California Trip {Day 2}

We started the second day of our trip with breakfast at the Paso Robles Inn's Coffee Shop.


Then we drove through the countryside to check out some of the wineries.However, it was still morning and as much as we may enjoy a nice glass of wine, we just weren't feeling it at 10:00 am. Luckily, my sister had suggested an olive oil tasting room, so we made that our first stop.

Pasolivo was the olive ranch that was recommended to us. We've been using more olive oil in our daily cooking, so we thought it would be fun to see and taste different types of olive oil.



We arrived right at 10am when they opened and we were the only ones there. We asked to see the olive oil press and and equipment. Compared to wine making, it seemed like an easier product to manufacture. Maybe one day we will buy an olive ranch and make our own olive oil.

It was fun to taste the different types of olive oil. They gave us a little bag of french bread for dipping. We ended up buying a bottle of their kitchen olive oil and a tin of the citrus flavored olive oil. We also bought a jar of tampenade and some candied almonds that looked like olives.

The olive trees.


After the olive oil tasting, it was about 10:30 am. A much more reasonable time to be tasting wine, right??? Looking at our map, the Justin winery that my sister recommended to us was not too far.

The facility was beautiful! They also have a bed and breakfast that I had come across when searching for our accommodations.

Wine tasting has changed since we had been to Napa 14 years ago. Most wineries charge a tasting fee. Chris was okay with that because if we paid, he didn't feel obligated to purchase any wine afterward, though we always did. But we did because we wanted to, not because we felt obligated to do so! At the Justin winery, it was $10 per person for tasting, but you got to keep your wine glasses. We thought that was a nice souvenir.

Now if you look closely, you can see a little cut on the bridge of my nose. I got that the day before when gravity caused the door of the big "old people" car we rented to swing open and hit me in the nose. It looks so small and barely noticeable, but boy did it hurt! The bridge of my nose was tender for most of the trip. And it bled a lot, too. I am so thankful that it wasn't broken


Here is a picture of us that was not taken with the timer feature of our camera! A driver for a wine tour offered to take our picture. Here we are in front of the vineyard at Justin.

We drove back into downtown Paso Robles after our stop at Justin Winery. We enjoyed the scenic drive immensely. Somewhere we read that there were over 200 vineyards in Paso Robles.

Back at our hotel, we walked to Downtown Brew for lunch. It is the upstairs establishment in the picture.


In the spirit of "tasting", we each ordered a beer sampler. My favorite one was the one on the far left - it was a blueberry ale.


After lunch we went back to the hotel for a nap. Between the 3 hour time change and the effects of the beer, we were sleepy. We were awakened after an hour by the housekeeper wanting to clean our room. We went for a walk around downtown, then decided we should go to another winery.


A friend of mine from high school whom I have become reacquainted with on Facebook, was in Paso Robles a few weeks earlier. She recommended the Eberle Winery, so we made that our second winery.

The word Eberle is the German word for small boar, so the winery uses a boar as its mascot.

The tasting at Eberle winery was complimentary. See how happy Chris is about that!

We went on the tour of the winery and the cave where the wine is stored.


Here is my husband looking out onto the vineyards at Eberle.


For dinner that evening, we went to McClintock's Saloon in downtown Paso Robles. It was suggested to us by the woman who served us our wine at the Eberle winery. There was a flyer at Eberle for their Father's Day dinner. One of the food items listed on the flyer for the dinner was "tri- tip" We had seen tri-tip listed other places in California, but had never heard of it before. We asked her about it and she told us that McClintock's had a delicious tri-tip steak. Later, Chris looked it up and found that the tri tip is the same thing as the bottom sirloin. We just had never heard it referred to the tri-tip before. The same cut of meat, just different parts of the country.

And that is the end of day 2 of our trip.