Last Day, Lasting Memories

Today was the last day of this vacation, it's been really fun for all three of us.  I got Kathe up this morning at 5:45 so that she could see the fog roll in from the ocean.  The fog is one of the things that makes Paso Robles such a great wine region. This park has a gate that opens right into a vineyard and we went for a walk down the rows of almost ready to harvest grapes.  We went back to sleep after our walk and stayed in bed until almost 9:30.
It was a lazy start to a lazy day.

Somewhere around 11:00 they decided to go wine tasting and to pick up some wine to take back home. First, they stopped at J.Lohr and needed a hand truck to load up all the wine that's been waiting for pickup, and then it was on to Le Vigne for six more bottles.  The final stop was to a new winery called Daou Winery and that was really a wonderful surprise.  It's a beautiful setting, the highest winery in Paso Robles at over 2,000 feet in elevation.  The 360 degree view was breathtaking and the wines were outstanding.  They liked it so much they even joined the wine club!  After tasting the wines they enjoyed a gourmet lunch with a glass of wine outside in the sunshine.

We've had a great seven weeks on the road, but we are all looking forward to going home tomorrow.  I can't wait to sleep in my own doggie bed again and bark at the neighbor's golden retriever until my throat gets sore.  I know it won't be long before Kathe and Jim get the traveling bug again and we'll be off on another adventure.
Until then....

Annie

Peppers and Pots

Kathe and Jim had a very interesting day here in Paso Robles visiting Jim's cousin Charlie and his wife Marion.  The two cousins haven't seen each other in about 40 years and just recently connected after a death in the family.  Charlie is the older brother of Gary, the cousin they visited in Plymouth, California earlier on this trip. Charlie has been living here in Paso for many years since graduating form Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

The cousins spent the day reminiscing about their childhood and the many visits to their grandparents home in Glendale back in the 1950's.  As you can imagine, they had quite a lot of catching up to do.

Charlie worked as an architect for many years after finishing school and now works for the city of San Luis Obispo as a senior plan checker.  He loves his job so much he's planning on working there for seven more years. I could tell they didn't have a dog, but the have four cats.  I love cats, and when they came to visit our house later in the day I had to check them out for cat scent! They smelled really good!

Charlie has a thing for hot peppers! He grows several of the most unusual and hottest varieties in his back yard. He pickles them and has jars of the many varieties that he takes to work for his lunch.  He also collects hot sauces from all over the world and has a huge display of them in his house.
Here is a picture of some bottles that he has collected.

He is also a very serious collector of pottery.  He has some very beautiful pots dating from 400 AD to present day artists.  It was really an incredible and beautiful display of art.  Kathe took a picture but the pots were so much more beautiful than this picture shows.

It was a great day and we plan to come back again and promised to stay in touch.

Sorry, but I Was Having Fun

I haven't posted since we left the redwoods and the Benbow RV Resort, I just been having so much fun that I haven't had the time.

We have been in Santa Rosa visiting with family for three nights  We celebrated three birthdays with lots of delicious food and a big ice cream cake.  I sat under the table enjoyed some tasty treats which happened to fall my way.  We stayed out late every night so I was too tired to work on my blog.

One of the best things about staying in Santa Rosa (besides the family) is the path along Brush Creek.  It's a short walk from Kathe's brothers house and it's always an exciting adventure for me.  You meet all kinds of dogs and their people and there is something new every time we go there.  Once we saw otters in the creek and we always see lots of nesting ducks.  This time there were white egrets every morning on our sunrise walk.

On the first morning we saw a mother and two chicks, but of course Kathe didn't have her camera.  The second day she had a camera, but just when she was about to take the picture I saw another dog and jerked the leash and camera out of her hand.  The noise made the egret fly up into the tree. This morning she finally got a shot of the bird but the sun was already up so you can hardly see it in the picture.  Where's waldo?

I know now that we are really on the way home as the drive today was almost 200 miles and that means lots of time in the crate for me.  We're staying in Paso Robles for the next three nights.  I'm going to try to have as much fun as possible.  I'll rest when I get home.