that are a bit off the beaten path and more country than urban. We’re not sure of the distance, but will go to the furthest one first and then work our way down – we have about five selected. We’re doing what is suggested of tasting wines and that’s sniff, swirl, taste and dump out.
Cheers!
Leah & Wade
Saturday, July 14, 2007
July 14: Day Two Santa Barbara
The first agenda for me this morning was for me to get Leah and I coffee across the street at Cantwell’s, which is a small gourmet-grocery store. The weather today was fantastic as the high only reached the high seventies. We enjoyed California omelets (tomatoes, mixed cheeses and sliced avocado on top) at Jeannine’s American Bakery and Café before spending the majority of the day at Arroyo Burro (Hendry’s) Beach. The beaches out here are different from Florida in that cliffs hug the coastline. Sadie and Satchel would have fit right at home as several dog owners brought their dogs to enjoy the waves.
Grand Canyon: July 11 & 12 & Santa Barbara: July 13
Leah and I just completed the Grand Canyon Leg of our trip. The views were spectacular! The camping was outstanding as well. We stayed at Campsite #227 on Wednesday and Thursday night, which was probably one of the best sites that we have camped within the last few years. Our meals included Leah’s Grand Canyon Burritos (not to be confused with her Chisos Basin Burritos). Those who shared our campsite included ravens, gray tailed squirrels and an elk. A chipmunk even checked out the inside of our car. The park was very crowded as it felt like that we were at Disney. The excess numbers of people in the park made us appreciate the solitude of Big Bend. As a result, we decided to head to Santa Barbara a day early.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Our second day in Santa Fe was a good one, but we're tired. We started out our morning planning on breakfast at the Paris Cafe only they didn't open until 8 and even then, they were still locked up! Wade was up on Texas time this morning and Santa Fe doesn't wake up until much later, so we spent the morning walking the streets looking for another breakfast spot outdoors. We came across Mission Cafe & Sweet Shop (no website available) down the street from the Oldest House and Oldest Church and planned our day.
We visited the state capitol and waited for the shops to open at 10 after which we visited the Nambe store and a few art galleries on Canyon Road - the picture of Wade and the Mark Twain bronze was WAY out of our price range (as was everything else on Canyon Road).
We found a lunch spot and drank our lunch before heading onto a few pottery places. I was a little disappointed with the pottery, but found a great place called HandMaiden Pottery and bought a beautiful pasta bowl.
We decided to head back to the hotel and hang out by the pool were we took a much needed nap! Tonight, we will go to an Italian place called IL Piatto (I can't seem to access their website), but before heading to dinner, we're going to have drinks on the roof of the La Fonda hotel which overlooks downtown Santa Fe.
Our plan tomorrow is to leave early for Flagstaff to grocery shop for three days of camping in the Grand Canyon - we can't wait! We most likely won't have internet access, but will be sure to take a lot of pictures on our hikes and as soon as we get to Santa Barbara we will post to our blog.
Leah & Wade
Monday, July 9, 2007
We're in Santa Fe, NM.
Our trip to Santa Fe was an easy drive. We were so ready to get the heck out of north Texas. We left at 7:00 am along with Candy and E.G. and went our separate ways. We made it to Amarillo by 1:30 and ate at Dyer's BBQ and then Santa Fe by 5:30 (6:30 Texas time). It is so green up here too - they've had a lot of rain.
As soon as we arrived to the El Dorado (a very nice hotel! and one that we almost missed because I was distracted by all the stores when I was supposed to be navigating for Wade) we changed clothes and hit the streets in search of a Margarita at The Shed - a place recommended by our bell hop (who happens to be a student at UBC in Vancouver). The food was good, but drinks were better - I had a prickly pear margarita and Wade had the traditional Lime, but when we saw the locally brewed beer we could not resist and switched.
After dinner, we walked around the streets downtown and window shopped. There was live music on the square and we saw a man walking a dog and a cat!!! He jerked the cat towards him which I just about flipped, but saw that he placed the cat on the dog's back. I took a picture, but not sure of the quality.
We saw a beautiful church off the square and then came across the oldest church in the U.S. built in 1610.
Enjoy!
Leah & Wade
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Our Blog!
Wade and I thought we would keep everyone up-to-date with our travels in July. When we have Internet access on the road, we will upload pictures and journal about our travels. Below is our agenda for July with hotel/camping information:
- July 9: Head out to Santa Fe, NM. We will stay July 9 & 10 at the El Dorado Hotel.
- July 11-14: Camping in the Grand Canyon National Park at the Mather Campground.
- July 14-21: Wine Country in Santa Barbara County! We will stay July 14th in Lompac, California. July 15-21 we will camp. We have a few locations in mind and will make our decision when we arrive. One possibility is the Jamala Beach Park.
- July 22: Head to Texas to meet up with Mom & Dad in Alpine on July 23rd.