Turley Wine Cellars

Turley Wine Cellars in Paso Robles was our first stop after we checked into the hotel. We all wanted to stop and sample their wine. Since I was the designated driver during our last visit, I didn't get to taste any wines! So, hubby offered to be the DD this visit! YEAH! I bought 3 bottles of wine there and since our son couldn't go with us on this trip, I decided to buy him a marble wine coaster from every winery we visited! Some wineries didn't have these, but most did and the price ranged from $5.00 to $11.00. So, after our trip, he ended up with quite a collection! At some of the wineries, after you pay their tasting fee, you get to keep the wine glasses, so I ended up with quite a collection of personalized wine glasses! We enjoy going to Turley. The people are very friendly and they have wine coasters, shirts, and even aprons! It's a fun place to visit. For more info about Turley Wine Cellars, please visit: http://www.turleywinecellars.com/ That's me with our daughter and her BF. Wait! They are now officially engaged!

San Anselmo fall colors

We stopped in San Anselmo after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the bridge as we didn't pull over! The trees were still decorated with their fall colors and the colors were gorgeous! What a cute little town! Hubby wanted to stop at a wine shop and pick up some Alsatian sparkling wine, so while they browsed the wine shop, I wandered around town!

Paso Robles/Panolivo breakfast

When we travel to Northern California, because it's a 12 hour drive, we always stop halfway in Paso Robles. It is a nice little town with a town square. It has wonderful restaurants and rolling hills with oak trees. There are also quite a few great wineries there! Our favorite restaurant for breakfast is the Panolivo French/Mediterranean Restaurant. It is a bakery/restaurant and the food is always wonderfully delicious! And, you can check out their bakery, too! Look at the chocolate Eiffel Tower! Oh, my! I had the ham and cheese croissant and everybody else had the eggs benedict. That's our daughter with her latte! There is no handle on the cup and you have to hold it with both hands to sip it! It's HUGE! We also stopped there on our way back home, a week later! We just can't resist a good meal! And, yes, the diet has already started!

On to Buellton

After our hearty breakfast in Solvang, we traveled back to Buellton. Along the way is the Monty Roberts' farm, The Flag is Up Farms. I noticed that their visiting hours are Sunday and Monday from 10-4, so I'll have to call ahead sometime and go visit them! As I hopped out of the car to take some photos, a huge horse transport van pulled slowly into the driveway. I took a couple of photos of it before it disappeared behind the gates. At least there were some friendly horses there! One of the mares came right up to the fence for a conversation!

We're HOME!

We're home, FINALLY~We pulled in about 6 p.m. tonight. The car was absolutely STUFFED with gifts and wine and I couldn't see out the back window, but we made it home safe & sound! Phew! Now to unpack and clean up the living room. Apparently our German Shepherd found some books and chewed them up while we were gone! He NEVER does that! He's a very well behaved dog, but I think he got bored and just grabbed some books to chew on?

We left Sunday the 21st and stopped in Solvang, CA for breakfast. Solvang is a little Scandanavian town past Santa Barbara. We love to stop there and get apple pancakes for breakfast. NOBODY makes them better than The Little Mermaid restaurant! You can look in the window and see them being made, too! I finished breakfast early and wandered around the town taking photographs. Here are some of them...

We'll be home today!

I'm writing this from Paso Robles this morning, our favorite halfway stop between Napa and home. It was a beautiful driving day yesterday, absolutely clear and crisp! I drove almost the entire way, until we switched drivers. Our car is full of wine from Northern California and Paso Robles and daughter wants to stop at Turley Winery again this morning and pick up a couple more bottles of wine! YIKES! I'm not sure we can fit ANYTHING else into the car!
I REALLY miss the horses and dogs! I saw a black lab up in Sonoma and I spent 15 minutes petting her (much to her delight) the other day! And, we've seen lots of horses on the trip. My sister-in-law lives in Napa, up Deer Valley Road, WAY back in the forest, right next to the national forest and there are two horses right next to her property. I was kind of shocked to see them because there ARE mountain lions in those hills, but apparently they seem to be okay. Lots of deer there and, as you know, deer attract predators. I'll start to post pics as soon as we get home! We were disappointed that we didn't get to visit Joe at TB Friends. He is working 20 hour days and just didn't have the time! Poor guy! While we were sorry that we didn't get to visit Joe, we understand. He's up to his eyeballs with horses right now...from racetracks, from barns, and from families that can no longer afford to feed their horses. If you have time, check out his blog at: http://www.tbfriends.com/
I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

Hello from Northern California!!!

Hello and Merry Christmas to everyone from Northern California! We have visited several wineries: Dover, Norman, Tablas Creek, Mazzocco, Sausal, and Ridge! WOW! What great wines! Our car is full of cases of wine! We found a discount tableware outlet and I bought several items, including napkins, plates, and tablecloths! We visited Domaine Carneros and our daughter and her BF tried 5 kinds of sparking California wine. Hubby and I took pictures outside, even though it was raining! Tomorrow we visit sister-in-law and Burgess Cellars for a turkey dinner! Oh, and we stopped at Healdsburg and found our favorite bakery/restaurant: Cousteaux, the oldest bakery in Healdsburg. I'll post pics when we get home, but it was absolutely BEAUTIFULLY decorated for the holidays! Today we are in Sonoma, CA and I found a great Basque cafe/bakery. We bought sandwiches there for lunch and bread for dinner! Friday we visit Joe at TB Friends and then head on home!

Happy Holidays everyone and more horses in the snow

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season! We'll be on the road for a few days, so I won't be posting. We're off to sister-in-law's for Christmas, up in the Napa Valley! Our plan is to stop and see Joe at TB Friends on the 26th. This will be our second visit to Joe's place. I had hoped to recycle another load of bottles and cans, but I didn't make it to the recycle place yesterday, so I'll just give Joe the cash that I would have received and I'll recycle the cans and bottles later.

We did drive up to the mountains to see the herd yesterday. There was still snow on the ground and they are ALL in mud! But, they looked healthy. I know they are in good hands! Here are some pics of the snow and the ranch and the horses from yesterday. Look at the snowy and empty arena! And, look at the trees and snow on the mountains! There were a lot of families from the valley in the snow making snowmen and having snowball fights! I've never seen so many cars pulled off on roads before!

MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody! May you have a special time with your loved ones! Take care.

snow around the valley

Since I have no new pics of the horses (we're driving up there today to buy feed and shredded beet pulp), I decided to post these pics. I took them yesterday on my way to school. The valley was absolutely clear, but COLD! The kids were all complaining about how cold it was! Typical February weather! I heard that our temperatures are 10 degrees below normal right now. Normal would be about 69 degrees and yesterday it was only 58. And, we had a huge frost last night, which is a danger to the valley's agricultural business.

My school is across the highway from several acres of produce. Many of my parents work in the fields. While I don't have a large number of migrant workers, like I did at my previous school, and my class population is stable, I remember the days when I did have a large percentage of migrant workers' children. So, I got off the freeway, took a side road (I was early for school anyway) and took these photos. UNFORTUNATELY, as I stepped into the mud by the side of the road, I sank into it and it nearly came up over the top of my shoes! I should have known better! The dirt is still saturated with the over 1 inch of rain that we got on Wednesday! I don't know how the workers work in these fields with all that mud, but I did see them out harvesting crops on my way home yesterday.

Mountain snow!

I stopped and took these photos on my way to school yesterday (Thursday) morning, after our Wednesday storm. Hubby actually went out to Whitewater and took some pics of the snow there. You can see how low the snow is on our mountains. We don't get snow this low very often. I remember one time when I was working in downtown Palm Springs (before our children were born...) that it actually snowed in P.S.! I could see the snowflakes from my office window! Our daughter lives there now and she has a beautiful view of the snow! This is where my horses are...up in all that snow!

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous, but cold! At least we have a couple of days of clear weather before the next storm comes rolling in!