Thursday, December 26, 2013

Christmas Day… Packing… for tomorrow we drive…



Wednesday, December 25th… Tomorrow we leave for a road trip… this time the “we” are myself, the wife (Tina) and the daughter (Steph), the son, himself visiting from Florida will man the fortifications, feed the vicious beasts that inhabit our home and visit with friends…  

The trip will first take us to Tucson for a family gathering, then Steph will fly home and Tina and I will explore Death Valley for a couple of days… So today I cleaned out the jeep, checking tires and such… now, late, I have packed (mostly) and Tina is packing…

Now Thursday… Boxing day for our British friends… We left the house a little after 9:00… South on Hwy 101… through San Jose, through Gilroy with its shopping opportunities… beyond to Salinas, now breaking free of the grand metropolitan area which surrounds San Francisco Bay….  We paused for gas in King City… arrived in Paso Robles a bit after noon… We looked about and had lunch at Artisan… http://www.artisanpasorobles.com/  We were pleased… Tina is talking about dinner here on  Valentines Day when we expect to be back in town… Then on to the serious business of wine tasting…  Steph wanted to visit Peachy Canyon… so we visited Peachy Canyon… they have cats… Peach and Herbie… Huge Maine Coon cats… They may qualify for their own zip codes.  We tasted, joined their wine club, and bought wine… some to carry with us… some shipped home… (wine would not appreciate a side trip to Death Valley)

Having tasted wine, and with more time to spare than would be consumed by more wine tasting we took a brake and headed over to the coast to the elephant seal rookery north of San Simeon… It is an easy place to see the seals… you are up on a cliff, 20’ or so above a narrow beach, on which are the elephant seals… males the size of a small city bus… females giving  birth (one had given birth a couple of hours before…) babies with moms…  It is a bit weird to be so close to such large wild animals in the wild.  We spent about half an hour, then headed back over Hwy 46 through Paso Robles and east to the Tobin James winery for more tasting…  their tasting room is very different, much busier, more of a party… we might have bought more wine…   

For us, two tastings a day is enough… so as darkness fell we headed back to Hwy 46, this time westbound into Paso…  (Paso being a locally acceptable name for Paso Robles…) and checked into our hotel…  It was too early for dinner… so we unpacked and repacked the jeep, and paused to check email and blog…  Eventually heading for the Firestone Brewery Tap room… 

Now back in our room… we are going to bed early… tomorrow we have just under 700 miles to go… and are expected at 6:30  for a party…  so are getting up early, some might say too early… so for now, Goodnight…

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a very full vacation! Thanks many times for stopping by our tasting room and joining our club... Peaches and Herb say "Hello!" as well. Hope your drive is free of traffic and wishing you the best of weather as you round out the holidays! Cheers!

    ReplyDelete