The big excitement of the past week was a friend visiting for the long weekend. She arrived Thursday evening, slightly delayed (as was I from picking her up at the airport). The next morning we took off for a couple days in Paso Robles, CA (a little over 200 miles north of LA). Paso Robles is the center of one of Central Coasts wine regions. On the way up we stopped at Sanford Winery which is in the other main Central Coast wine region.
We made it to the hotel in Paso Robles a little after 1pm on Friday. We decided to do some exploring of downtown Paso Robles in search of a good place for lunch. Since my friend had a craving for fish and chips we ended up at an Irish pub called The Crooked Kilt. This was after stopping by the Firestone Walker brewing company, hoping they’d have some food (they didn’t, but we did taste their beers, which were quite good). After that we just relaxed at the hotel until a little before 8pm, when we had an appointment for an hour in one of the outdoor mineral spas at the River Oaks Hot Springs & Spa. It was a nice cool night, which made the hot tub even more enjoyable. It was nice to just sit and relax under the stars.
Saturday was spent exploring a few of the vineyards in the Paso Robles area. We visited and tasted at Eberle, EOS Estates, Clautiere, Tablas Creek, Four Vines and Rotta. We also stopped by Robert Hall and Justin, but didn’t end up tasting there. At Justin, we did stop and eat our snacks we had brought along for lunch. My favorites were the Port at Clautiere, the Zinfindel Rose at Rotta and the Port at Rotta. The Tablas Creek wines were also good and interesting, as they are doing mainly French inspired wines.
I had to be back in LA for work on Sunday evening, so we had to head back on Sunday. Monday was a rainy day in LA, so we stayed in all day (after going out for breakfast) and watched movies, at least until my computer decided to go kaputz on the forth movie. After breakfast at The Kettle in Manhattan Beach, I dropped my friend off at the airport and headed back to work. It was a good weekend all around, I wish it would have been longer if only because it’ll be awhile before I see my friend again.
