CALIFORNIA April - May 2025

Carmel Friday April 25 - Tuesday April 29, 2025

We had an uneventful travel day, with two tight connections (MSP and SLC) but everything went like clockwork and we landed in San Jose just after noon local time. We encountered our longtime friend from the franchising world, John Francis (aka Johnny Franchise) and his wife at the baggage claim. They were coming to visit their daughter who is a senior at Stanford. Fun to visit and catch up - as much as we’re enjoying our mostly retired life, we miss our connections from the franchising world!

I’d checked into Enterprise already, so we bypassed the line and went right to the station to obtain our car, a white Genesis SUV. We easily navigated to Hwy 101S, and Jeff easily adapted to the craziness of 5 lanes of traffic each way! After about 30 minutes, we left the highway at Gilroy (Garlic Capital of America) and stopped at the Garlic Cafe for lunch - Crème of Garlic soup and we split a panini. We left the highway and drove over the hills to join Hwy 1 south to Monterey. We stopped at Whole Foods for provisions: breakfast stuff, wine and munchies before heading to our rental in Carmel.

Rather than a hotel, I wanted to find a rental where we could spend our days exploring the beach and neighborhoods. Our place turned out to be a perfect location - a bit of an ocean view, a deck with two chairs, and kind of like an efficiency with a bed, a sectional sofa, a tiny kitchen and bathroom. Perfect for our stay. There was a place across the street that was for sale and I checked it out on Zillow. It was slightly bigger than our place, and listed for $2M!

We got settled, then headed out. We walked down to Ocean Blvd, and then to the Ocean. It was in the 50’s so it felt cool, even with the sun. There were several people trying to brave the ocean - a few quick dips and then they were screaming out of the cold water!

Jeff had a hankering for pizza, so we asked a local and got a recommendation. We walked to the place, ordered a pizza to go, and had a beer while we waited. Back to our place, we opened a bottle of wine and enjoyed our pizza. With the two-hour time difference, we were ready for bed soon after the sun set! We spent the weekend walking the beach and town of Carmel, eating dinner in two different places, shopping, reading and lazing around. It was fantastic!

On Saturday, we drove down Hwy 1 toward Big Sur, stopping to hike at the Calla Valley trail, which goes down to a river gorge and along the river to the beach, then loops back around. The Big Sur marathon was on Sunday, 26.2 miles from Big Sur to Carmel, on Hwy 1 which is closed for the event.  When I lived in the area, my boss at the time ran it, but it never made my list – it includes 2000+ ft of elevation! We had some rain Sunday morning, and even that was enjoyable with nothing we had to do, and nowhere we had to be (but we thought about those poor souls out there running the marathon)!

Monday, we drove to Monterey and were at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for their 10am opening. I spent a lot of time there when I lived here 40 years ago, and we had also visited it about 10 years ago when we were in San Francisco for a BrightStar event. It was fun to see what’s new but also enjoy the familiar. We were there for the Sea Otter feeding and it was awesome!

After two hours of shuffling and dodging toddlers, we left and walked along Cannery Row to the wharf. The sun was out and it felt warm enough to peel off layers. We went to the Sandbar and Grill on the working wharf, and it was as delightful as what I remembered. We drove around Pacific Grove, stopping to watch some surfers on Asilomar Beach. Then back to chill at our rental.

Tuesday we were up at 6, yoga again and one last walk on Carmel beach. There was a layer of marine fog that was just beginning to burn off. The beach was mainly locals with dogs - dogs of all shapes and sizes, just running, chasing balls, dragging sticks and living their best lives! We left Carmel about 11am for the 2-hour drive to Paso Robles. Up over the hills to Salinas, then we rejoined Highway 101S. Amazing to drive through miles and miles of fields of crops, most of which we couldn’t identify … saw some artichoke and lettuces, then eventually miles and miles of vineyards.

We checked into the hotel a few hours before our group was due to arrive.  We were communicating through an app called Telegram, so we knew they’d had a harrowing day of travel already and nearly missed a connection in Denver (they flew out of Milwaukee this AM and then were coming by bus from Monterey, but we’d opted to do our own travel arrangements).   Jeff napped while I did laundry and went to the gym.  Then we went to the lobby / back patio where the group had just arrived and had left over refreshments from their bus ride.  We met about a dozen of the group, and it’s a little like playing catch up since many of them had traveled before, and the other newbies had already been together for 24 hours.

They headed off to their rooms to rest, and we got into our car and drove to Tin City (www.tincitypasorobles.com).  We’d seen a documentary about Tin City and we were anxious to check it out!  Here is their description: “The community of Tin City is a collection of small, artisanal producers who have set up shop in repurposed industrial buildings, creating a charming, eclectic mix of tasting rooms, breweries, wineries, and distilleries.”  We arrived about 5:30pm, and were surprised that is was a bit of a ghost town!  No cars – nothing open.  We drove around a bit, and finally found a small crowd at the Barrelhouse Brewing Company.  We bought some yummy dark beers and had amazing Smash Burgers from a food truck in their garden.  It was a really cool place with several outdoor stages, and you can imagine how it’d really rock at times, but not a Tuesday night!

Wednesday April 30, 2025

First day of wine tours. I woke at 6 and did my meditation and yoga, then shower and breakfast before meeting the group in the lobby. We’re 27 people, and we knew just three before today … so lots of people to try to connect with and at least learn the names. Mike and Kari are the owners of the Red and White Wine Bar in Waunakee, and we met Jim Holden before through a chamber dinner at our house.Our first stop today was Tablas Creek Vineyard - about 20 minutes from the hotel. We sat in the back of the bus with Paul and Teri Garvey (Teri is Mike’s sister; they are retired and live in Appleton). At the winery, we sat with Jim and Paula, Tom and Tracy, and another couple whose name I didn’t capture. We tasted six different wines - 3 whites (2 of which I liked a lot and I’m not much of a white fan), one rose, and two reds that were too sweet and light for my taste.

The history of the winery was very interesting, and our hosts, Lisa and Matt were very knowledgeable and were great ambassadors for the winery. It’s a partnership of two families encompassing eight generations of wine makers. The Perrin Family of Chateau de Beaucastel (Rhône Valley France) and the Hass family, who got their start in California by importing French wines. In 1989, they purchased 120 acres in the limestone-rich hills west of Paso Robles, at 1500 ft elevation and 11 miles from the Pacific Ocean. They were the 17th winery to open in this area; now there are more than 300!

As much as I love wine, I don’t know much about grape varieties, but apparently this winery is unique in that they have imported vine cuttings from France. The cuttings were quarantined at Cornell University for 3+ years, before being propagated to produce fruit here. We also learned a lot about their regenerative farming practices, which sounds really good but mostly went over my head (soil and water conservation, animal welfare - using owls for rodent control, and farm worker fairness). They’re 100% solar powered as well.

We finished the wine tasting and still had nearly two hours until we moved on to our next winery. We’d brought box lunches, so we ate those, visited with our table mates and walked around the winery a bit. Many of our group bought additional bottles of wine and began consuming those, becoming a bit loud and obnoxious. Jeff and I relocated to a different seating area and pretended we weren’t with the group! At 2pm, we loaded back in the van for a 10-minute drive to DAOU. I had their wines before and was excited about this visit. The property is perched on a hill with nearly 360-degree view of the surrounding valley - breathtaking!

We were seated around a really big table on a side patio, which was good so no one else that was visiting would be disturbed by our large noisy group. It was chilly out of the sun, and in the wind, but they had heaters which kept us pretty comfortable. We tried a rose and just one white, then got into their meaty reds, my favorites! Jeff and I ordered an extra glass of the Cabernet Reserve and a charcuterie board so we could pace ourselves. We also joined their wine club and ordered 6 bottles to be shipped to our house!

This winery also has an interesting back story. Brothers Georges and Daniel Daou were born in Lebanon, but their family moved to France in the 70’s. In the 80’s they attended UC San Diego to study engineering. They had an entrepreneurial spirit and developed DAOU Systems, which automated hospital medical record systems. They sold the company in 1998. Daniel had been making wine in his garage and the brothers set out to build a winery with the vision of making one of the best wines in the world! As I said, I’m not an expert, but I sure love their red wines!  We learned later that they have recently sold their winery to an Australian Investment Group for 1 BILLION DOLLARS.

By 5pm, we were being herded back onto the bus. It was a rowdy crowd on the ride back with some ladies dancing in the aisle as the bus careened down Hwy 101. Back to the hotel, we sought refuge and quiet in our room. Fun day, but that was enough for us, and we have to rest up to do it again tomorrow!

Wednesday May 1, 2025

Same routine, but the group was a little more subdued today. Seems quite a few of them went out last night as well, and maybe they’re not as young as they used to be! I had a good workout at the gym, showered, had breakfast and changed my clothes a few times before our 9:30am departure!

Our first stop was Sans Liege located in Tin City (which was a lot more active than when we were there the other night). We were greeted with a Sparkling Claret (yummy), by the winemaker Curt Schalchin and his wife (didn’t catch her name). Kurt was proud of his wines, yet humble - it was really cool to have him leading us through the tasting. His journey started by him working at Trader Joe’s. A former beer lover, his boss at TJ taught him about wine and he caught the bug. He started making wine with one barrel in 2003, then he spent some time in France and his work is greatly influenced by that. He opened his winery / tasting room in Tin City sometime around 2017 and it’s now one of now 25 wineries there (Tin City also has a cider place, a distillery, the brewery we went to the other night, and a pasta place where we’ll eat on Saturday night).  He has some vineyards, but most of his wine is made from grapes sourced from other vineyards, all of it French varietals.

Besides his passion for creating unique wines, he is creative in naming the wines and has a person designing his labels which are amazing works of art in themselves! We learned about how heat events (2022 had >10 days over 100 degrees) affect sugar content, how grapes from the south are more acidic, and how the bold reds we like are made from smaller grapes with thick skins! We tasted one bold red that we liked (2022 Reserve Bordeaux), but he didn’t have any of that left to sell and his 2023 isn’t yet bottled … so we didn’t buy anything. After the tasting, he opened a garage door and let us walk around his back room where barrels are aging, some people bought wine, others wandered over to the cider tasting next door. We were going to walk around Tin City a bit, but our first stop was a shop selling ice cream made from sheep’s milk, so we stopped there - joined by Teri and Jon. We ate our ice cream on the back deck and visited for about an hour until the bus came back to get us. They’re a retired couple, neighbors of Kari and Mike and also first timers on this trip. We found we had more in common with them than most of the others.

Just a short ride and we arrived at Eberle, a winery owned by a former football player, Gary Eberle. It’s quite a large winery, one of the first ones in this area (first label in 1979) and the first one in the area to have a “wine cave.” Gary was sitting in the garden in front with a bottle of wine when we arrived - sort of “holding court” there as I wonder if he does most days? We were greeted and shepherded downstairs to the wine cave, where we had a buffet lunch (sandwiches and salads), while we tasted the wines. Partly because the acoustics were bad in the cave with our loud group, but also the woman leading our tasting was not all the descriptive about the 5 wines we tasted, it was the least impressive of the tastings we’d done so far, but the lunch was good! We toured the cave a bit after lunch - amazing how extensive it was with many side arms. I was glad to get above ground and back to daylight though!

They rounded us up early and we got back on the bus, arriving back at our hotel just after 4pm. I made a dinner reservation downtown, so we rested up and then headed out. We had a great dinner- split a beet salad and each had the fish of the day (snapper) with mashed potatoes and veggies. After dinner, we walked around the old town square, with a Carnegie library (now Historical Society) in the park that reminded us a lot of the one in Hutchinson MN. Lots of parked cars and many restaurants - made us wonder where all the people came from?!

Friday May 2, 2025

Today was an “on our own” day. I got spa recommendations from my cousin, and booked us a 30-minute mineral hot tub soak, followed by 60-minute deep tissue massages this morning at the River Oaks Hot Springs Spa. It was amazing, although it left me wondering if I’d have bruising in some area from the massage (the “hurts so good” school of thought).

We stopped at Starbucks, then went back to the hotel to veg out for awhile. Tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby, and we like to run a pool where people can pay $10 and pick the name of a horse. The young lady at the front desk helped me out with colored sheets of paper and a scissors. As of now, there are 19 horses set to run, so the winner of each pool will receive $190!

At 3pm, we headed south to meet my cousin, Kris, at Avila Beach (she lives just south of there in Pismo Beach). We met at Sinor-LaValle, an Oyster/Wine Bar (Shuck Shack) where we tasted some yummy wine and split a charcuterie (Greg ate Oysters). They belong to “the club” and are friendly with the owner, so they were knowledgeable about the wines. Most interesting were the full bodied Pinot Noirs. Our first task was a Pet Nat of Pinot, a sparking rose - really refreshing! Then we tried three Pinots: Regular, Carbonic (100% carbonic fermentation initiated with Pinot Gris juice, no commercial yeast, basket pressed after 12 days and aged in French oak for 10 months) and Whole Cluster (fermented with native yeast and with 100% stem inclusion, then basket pressed off after 19 days on the skins). It was crazy how different they tasted, but all good and heartier than a Pinot typically is. We’re going to see if we can get some shipped to us … the gentleman working there was unfamiliar with the process!

After that, we walked to where an evening market was set up with food vendors, a band and lots of dancers! We walked out on the pier - they said it’s just being rebuilt after a storm damaged it. We couldn’t walk to the end, but we could go pretty far. Under the pier, there was a large sea otter feeding off some barnacles on the legs of the pier. He’d dive down and grab the shells, the float on his back while he nibbled on it - so cool!

Kris had brought chairs, so we sat (behind the speakers as the music was too loud and distorted). We talked for a few more hours, so we didn’t really enjoy the band or watching the crowd … but it was nice to visit. After a bit, we were getting cold. Kris suggested we go to a restaurant or drive over to the other pier, but we decided to head back - just about a 30-minute drive, but up and over a valley. We arrived back about 9pm, in time for bourbon and backgammon.

Saturday May 3, 2025

We slept in a bit this morning, probably fully adjusted to PST now. We dressed in work out gear, went down and ate breakfast, then out for a brisk 30-minute walk.  Since today was Derby Day, Kari had suggested people dress for it.  Most everyone had hats – some more festive than others!  Four guys who are good friends and traveled to California in matching sweatsuits for some reason, also had matching Derby shirts.  The funniest though was a guy Dan, who dressed in a “jockey” costume he’d bought on Amazon – and with his short stature, it was perfect.  What a reaction he got when he walked into the lobby!!

Our first stop today was at Croad Vineyards where we met Martin - Kiwi (New Zealand). Like the others we’ve met so far, hearing his story was fun.  He and a buddy set out to take a year-long around the world trip when they were in their twenties.  They got to CA and didn’t leave. He worked as an electrician in Bakersfield. Then 20 years ago he bought this property, which had two broken down mobile homes and a “distressed” vineyard. He replanted 75% of that and has expanded from there. He started just because he likes wine. He hired an expert come in at first, and is learning as he goes.

Like all of the winerys we’ve visited, this place was gorgeous.  They have a guest house on site, and do lots of small events.  Here are some random facts I acquired on this visit:

·         Bud break has occurred 

·         This is a “Dry Farm” - irrigated for first three years, because the calcareous soil (calcium and limestone) keeps the acidity in the fruit

·         2 tons per acre (vs 6 tons in an irrigated farm)

·         Planted yesterday in adjacent property. First year - hope to get the vine up to the wire. Second - arms will start growing. Third - some canes grow - fourth, some fruit will appear.

·         Pasó Robles means “Pass through the Oaks”

·         2000 cases per year, no marketing or distribution 

·         Had a barrel where the wrong “bun” (plug) was used and the wine was still fermenting and it busted through the stays of the barrel!

·         American Oak works best as his wines are so bold. Cabs - new oak.

·         Barrel room for tasting - 200 barrels in the room.

·         Each barrel is about 59 bottles of wine (4 barrels = 4 cases)

·         Tasting from the barrel - Syrah and Cab. Very bold and acidic - due to the dry farming. So fun to jump right into the bold wines, versus making our way through the whites! This was two years old, another year until it’s bottled. In that time, it will “soften up” a bit.

We hung out on the patio at Croad for a few hours, ordering more wine and pizzas from their kitchen.  Then we made our way to our final winery for this tour:  Justin.

There we broke the group into two in order to have a more manageable group for the tour of their 60,000 sq ft of cave, tasting while we went along.  Our tour guide was Randy.  This is a really big winery, making over 50,000 barrels of wine each year.  It was sold in 2010, to the company that makes FiGi water, and they’re buying other wineries in Santa Barbara and Napa.

We finished our cave tour with about 5 minutes until Derby time. We huddled around someone’s phone and watched it as best as we could. It was muddy at Churchill Downs, which meant it was anyone’s race! There was some back and forth and I did my best to update the crowd with who in our group had which horse (we had two separate pools in operation). The end seemed chaotic, with Sovereignty coming out of nowhere to win. Much to my surprise - I won one of the pools and Kraig won the other. I used $20 of my proceeds to tip our van driver, and the rest to buy wine at dinner. Dinner was amazing - they’d preordered, and our cost was $50 each, a deal for how much food we had! We started with a yummy salad, followed by meatballs and garlic bread, four different pasta dishes (a spicy shrimp dish was my favorite), and then roasted chicken! By then it was nearly 7pm and the waiter was encouraging us to leave as they needed to reset the tables for the next reservation. I’d spied the desserts on my way past to use the restroom, so I took my wine and we ordered a tiramisu with 2 spoons and sat on their patio while we enjoyed that! We were on our own for getting back, so we summoned a Uber and had a delightful chat with our driver on the way back to the hotel. We didn’t meet one person that was negative about the growth and prosperity of Paso during our time here.

Tracy and Tom had a horse racing game and they invited us to join them in the bar for a round or two. I went up and changed into jeans and grabbed our bottle of bourbon and a bottle of Orange-cello that my cousin had given me. Jeff opted to sit out the game. The game was really fun - after a few rounds I went on Amazon and bought one too. It’s a dice / horse racing game - all the luck of the dice basically, no skill. But they play for quarters (which they’d also brought and “sold” to us to use in the game). After a few hours of play, I was down about $5, guess I’d used my luck up earlier today with the Derby pool!

We had a leisurely morning, while the group had an early departure for their bus ride to Monterey and flight home from there.  After sleeping in, we went to the gym and then breakfast, before showering and hitting the road ourselves.  We drove up to Monterey, and then north along the coast.  The ocean fog was thick and cool – helping me remember again that the Central Coast is NOT the California you see in the movies!  We drove to Santa Cruz, then up and over the mountains to Los Gatos and San Jose.  We stopped at the hotel, checked in and dropped our bags, then drove the short distance to the airport to return the car.  We were inland enough now, that the day became warm and sunny and we had a nice walk back to the hotel through a technology park – mostly shut down as it was Sunday.  We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit, then walked back to a Sports Bar, which was attached to an Asian Casino of some sort!  We had dinner and watched some of the hype of the NBA Playoffs – mostly due to the Golden State Warriors playing tonight.  After dinner, we walked through the casino – a very different experience!  Huge sums of money at play in a slightly different blackjack that we struggled to understand, and other games that we could not understand.  We were nearly the only white folks, and not much English was being spoken (always a great lesson for us to be in those situations to see how it feels).  We watched for awhile, then went back to the hotel where we were able to buy ice cream at the little shop off the front desk and went back to our room to watch basketball and play backgammon.

Monday morning, we had a 5am Uber ride to the airport, then easy flights home – you just always have to start so early traveling from the West Coast!!  We had several hours to kill at MSP, which is never a problem for us.  We ended up buying 5 prints of drawings of “Birds in Hats” for the wall of our lake home, and had a few hours in the sky club.  Glad to be home, now anxiously awaiting the shipments of wine to be delivered!!