Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Girls Wine tasting Trip Part 2

Sunday morning we were hurting pretty good. Thankfully I had no headache but everything else ached. I knew first thing is first..FOOD..NEED FOOD.
We all showered up and walked over to Paula's Pancake house again for something to eat before packing up our bags and heading out to the vineyards.
 Paula's Pancake house was like a 30 min wait ( I swear...that place is always packed..you would think it was the only restaurant in Solvang) Since we had to wait a bit we had free vouchers for coffee and a danish at Olsen's bakery next door that we got complimentary from the hotel so we went over there to pick up our danishes to go and a coffee to go as well. I bought a Cheese Pull apart bread to take home.
 I was gonna order the Eggs Benedict ( old faithful) but decided to live on the edge and change it up a bit. So I got the California. It was a omelet with a green chili in the middle and cheese with avocado and sour cream and fresh salsa..which still none of us could get over the fact they charge you there for salsa..in LA it is like a condiment. Anyway it was damn good.
 So do we looked like we tied one on the night before??
 After breakfast we checked out and loaded in the car and off to some more Vineyards. We offered to drive Mary to the train station so she had more time to check out the vineyards with us.
We went to Beckman and it had beautiful grounds...the wine was OK..nothing though that GRABBED me. We took this picture on the property.
 We saw Lots of animals on this vineyard. Came across a cute little frog in the bathroom sink, then driving out saw a huge jack rabbit and then right after this deer! The deer was terrified and I felt really bad for it cause she looked wounded. If you blow up this picture you can see a neck wound on the poor dear ( deer) PUN intended
 Our next stop was Bridlewood..one of my favorite places to stop..it is so beautiful and I have always enjoyed their wines. On the road to Bridlewood we saw a HUGE turkey Vulture. I could not help but think "which way did he go George ..Which way did he go?"  When I saw him fly away.
 At Bridlewood we did a wine tasting which I loved everything they poured. We noticed these awesome horse drawn carriages on the property and asked our Wine pourer about taking a ride and she said we could go on the next trip so we got the Whole Carriage to ourselves. I bought a bottle of cab for the trip. Pictured above is Charlie and Oprah.
 We hopped in the carriage and poured ourselves a glass of wine and grabbed some smoked almonds and dried apricots to snack on along the way.
 Cheers to a beautiful day and a horse drawn carriage tour of the whole Bridlewood property and a delicious bottle of cab!
 This place is so much bigger than I thought! Just fields and Fields of grapevines. It was a bumpy trail here for a little bit.
 Jen!!
 Then they showed us the houses that the winemakers live in that are on the property and gave us some history about Bridlewood. It actually used to be a horse Hospital and rehab center for Thoroughbred race horses. The wine room was not built new but was in fact a hospital. They also told us about Bob Eubanks and How he also Had a lot to do with the property and some of the buildings...Wish I was listening better..hey I was a few sheets to the wind by this point.
 There was quite a few bridges..They also had a HUGE lake and a area with picnic benches under the lush trees by the lake..Which they offer to their wine club members to come and picnic on the property
 Horse butt!
 So nice. They stopped there for a bit and we just took in all the scenery and drank our wine.
 The carriage went for a jolt once the horses started up again and Toni had white pants so we tried to keep any red wine from getting on the gals wearing white.
 Self portrait...Thank goodness I had my big hat..The sun was Blazing!
 Wish it would never end
 Back at Bridlewood . We went back inside after our trip and finished up our wine tasting
 Don't go!!
 After our wine tasting we sat on the lawn and watched nature
 Relaxing in the shade by the flowers.
 Our next plan of action was to go back into town and check out the stores to pick up some souvenirs for the kids. But we all did want to taste at Wandering Dog. They had SO MANY different flights.
This was mine...I did the sweet tooth...so good!
 I liked all 3 of mine
 Jen did the champagne tasting, Toni did the Red, Mary just had a glass and Thelma had sparkling water since she was driving but she did have a couple sips of mine.
 You would think that this was our last stop but Nope it wasn't. Afterwards we walked over to Solvang to check out a toy store for the kids but I just HAD to drop by Lion's Peak because it used to be my favorite and I used to be a member but I have not been there in Years and I wanted to see if it was still good. They did a 9 wine wine tasting for 20 bucks so Toni and I split one and Thelma and Jen split one.  Afterwards we all were starving but knew we had to hit the road to get Mary to the train station in time So with one quick stop at the chocolate Shop to buy my Kids a BIG GIANT Candy apple we were off. Oh we did have to go by Burger King and mow down a few burgers. I also got a CROWN!!
 Back to the real world
 LOL this is like a REALLY bad photo but I just had to laugh at it..bunch of buzzed girls on our way home..I was so buzzed, and beat down and haggard at this point.


 We did managed to get Mary to Santa Barbara train station and we made a pit stop out there to buy road sodas and munches. We also took in the eclipse as well cause a bunch of people were outside taking photos and watching it. It was a strange eeriness in the air at that moment.
OWWWW..MY eyes...Bright light!!
We finally got home at about 9:15 at night. What a LONG trip back home.
I had such a blast and it just went by way to quickly. Next time...and there WILL BE a next time..we are staying 2 days!

1 comment:

Thelma said...

wow these pictures came out so nice! it was really fun!