Day 37
Woke up hongry for a good breakfast and ready to hit Paso Robles which is some prime-time wine country, not just for California but worldwide. Our final destination for the day would be Morro Bay so, to keep things interesting, Brett found a route where we wouldn't retread the same ground. As we started off, the road was twisty and headed over a mountain range destined for the next valley over where the vineyards are. As we got further in, the hills got steeper and the road turned from pavement to gravel. Hmm, that's not good, but the steed can handle this so we kept going. Not 5 minutes later we had to pass two massive tanker trucks on a road so thin that we had to almost pull off in the ditch. Ok, things are getting dicey at this point, but its all about the adventure right? Wrong..... Not one mile further down the road it turned to dirt and then shortly after that, mud. Time to stop. Today is not the day to get stuck in the mud and have to call someone to drag us down the mountain. On the way back down the winding twisting road Steph got car sick. This day is not going as planned lol. Ohh well, gotta carry on.
When we FINALLY arrived in Paso we had pretty much lost two hours, but we still had plenty of time to see what wine country was all about. We ended up visiting Jada, Brecon, Halter Ranch, and Oso Libre. All the wines were using grapes from the region but they tasted so different.
After a great day of wine and beautiful countryside we headed out for Morro Bay and checked into the Estero Inn. After chilling out for a while and taking in the sites of the bay we headed out for dinner at The Galley for some excellent locally caught seafood. Great way to end the day.
Day 38: Santa Ynez
Woke up this morning and walked around Morro Bay and then left for Santa Ynez Valley for some more of wine country. If you've ever seen the movie Sideways, this was where some of it was shot. We stopped by Brander, Bridlewood, Vincent and Roblar. In comparison to Paso Robles the wineries in this region were much larger and produced much more wine. This also meant they were more commercialized and crowded. It made us miss the backyard dinner party vibe of Paso Robles, but it did not stop us from tasting many delicious wines and buying a few bottles to take on the road.
After four wineries it was time to get to the hotel which, in this case, was a place called Pea Soup Anderson. It gets its name from a similarly named restaurant that specialized in Pea Soup way back when. We got back just in time to go for a dip in the pool and relax in the hot tub. We chatted with some interesting folks and then walked down the road for a bite to eat at a place called Industrial Eats. The food was delicious, but we ate way too much and the food was heavy on the garlic. The combination had us both with upset stomachs. Not the best way to go into an impending trip to Six Flags!
