Monday, May 21, 2007

Paso Wine Fest 07

Spent last weekend with the Moneys & a few of their Texan friends at the Paso Robles Wine Festival. We rolled into town about 8:00 pm Friday night and the fun didn't stop til the Hubby and I fell into bed last night at 10:30.

I believe Saturday was the longest drinking day I've had in a very long while. (Maybe since our big Hollywood Blvd. outing? Eeek. Gotta slow down on the marathon hooching.) We started out having a lovely lunch at Artisan accompanied by lots and lots of water. Made sure to carbo load so we'd have a nice base for the day. The food there was lovely. I had lobster bisque to start and Cal and I shared fish n chips. They make their own ketchup, yum!

From there we made our way to the park where over one hundred wineries were happily handing out samples of their finest. I remember really enjoying the Sauvignon Blanc from Graveyard and something white (?) from Rotta. The rest of the wines kind of blur.

After tasting for a three hours we wandered over to the Crooked Kilt, past the bagpipers and into the bar to have a few cocktails. Cal's mom was gracious enough to be our taxi the whole weekend and came to pick us up from the bar and take us home. It wouldn't be the last time that day.

We went home with just enough time to put on a fresh coat of deoderant and non-wine-stained clothes and headed back out to dinner at Villa Creek. Pitchers of margaritas started us off and we finished with dessert wine. I had the spare ribs and I sampled the tuna and buffalo but I don't have any pictures to show you because MY CAMERA IS BROKEN which leaves me PHOTO-LESS. No pictures of food! No pictures of friends! I hate this.

Sorry for the tangent. Back on track. So, before I knew it we were having dessert wine and splitting the bill. And that's the last time I saw my cell phone.

Oh yeah! That's right! Yes, now I am digital camera-less AND cell phone-less. Kind of like living in the 80s! Maybe I should embrace this? Throw out the computer too! (Oh wait, that's where I write this. Rats!)

After dinner, instead of going home and digesting our meal on the couch, (like regular folk,) we went BACK to the Crooked Kilt. And this valley girl who hardly ever DRANK when she lived in the valley, ends up ordering not one, BUT TWO shots of Jameson. On top of the wine during the day. On top of the two vanilla vodka - diet cokes. On top of the margarita at dinner. On top of the dessert wine. Good night moon.

We put some tunes on the jukebox, (Mr. Money and I had to duke it out about some musical preferences,) and we spent a great evening with the whole gang. The mom-taxi came to pick us up around midnight and we stumbled home and had a nice chat around the fire before turning in.

To our twin beds separated by a nightstand. Not that I was in any shape to do anything but fall asleep still wearing my hoop earrings.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to Hearst Castle. I took a tour I'd never been on before and learned that ole' Randy was an animal lover too! He particularly loved Datsuns and always had one by his side. There was only one room in the whole complex that had air conditioning, and that was the kennel that held his dogs. Awwww! My kinda guy.

Afterwards the Moneys, the Texans and little old us headed up Hwy 1 to see the elephant seals. Then back down to Morro Bay for more fish n chips and saltwater taffy. We poured ourselves in the car about 6:30 and had a pretty uneventful drive home.

Thanks to the Moneys and Cal's mom for a wonderful weekend. We had an amazing time and can't wait to see pictures!!!