Paso Robles and Carlsbad Trip - Nov. 23-28

Just to record our Wine Tasting trip log and our Thanksgiving 2014 adventure, I decided to add this random entry to the long-neglected blog.

Sunday Nov. 23, 2014, Ann and I flew into LAX to be met by Trevor and Meghan for our journey to Paso Robles wine country, where we would do a little tasting of wines and the countryside around Paso Robles.  En route, we stopped by beautiful Santa Barbara to see niece Chelsea, who is an undergrad there.

Nice picture of Chelsea anyway...

Then we wound our way along the coast and through the foothills to Paso Robles, passing vineyards along the way:

Doug and Mitch (two brothers who operate Villa Nel Mondo) were great hosts, having really good suggestions for us on how to spend our day.  The first order of business, however, was a look at the grounds Monday morning.  Not to pat myself on the back too much, but I think I chose well when selecting Villa Nel Mondo as a place to stay.

Walking out the hilltop and ridge road, some classic California foothills scenery was in evidence in the early morning hours.

We hired a van to take us from winery to winery, including some vineyards suggested by Kevin and some suggested by Mitch and Trevor's work associates.  In the end, we settled on the following itinerary:  Sextant, followed by lunch, followed by Turley, Proulx, Opolo, then Justin.  What follows are some wine tasting photos of the group, sampling mostly reds from the region.  Many of them were blends, such as GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre) or even more complex mixtures.  Others featured single grapes, including Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Zinfandel, and Syrah.  We were not particularly impressed with Sextant.  Turley was good.  Proulx was a great little winery, though we could not purchase their inexpensive Cab, which was quite tasty, bc the supply truck was late.  We had nice cheese and crackers at Opolo.  Then began the long winding road to Justin.

Well, Laura Linda, our driver, was new on the job, and she really didn't know the roads to each winery very well, so she took a right where she should have taken a left, and we ended up almost back at Villa Nel Mondo.  Fortunately, we remembered that Mitch had suggested a winery called Le Cuvier on a hilltop near their place, so we re-directed our driver there.  What a lucky mistake!  It was our favorite winery of the day.  They paired food with each wine, the host was great, and the views spectacular!

That night, we ate dinner at a nice italian restaurant in Paso, and retired to our Villa for the evening.  The next day, we decided to do some olive tasting at Pasolivo.

We headed toward Justin winery and Ming and Ian realized they were almost out of gas, so we backtracked to a gas station while the others forged ahead.  They were momentarily diverted by a 'squirrel moment' following signs to walnuts, and ended up at another hilltop winery called Daou.  We decided that was our lunch destination after taking in the amazing views, so we went to Pasolivo first, then backtracked to Daou.   Flavored CA olive oils with various spices/salts were a hit.  But the real coup de grace of the day was our gourmet lunch (with wine of course) at Daou.  Here are some memories:

We even played bocce.

After our wine tasting adventures, we headed back on the trafficky highways to Carlsbad, CA.  We spent Wednesday exploring some of the sights and farmers market and beach areas around Trevor and Meghan's apartment.

Here are some photos of the drive south and the beautiful CA coast.

Some Carlsbad scenes.

And a very memorable Thanksgiving evening, watching the sun sink over the western horizon.

Sun Valley, Idaho trip

Arrived Friday afternoon in beautiful Hailey, ID and met Kate and her wonderful roommate Carrie at their house (free accommodations during internship, house sitting).

We drove up to Ketchum in the mustang with the top down, acting like glitterati, as best we could. Kate showed me her workplace fornthe summer-the environmental resource center.



We then had dinner at Sawtooth club restaurant, a major revelation there being the grilled artichoke with an aioli that was fantastic.

I had the opportunity to be Lily Tomlin's character Edith Ann after dinner.



We rubbed shoulders with Jamie Lee Curtis on the street.

After loading Kate's host's kayaks on top of her Fit, it was early to bed to get up Saturday early for a combination kayak/hike trip in the Sawtooth Mountains to some alpine lakes. I had never explored this part of Idaho, and was excited to see a new section of the country.

Here we are paddling across Redfish Lake just south of Stanley, ID.






Scenery not too shabby! Reminded me of some elements of the Tetons and Yosemite.

After paddling for an hour or so, we reached the far end of the lake and began hiking. The mountain views just kept getting better and better!







After 3 miles, we had to cross a rickety bridge over a creek to head uo toward Saddleback Lakes.






We ascended steadily up to the base of a rock face with climbers, called Elephant's Perch.



Can you see them?

Kate was very excited to see this close up. When I asked her if she could climb that she said sure! Yikes. I decided I needed to take lessons.

We found a small pitch nearby, and though lacking ropes and proper equipment of any kind, I thought, 'if she can do this, so can I!'

Here I am making my way up the face, no problem.




Suddenly, my arthritic grip let loose a bit and I began to panic. Kate kept snapping pictures!



Finally, I could hang on no further.



The fact that I am writing these words shows that I was able to survive this harrowing experience. Nevertheless, if you want to climb vertical rock walls. I suggest getting better equipment and practicing a bit more. (PS - please ignore the growth angle of trees in these images; they all grow that way in Idaho)

More spectacular scenery as we reached the lakes.



Can you see Kate?

The Sawtooths are truly spectacular. Here are a couple more photos from the day.







Oh, and to top off 7-13-13, we received news upon arriving at Stanley, ID for dinner, that I am now a grandfather. Yeye, in Chinese; I think I am going with that. I'm still not ready to be called grandpa yet. But I am beyond thrilled at the arrival if Reiya Zhu McGraw and Liya Zhu McGraw - I think they will rock my world!

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Location:Sun Valley, ID