California Trip {Day 3}

Breakfast this morning was at the House of Bagels. It was something we came across as we were driving through town. We had coffee and bagels, imagine that!


We drove about 45 minutes for today's outing to Hearst Castle.
There are several different tour options at Hearst Castle. We chose one that was geared for visitors who had never been there before. It was an hour and 45 minute tour. We saw a movie about William Hearst and the building of the estate before our tour began.

A little tidbit of information - Construction on Hearst Castle began in 1919 and ended in 1947.


Here I am enjoying the view. Wouldn't it be great to wake up to that view every morning?

Here is one of the guest houses.

Here Chris stands in front of the gorgeous Neptune pool.

A different view of the same pool.

Walking through some of the gardens.



The main house, or "Casa Grande".

This is a picture of the Roman pool -for those rainy days when you want to swim.

After our tour, we ate lunch at El Chorlito, a Mexican restaurant near Hearst Castle.


On our way back to Paso Robles, we stopped at one more winery. We drove by lots of wineries on drive back, but the Summer Wood Winery caught our eye.



This winery was a much smaller one compared to the others we had gone to. Their wines are not sold in grocery stores or served in restaurants. We were told they only produce about 2500 bottles a year. There was a tasting fee - we had a choice of $5 per person for 5 wines or $10 to taste all of their wines. We chose to taste all. It was nice to have a choice. And at both wineries where there were tasting fees, we were given the chance to share the tasting between the two of us if we wanted.

A picture of us in front of the Summer Wood vineyard.


Now I must provide you with some back story. The day we left San Francisco on our drive along Highway 1, we passed by hundreds of bicyclists. We assumed it was some organized bike event. Thanks again to modern technology, we (I mean I, because Chris was driving and California has a strict no cell phone use when driving law) looked up the event after seeing a possible event name on some shirts. The event was the AIDS/LifeCyle - Ride to End AIDS. What was impressive, was that this was a 7 day bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We looked at their schedule, and it turned out that the "pit stop" on day 3 was in Paso Robles. So we made a point to go to their stop destination and check it out.



Here is the camp for the night. Though some cyclists chose to stay in hotels. There were several checked in at our hotel. In fact, for that one night, the Paso Robles Inn had no vacancies. I think if I was participating in an even like this and giving up a whole week of vacation, I would stay in hotels, too! I can't even imagine what it would feel like to ride 80 plus miles in a day and then sleep on the ground in a tent that night!

This was our last night in Paso Robles. We dined at Artisan's, downtown, of course. There were some cyclists sitting at the table next to ours. We have so much respect for them and the cause that they were supporting.

Not only is that the end of day 3, but it is the end of our trip in Paso Robles.

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.

California Trip {Day 1}

We started our first full day in California with breakfast at our hotel. We purchased our stay at the Hilton Bayfront San Francisco through Priceline. We had a choice of getting a room that included breakfast for about $10 more than a room without, so for convenience we opted for the one that came with breakfast. Well, when we checked in, the staff told us that they don't offer breakfasts with any of the rooms. The next morning, Chris called Priceline and they made arrangements with the hotel for us to have breakfast.

After breakfast, we hopped in the car and started our scenic drive down the California Coast.







We stopped at a beach along the way. There was an $8 parking fee, so we chose to keep on driving. A little bit further, we found Pescadero State Beach which did not have any parking fees.


We used the timer feature on our camera quite often on this trip.


We had never seen a tsunami warning sign before.


The beaches are so different from the Florida beaches we have visited so frequently. The kids would have a blast climbing on the rocks.


We stopped at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse which is also in Pescadero. Thankfully, the lighthouse wasn't open for climbing. I did that at Tybee Island this past April. It's one of those "Been there, done that" moments for me that I don't need to repeat. There is also a hostel at Pigeon Point for those interested.

We saw harbor seals out on the rocks.

Another timer photo of us.


We needed food. We stopped for a snack at Emily's Bakery in Santa Cruz. I had a chai latte and the best coconut muffin I have ever had. To be honest, I had never had a coconut muffin before. I had never heard of coconut muffins before. Now, I am obsessed with coconut muffins. Look for future blogs on the subject.

We drove by fields and fields of fruits and vegetables along Highway 1. We saw artichokes, strawberries, cauliflower, cabbages, lettuce, and more. The fields were huge! Here are some purple cabbages - they looked more purple in person.

I knew that I wanted to stop by at least one mission on our trip. The first one we found that was located right off the highway was the Soledad Mission.



The interior of the mission.


The olive grove at the mission.

We passed by lots and lots of these bells. At the mission, there was a placard labeling one as "El Camino Real". Thanks to technology in the form of smart phones, I was able to look it up on our drive. The bells mark the trail to the 21 missions in California. Evidently the monks used to sprinkle mustard seed to mark the trail with yellow flowers.

We arrived at our hotel in Paso Robles at about 3:30. Check-in was supposed to be at 4. We checked with the front desk and our room wasn't ready yet. We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we chose to walk somewhere and find some food.

We ate our late lunch at the Odyssey World Cafe in downtown Paso Robles. Our hotel was perfect walking distance to all the restaurants.

After our lunch, we went back to the hotel. It was about 4:10 and our room was still not ready. So walked around downtown some more. Sometime after 4:30, our room was finally ready. We got settled in, then explored the hotel grounds and the Paso Robles area.

Around 9pm or so, we decided it was time for dinner. Nothing was open! It was a Sunday night, but all the restaurants in the downtown area were closed. We got in the car and drove around until we finally found something open. And we had to break one of our travel rules. When we are on vacation, we only eat at new restaurants. We don't eat at chains or places we've been to before. We had to add an exception to our rule, we don't eat at chains or places we've been to before when at all possible! We found a Panda Express that was open in a strip mall a few miles away.

And thus concludes our first day in California.