Enjoying California...Day 5

Yes, on Friday we again eased in to the day! haha

Somewhere around 11:30 we showed up at mom and Ed's and after visiting a short bit, we head up Hwy 101 to Santa Barbara.

We started out on Stearns Wharf where we found one geocache at the end of the pier, bought some postcards and then hurried to get out of the wind!



Then we walked across Hwy 101 to the original Sambo's Restaurant (opened in 1957) for a late lunch.

We then drove up State St, the main drag through Santa Barbara. There are restaurants, bars and boutique shops galore! We found some parking and then strolled south along State St. We visited some stores, bought a Monoply card game and found some interesting street name signs...



We found this Douglas St sign in a shop called Retroville. Turns out this shop was opened in Port Angeles! The couple that own it just moved the store to Santa Barbara about 3 months ago after living in PA for 13 years. In fact the husband still commutes back to PA for work!



We then found a tasting room for a winery we didn't have time to get to on Tuesday - Kalyra Winery. The winery is owned by two brothers from Adelaide Australia. They make wines both here in Santa Barabara and in Australia. The tasting room definitely had an Australian theme going on!



After visiting the tasting room we headed north along State St back towards the car doing a little window shopping along the way. The crowds had both increased and grown in volume (noise is what I am talking about) since we first arrived!

We headed back to mom and Ed's in Ventura where we played a couple games of Five Crowns, enjoyed visiting with each other, had some cheese & crackers, fruit, popcorn...oh my! haha As the night moved along, everyone became a wee bit rummy and quite silly! LOL (THANKS MOM & ED for the visit to Santa Barbara and your hospitality!!)

And today (Saturday) we must return home.... And wouldn't you know it, the weather outside is the best since we've been here!!! Oh well, probably would have been too hot for us anyway!!

Until later...

Enjoying California...Days 3 and 4

Well, Wednesday turned out to be a bit of a slowwwwww day...

After easing in to the day (again...) we headed for the ocean with the hopes of finding some caches on Ventura Pier. The first one was gone - muggled, it turns out. We found the second one but couldn't find the third one - but we will.

Afterwards we came back to the hotel where Doug crashed for over 2-1/2 hours. He had a headache, his eyes ached and he just didn't feel well...

We did however, make it to Dougs mom's for dinner. We had a great time visiting, enjoyed a wonderful meal Katherine (Doug's mom) prepared, played Five Crowns and watched the American Idol results.

We were "home" just after 10:00 and went right to bed!

Today (Thursday) we eased in to the day (are you seeing the trend yet?) with breakfast at a local-yokel restaurant - the Vagabond Coffee Shop - here more than 40 years. We played cards over breakfast and then retreated to the hotel for a few more hours. We then headed for Ventura Harbor and Ventura Harbor Village. There we found 6 caches, walked along the beach, had some ice cream and even rented a motor-boat and "cruised" the Ventura Harbor and Ventura Keys - canals, lined with beautiful homes and boats, from kayaks to huge yachts!

As we rounded our first bend we were confronted with a HUGE barge coming from the other direction! Oh my! What do we do!? The barge was taking up ALL of the waterway... We veered right, staying away from the shallow areas, and successfully maneuvered our way past the barge. Whew!

Cheryl...always pushing the envelope...

A scene from our stroll on the beach...

A clever disguise for a cache...

Then we headed for another visit to In-n-Out before retiring to our hotel, accompanied by thunder sans lightening and rain!

Until tomorrow...

California Vacation Day 3

Rain was in the forecast, but we woke up to another sunny day!

We eased in to the day with plans to head north and do some wine tasting.

First though it was off to the post office for some stamps as we have 11 grandkids to get postcards off to!!

Ed (my step dad - he and my mother live here in Ventura) had mentioned they have a Sideways Winery Tour - a self guided tour of wineries that were in the movie Sideways.

So we got on Hwy 101 and headed north with a destination of Firestone Winery.

We headed towards Santa Barbara traveling along the coast and in sunny weather.

Just past Santa Barbara we turned off on Hwy 154, now going northwest up in to the Santa Ynez Mountains towards Cachuma Lake. We crossed over 2,225 foot San Marcos Pass (this would have been a great ride on the Goldwing!) and then dropped down to Los Olivos.

We stopped at the Los Olivos Grocery - quite the hub of activity - and then headed out in to wine country.

At Firestone Winery in the movie "Sideways", is where the four main characters, Miles, Jack, Maya, and Stephanie are bored with the wine tour and sneak away into the barrel room.

This winery was once part of the Firestone Family's wine and tire fortune. In fact, one of The Bachelor "contestants", Andrew Firestone, great-grandson of Firestone founder Harvey Firestone, made this winery even more well known while on the show, bringing dates here and sipping Firestone wine on the show. All the their wines were good, but their '04 Merlot Reserve and their '05 Cabernet stood out and are now in our wine box to come home with us! :)

Next was Foxen Winery with "OK" wines but our least favorite of the day. In "Sideways," you don't get to see much of this tiny winery. Miles and Jack are wine tasting and when the server leaves for a moment, Jack swiftly grabs the wine bottle and pours a healthy glass for both.

Then on to Rancho Sisquoc Winery. This wasn't a winery seen in Sideways but is near others that were in the movie, plus it was one that sounded interesting. Besides having a wonderfully friendly black and white cat to visit with, this winery had great every-day wines, all reasonably priced. "...as you drive the road that snakes along the
edge of the valley floor to the ranch headquarters
and tasting room, you leave the rush of the present
day behind. The farmhouse and barn date from the
early 1900s..." We ended up buying their '06 Sisquoc River Red and their '06 Syrah. AND we were allowed to pick oranges from one of their orange trees (they had grapefruit trees too)! Simple thing...but what fun!

And last winery for the day turned out to be the most fun... Tres Hermanas Winery in Santa Maria. Both the owner, Paulette Teixeira and winemaker Luke Lindquist were there and very enjoyable to visit with. While there, a family of eight came in - Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, Mom and 4 kids. Also in the tasting room/gift shop was a mechanical horse with leather reigns and saddle. Aha! I asked the parents if it was OK if I paid for each of the kids to ride the horse. They were OK with that and the kids' eyes lit up! They all rode, from the youngest to the oldest. Turns out that if the rider pulls back on the reigns the horse goes faster and the rider looks like they are REALLY on a galloping horse! The gears below are covered in plexiglass so you can also see how everything works! Very cool. All the visitors in the tasting room enjoyed the fun the kids were having. While the oldest child was riding (maybe 10?) the grandma came over to me and said, "This is the first smile we've seen on her all day!" What fun! Tres Hermanas winemaker is the only, or at least one of only a few, local winemakers that uses a grape called Refosco. It's a grape that originated in northeastern Italy and is delicious! We bought 2 bottles of their '05 Refosco...and a watch for Cheryl! haha The winemaker signed our bottles as well...

Interesting note... Both the Rancho Sisquoc and Tres Hermanas wineries are on thousands of acres that were originally for cattle businesses which are still active. The wineries and vineyards are really a second enterprise on these properties.

We decided to swing in to Los Olivos to see if there was a place for dinner. We asked a couple on the main street - yes we just stopped right in the middle of the main street - reminds me of Darrington - where there was a good place to eat. They suggested the Los Olivos Cafe.

And yes, this too was a shooting location for the move Sideways! haha

We got "home" about 8:40, in time to watch most of the American Idol and all of Dance with the Stars - Results.

Oh, yes it did rain. The whole time we were up in the Los Olivos/Santa Maria areas! But it really was just a heavy drizzle at most and was very on and off - mostly off. Funny thing is everyone was HAPPY to have the rain. So happy in fact some folks were taking pictures of the rain! haha

Until tomorrow...

California Vacation Day 2

We awoke to sushine yesterday and eventually a high of somewhere around 73 degress.

We went down to the beach and found a company called Wheel Fun Rentals where we rented Beach Cruisers.

These are Schwinn one-speed bikes with very comfortable seats and you ride sitting up pretty straight.

We hit the bike path and started riding north with no real destination in mind. TEN miles later we ended up at Faria County Campground/Park.

They have a little hamburger stand there. And we were hungry! We had lunch sitting on a picnic table, enjoying the sight and sound of the Pacific Ocean and playing cards. Wonderful!

Here are a couple of pictures taken along the bike path...

Upon our return to the hotel with "slightly wobbly knees" we changed in to swimsuits and headed for the pool and jacuzzi where we spent an hour-and-a-half. Very relaxing. Enough so that I once woke myself up snoring! haha We had the perfect chaise loungers - Cheryl's was in the sun and mine was in the shade but we were still close enough to touch! :)

Then we headed over to my mom's where we visited for awhile and then headed out to a Greek Cafe called Daphne's for dinner. VERY YUMMY! We had a great time visiting and look forward to seeing them again on Wednesday.

Today we are headed north to Santa Barbara County where we plan on visiting some wineries.

Cheers.

California Vacation

Arrived in Los Angeles on time via a Southwest puddle jumper! haha Actually we only stopped in one city which was Oakland.

Beautiful and sunny in LA. Caught the shuttle to the car rental site and then on to IN-N-OUT Burgers for lunch before hitting the road.

We decided to take the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to Ventura.

The PCH runs from Los Angeles to Olympia WA (although the northern most point is Port Angeles WA as the highway runs along the coast, then east towards Puget Sound and and then south to Olympia). Total length is between 1800 and 2000 miles.

We "dilly-dallied" our way, stopping here and there, some of our own choice, other times dictated by traffic! :) We arrived in Ventura about 6:30. We got settled in to our hotel, the Vagabond Inn and then walked over to the ocean and out on to the Ventura Pier. Very comfortable temperature wise and beautiful weather!

And that's it for now...