Santa Barbara 1

Santa Barbara Road Trip

We decided that it would be a good idea to go wine tasting in the Santa Barbara area for my birthday. When is wine tasting NOT a good idea? After pricing out a couple hotels in Santa Barbara, we opted to drive the trusty Sportsmobile and camp for the duration at Lake Cachuma. We picked up a rental car as we passed through Santa Barbara so we could leave the van and all the other camping stuff set up while we used the rental for daily excursions. We left San Diego on Wednesday, Oct. 1 and returned on Monday, Oct. 6.

Lake Cachuma has a few things going for it. First, compared to a hotel, it's cheap (leaving more money for wine), second, it's about 20 miles closer to the wineries and vineyards than Santa Barbara (more tasting, less driving) and third, this time of year there are very few other people there (we could sample our purchases in peace and quiet).

We had our choice of sites and found a great one with plenty of shade under ancient live oaks with views of the lake through the trees. It was Wednesday afternoon when we arrived after the enjoyable drive through LA, so we just set up, hung out, ate and drank, sort of setting the tone for the weekend.

Thursday, October 2

Lake Cachuma is a pretty big lake and fairly scenic. Besides camping, there is hiking, biking, fishing, swimming, horse shoes and all that campy stuff. We opted for wine tasting which is not part of what is offered by this family-friendly facility, but it ain't too far away!

Our first stop was Fess Parker Winery. If you're as ancient as I am, you will remember old Fess (84 now) as Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and all-around pre-super hero type guy. Every kid wanted a coon skin cap, just like Davy. Well, now you can get one to fit the top of your Fess Parker wine bottle.

On up Foxen Canyon road, our next stop was Foxen Vineyard, a rustic little place and one of our favorites of the trip - good wines, friendly people and a nice Reidel logo glass with the tasting.

We were hungry, so we drove from Foxen straight to Chef Rick's in Santa Maria where we had a big fat lunch washed down by a couple excellent reds. As you can tell by the directional sign outside of Chef Rick's we had plenty of choices as to where to head next.

We decided to go to Gainey, mainly because we were only going to one more tasting room and Gainey is the closest one to Lake Cachuma, our temporary home base.

Friday, October 3

We spent the day Friday exploring the tasting rooms, shops and eateries in the little town of Los Olivos.

Here is a hint if you go there: don't arrive before 11:00 because virtually nothing is open. We knew this because we had stopped there on Thursday at around 10:00. That's why we took off to see Fess Parker and Foxen and chef Rick. We knew better on Friday. We visited

We stopped by for tasting at Epiphany Cellars, Consilience and Wild Heart. We did an olive oil tasting at Global Gardens and, at the deli, split a chicken salad sandwich and a large can of Stella Artois (you can only drink so much wine!) for lunch. It's a great little town!