SLO haiku

A SLO haiku:

Great weekend weather,

I loved each sunny moment.

Feeling my sunburn.

Pictures from the top of Bishop's Peak. Hiked it this weekend with my mom and David.

Other SLO highlights: Bali's x2 (both locations :), Firestone's (and seeing Kali there!), Creeky Tiki (my new favorite spot), live music, UFC fight, Aaron's graduation, wine tasting at Edna Valley winery, voicemails from Claytone, mini "things" and borrowed pajama pants, quality family time!!

I lovvvvveeeee going to SLOOoooOOOOOoooo

Bernardus Tasting Room in Carmel Valley

We left Georis' tasting room and headed to the Bernardus one a few blocks away (Yelp). As I mentioned earlier, all of the wine tasting rooms are in walking distance of each other! How very convenient. We walked past a few quaint restaurants that I wouldn't mind trying some day (including a Thai spot). 

In terms of ambience and aesthetics, this place just wasn't that cool. I really wanted to be impressed by it because Bernardus has a great reputation. Unfortunately, the building was an outdated, cinder block monstrosity with zero character.

The room itself was very small. For $5 you got to taste about four different wine types. My mom's boyfriend David and his brother from Arizona met up with us and sampled the various Bernardus wines. I can't give a great description of which wines were better than others, simply because my wine pallete is non-existant. Attention Kali Bills: you need to visit and then I will take notes on what you think, post your shrewd thoughts, and pretend they are my own, of course.

After all this wine we decided it was time to go shopping in downtown Carmel... read about it here.

Georis Winery in Carmel Valley

After hiking the Fort Ord trails, we got in the car and drove to Carmel Valley for wine tasting! I wanted to give my mom a day full of activities that she'd enjoy (we were celebrating her birthday after all). Hiking and wine was the easy solution!

Carmel Valley's "Village" has a handful of wine tasting rooms that represent the various wineries in the area. Ever heard of Bernardus, Chateau Julien, Chateau Sinnet, Georis, or Talbott? Yup, they have wine rooms here! After looking around on Yelp for the best place to take my mama to, I settled on Georis' tasting room (4 Pilot Rd, Carmel Valley). 

Interesting fact about Carmel Valley: the Jamesburg Earth Station calls Carmel Valley home. It's basically the largest tracking satellite dish antenna in the whole entire world and NASA used it during the Apollo moon landings. If you are ever on a game show: Apollo's 1 - 6 were unmanned, 7 - 10 were manned earth/lunar orbit missions, 11 was our first successful lunar landing (!! [duh] !!), 12 - 17 more lunar landings, except for 13 (think: Tom Hanks). 

Back to the winery recap! Georis was breathtakingly beautiful. Sunny, mid 70s weather, blossoming flowers, wrought iron wine sculptures - a perfect day. 

There were two main seating areas. One just behind the tree in the above picture. The other was to the right of this fish pond. We ordered our wine flights from inside before finding a cute table to sit at. My mom got the "Grand" flight, five delectable reds. I decided to get the "Premium" flight because I am more adventurous than her. The real reason is that I haven't figured out yet if I like reds or whites better. I guess I'll have to do further research to determine... Both of us enjoyed our wine selections. The flight portions are slightly bigger than a traditional tasting portion AND they include a cheese and cracker plate - that's why prices were in the $15 - $20 range, rather than the standard $5.

Much of the gazebo area was covered by wisteria. Wisteria has the prettiest flowers, such a shame that this climbing vine only blooms one season of the year. I'd list this flower as top 10 in my book, easily.

Earlier that morning I went to Whole Foods in the Del Monte Shopping Center. My experience there was less than pleasant. I wanted to order some quasi gourmet sandwiches to pack for a picnic lunch. I ordered two of their combo meals that include a sandwich, small side salad, and bottled water. My hope was to get a good deal by adding the $3 side salad instead of ordering the salad separately. The problem was that their "small" portion size was about 1/2 a cup! Thumbs down! I actually had to go to the salad bar and get more salad greens to add a bit of substance to the strawberry salad!

My mom and I cheered each other, Nicole sipped on her water. My mom said that all of these reds is her version of "heaven."

       

More pictures of the cute wine tasting "room":

The turkey, bacon, guacamole sandwich on a toasted baguette from Whole Foods. This was actually worth the money! Everything else - eh. Not so much.

Roast beef sandwich from Whole Foods on foccacia (?) This wasn't my favorite. I didn't like the bread choice either. My sister loves roast beef sandwiches, specifically of the Arby's variety, so I went out of my way to get her a roast beefer. I'm practically shaking with excitement to let her know I got a RB, and she tells me she gave up meat for lent. D'oh! I knew that, but forgot, because WTF who gives up meat for lent?

She ate the sweet potato salad that I brought and crackers from the cheese and cracker plate that was included in the price of the wine flight. Check out our delicious spread!

The wine flight carry case:

On Wikipedia, there was a blurb about the Monterey Wine Trolley, which is a public bus nicknamed the Grapevine Express (route 24). Supposedly it stops at most of the tasting rooms in Carmel Valley's Village. LET'S GO PEOPLE. This screams convenience! This hoots fun! This beckons for debauchery!

San Luis Obispo Road Trip

This weekend I went to San Luis Obispo to hang out with some friends, see a dance show, go wine tasting, eat at my favorite restaurants, cuddle with Kerry and Fran, etc.

Tyler, Max, and I left Friday around 4 pm. We cruised down highway 68 (apparently it is one of the most beautiful highways - says Max) and then mobbed down 101. After stopping in Paso for a few of Chili's margaritas, we continued on our way. Our first stop in SLO was at BevMo. I grabbed a 6 pack of Hoegarden; people are always raving about it and the one time I could have tried it (Avila Beerfest, June 2009), they ran out!

We went over to Victor and Clay's house next, watched the Nuggets/Lakers game, and then eventually walked downtown to Black Sheep Bar and Grill (1117 Chorro St, SLO). That's where my old roomies were! I was so excited to see them I could have peed in my pants! I miss them so much :( Luckily I did NOT pee in my pants, that would be messy. Instead I just sort of gave them lots of hugs and kisses. When the bar closed we hopped in my car and went to get some late night grub at Chilie Peppers! (791 Foothill Blvd, SLO). So very freshman/sophomore year of us! Kerry and I split a carne asada burrito that was about $6. I had some sort of salsa/hot sauce concoction with my burrito half and it was amazingly delicious. Especially for 2:30 am.

We drove to Pismo and walked into our hotel room (The Cliffs) and managed to find bed space for 6 people! We set the alarms for early-ish, considering it was almost 4 in the morning!! After waking up, grabbing coffee in my work mug, showering, etc, we made a quick trip to Forever 21 so that I could get an outfit to wear wine tasting. Do you know how hard it is to walk into the second largest Forever 21, give yourself a half hour to cover all that ground, and come out with a winning look? Ridiculous! I found this satin-y tank top that I could use for work, so I decided to get it.

Fran Kerry Andrew Tyler Max and I went to Natural Cafe (698 Higuera St, SLO) for lunch and were joined by Jake, Krish, Megan B. and her bf James. Kerry, Fran, and I all ordered the same thing, the Old Town salad ($7.25 full, $4.50 half). THAT SALAD IS SO GOOD! Mixed greens, short grain brown rice, carrots, feta cheese, tomato, and a scoop of guacamole! Add a little bit of heaven (Tapatio) to the salad along with their yummy tahini dressing, and you've got yourself a treat of a lunch! After a sad conversation regarding tandem bicycles, I decided it was about time that I left to meet up with Kali for her Birthday wine tasting celebration!

Kali and other AOII alums were all at this mysterious "MVP" location. When I arrived, I grabbed a mimosa YUM and, despite the fact I had eaten lunch, grabbed a slice of breakfast casserole that Mandy made. About ten minutes later we went outside and up rolls the stretch Excursion limo! It totally reminded me of what prom should have been like. However, I was a shy girl in high school who never got to experience the whole big-group-limo-fun-blah-blah-date-dances. You know what? Who cares! It's never to late to go to a ball... or be serenaded... : )

I digress. Wine tasting was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. We went to Tobin James (8950 Union Rd, Paso Robles) and JanKris (not Jan Hagel, the cookie) at 1266 Bethel Rd in Templeton. Everyone was enjoying themselves, if you catch my drift. I like to think that I draw a good cat. By the end of our time at JanKris, I could not, for the life of me, remember how to draw the cat that I always draw. Does that make any sense? I had a great time. WINK.

After wine tasting I.... well, I don't know what happened. But eventually I made it to Firestone Grill (1001 Higuera St, SLO) with everyone and had my second favorite salad from the San Luis Obispo region - the Steak Cobb Salad.

After dinner we went and "watched" Orchesis' dance concert ((Continuum)).

Apologies if this is overly descriptive, but right now I'm watching the Super Bowl, (16 to 17, Colts, with 7 minutes left!) and I am doing laundry, and I just feel like giving a thorough account of the weekend. After Orchesis, we went back to Clay and Victor's place and played beirut. Fran and Kerry came over and took me with them to the downstairs bar: Creekside Brewing Company (1040 Broad St, SLO). Random, took a break to put in my light clothes, got to see some crazy plays and now Saints are up by so much! COOL. I like it when games are exciting like this!

You might be thinking, is it still Saturday night in this story? Well, yes. Yes it is. After the downstairs bar we went to the cast party for the dance show, and hung out with all of the Orchesis girls (and boy). I loved seeing everyone there - the dance girls are so classy and artsy, inspirational almost in a hipster sort of way. Next stop: Kathleen's house. We stayed there for a bit, ate cute little peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, I reunited with my estranged curling iron, and then we drove to the Cliffs. Another 4 am night! Sheesh!

I woke up at 8 am, grabbed some coffee (love my work mug!), and sat in the hot tub at the Cliffs. It was absolutely gorgeous out... that hotel has spectacular views. Hot tub > Shower > Drive back to SLO > more coffee with my little, Allison at the Starbucks on Foothill. It was really nice having time to catch up with her.

I had a few final errands to run before leaving SLO. Stopped by Vic's to grab my wetsuit and leftover salad. Went to Sidewalk Market & Deli (1401 Osos St, SLO) to pick up lunch. Freshman year the boys introduced me to Nona's Deli, which is contained in the Sidewalk Market, and it's been love ever since. My all-time favorite sandwich from SLO (and at least top 10 overall) is the Godmother sandwich ($6) from Nona's. Salame, peppered turkey, and provolone with the works (minus the olives [EWW] and mayo). HEeeaaavvvVVVVeeeeNnnnnn! I bought 2! Godmother sandwich for lunch tomorrow too :)

With both sandwiches in hand, I went to High Street Deli, where everyone else was eating. We said our goodbyes, stopped by Ed's to get a shirt, and then went back to Vic's because I forgot my computer charger there. Then we got onto 101, and drove all the way back to Seaside.

What a weekend. I wish I could spend more time in SLO, being ridiculous and silly with old friends. There truly is no better place to live when you are between the ages of 18 & 23. While I'm sad that I had to leave, I'm also very hopeful for the upcoming months. There is a lot to look forward to and this weekend was just the start :)