Apr 5, 2010

Early Spring on the Central Coast

Well, I realize it's been a while since our last update.  In fact I had an email from one of our family members back in Michigan just wondering if everything was ok.  Since we last updated we have moved twice.  On Saturday the 27th we drove north to Los Olivos which is 30 miles north of Santa Barbara. I always dread the drive through LA.  We were on the road for 5 and a half hours in very heavy traffic.  I've driven in NYC ,Chicago, and Atlanta, but LA is the worst.  We arrived safely and got settled in for 5 nights at Tres Hermanas Vineyard 'RV park'.  The good news was that since we belong to their wine club our stay was free.  They have a small RV park with room for about 20 RV's.  Don't bother looking it up in your travel guide, you won't find it.  Since Santa Barbara County makes it very difficult have a RV Park,  the only way you can stay there is by earning points.  How do you earn points?  By buying their wine.  The only bad thing about staying there is that since they are in a remote canyon area cell phones and wireless cards don't work.  So that's my excuse for not updating last week.

Last Thursday we moved north 90 miles to Paso Robles and the Wine Country RV Resort.  A nice place, but a little too crowded for our tastes.  But at least the wi-fi and cell phones work here.  We have been enjoying our stay here with some friends from Michigan.  This is the first time we have seen anyone from Michigan since we left last fall.  Kind of strange.  The weather here has been cool but nice, the scenery beautiful, and the wine excellent.  You can't ask for much more than that.  We love driving the back roads and finding the small Mom and Pop wineries. You soon discover that you can't visit all of them.  We do have a few favorites including a local Olive Oil producer.  Nadeau, Opolo, Turley and PasOlivo are a few of our favorites. We also have enjoyed eating at a small local restaurant that is owned by a couple who also own a local organic farm.  They have a outdoor brick oven where they make great thin crust pizzas. 

Yesterday we drove over to the coast to the small town of Cambria.  We had a late lunch at a restaurant located on the beach.  We have eaten here a couple of times before and always enjoy sitting outside but yesterday was cold and rainy so we were forced to sit inside.  I think that dampened our spirits because the food just didn't taste the same.  Fish and chips tastes so much better when you can sit outside in the sun while watching the surf.

We will be here until Thursday when we start heading east. 
Until Later.

P.S.  No we did not feel the earthquake,  too far north I guess