Back to beautiful Lake Cachuma for an extended weekend of wine-tasting, food-eating, camping and camaraderie with our good friends Greg & Kelly.
We set up base camp at site 343 which came complete with abundant shade, electric and water, a picnic table and a fire pit. We had some peeks of the lake and plenty of room to spread out.
Our campsite soon came to be known as "Martini Mesa".
Greg & Kelly made their temporary home in their nice Coleman tent and Lorri and I stuck to the van. Thursday was Greg's birthday, so while I took Greg on a mini-tour of the campground, the girls set up for a birthday party.
We had happy celebration, an nice dinner featuring barbequed marinated leg of lamb and plenty of red wine to start off the weekend.
On Friday our first stop was Foley Estates, a great setting just west of Solvang.
It was the perfect start for our wine-tasting weekend.
More shots of Foley and the famous red tractor.
Then it was off to the Wine Ghetto in Lompoc (pronounced "lahmpoke") and Palmina, then lunch at Sissy's Uptown Cafe. It's called the Wine Ghetto because it's location isn't exactly upscale. It's in an industrial park-type setting and the wineries are interspersed among the giant warehouses.
After lunch it was back to the Ghetto and Nicolaysen Family Vineyards. Both wineries that we visited in the Ghetto had "family style" tasting rooms - one large table surrounded by chairs or benches rather than a tasting bar.
On the way back to Martini Mesa we took the southerly route through the Santa Rita Hills area and stopped at La Fond Winery and Vineyards.
September 26, 2009, Saturday
Our first stop Saturday was Bridlewood Winery where we purchased our "passports" for "Autumn on the Trail" which entitled us to tasting at 13 wineries in the Santa Ynez Valley area, a logo glass and light food pairings at each place. It was good for both Saturday and Sunday.
On the left is a photo of a photo in the Bridlewood's tasting room and on the right is the same scene taken "live" on Saturday.
Bridlewood was a horse farm or horse hospital and there are still a few nags hanging around as well as the remains of a training track.
Rancho Olivos Olive Oil!
Not far from Bridlewood we spotted this sign and thought it would be a good opportunity to taste some local extra virgin olive oil and stock up. We did both!
Los Olivos Grocery Store
Good store, good stuff, 'nuff said. We stopped by a couple times for dinner supplies.
Lincourt Vineyards was next.
Lincourt's logo is the windmill which you can see in the photos on the right.
Quicksilver Horse Ranch, home of the mini-horse.
We had to stop and say hello to the little horses because Lorri really wanted to and we didn't want to have to listen to her whine in her wine the rest of the day. They were actually kind of cute and they didn't smell too badly either!
Just down the street we stopped at Redeau, centered around the 1884 Alamo Pintado Adobe.
We hung around and tasted and listened to a couple guys play some music before retiring to the side yard where we relaxed in some inviting Adirondack chairs for a while.
