Wine is good! MMMMMM

When we last left our adventuring twosome they had just completed a day of hip injuries, tension & musical outbursts!


Wednesday, May 25
Ahhhh! Today is wine tasting day! Yippeeeee!

Before we head off to Solvang we have to make a stop in San Luis Obispo to check out the Madonna Inn. I found the Madonna Inn online and we wrestled with the decision of whether or not to stay there. They have amazing rooms with all sorts of zany themes. Our favorite was the caveman room (check out the website www.madonnainn.com/). But at $225 a night, this didn’t fall into our budget and so we had to settle for a coffee visit.

The restaurant was P I N K. Whoa. It was pink and velvety. We did a little exploring and found some fun rooms downstairs as well. I vaguely remember a room that resembled a wine cellar. We were a little sad that we didn’t get to spend the night, but then again, $225 is a bit pricey.

Our next stop in SLO (which is a big college town) is Bubblegum Alley. Apparently people from all over stop in this alley and leave their gum on the walls. For some unbeknownst reason, I thought this would be a good idea to check out. What can I say, I had Willy Wonka visions in my head. I thought it would be all bright and fun. It turned out to be monumentally gross, and we didn’t even cross the street to get a closer look.
Bah! Why did we waste time on bubblegum when there is wine to be drunk?

We got into Solvang around lunchtime and decided to make another Star Wars stop at BK. These BK folks are a lot more accommodating than the first BK crew, but they do not have as much of a selection. I was scared for a hot second but, I ended up with darth maul (thank you mikey) so I am a happy KT. I almost forgot the funniest part of our BK trip! Michael dropped his BK toy under the table and had to climb underneath another person to get it! Hahahah! It was so funny!

Solvang was founded by a group of Danish immigrants in 1911. I have no idea why they came to California and set up camp if they liked Denmark so much, but anyhoo, they made a mini-Denmark and there are cobblestone streets and delicious pastries (Danish danishes) and windmills.

We check into Svendgaard’s Danish Lodge (our second motel of the trip) and head out for some wine! After a brief detour (we got a little lost by no fault of our own…badly labeled map!!) and a stop at an ostrich farm (FYI, ostrich jerky=bad. I should have known this since you are only suppose to order ostrich rare or medium rare) we finally make it to Sanford Winery.


Now I just want to officially note that I made the plan for a Santa Ynez Valley stop pre-Sideways. The region has been getting bombarded by tourists since the movie came out. But I do my research! Our plan was to hit 4 different vineyards in the afternoon and then stop at the Hitching Post for dinner….

We started off at Sanford Vineyard. http://www.sanfordwinery.com/winery/tasting.cfm For those of you that have seen Sideways, this is where Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church first stop at; where Giamatti teaches Church how to sniff wine. The tasting room is kind of a homey-shack. It is an old dairy barn. Anyway it is pretty amusing because it is stocked with Sideways paraphernalia and Chris, the guy who runs the tasting room played himself in the movie. He seemed pretty cool but I think the Sideways topic gets old for him after a while. Anyhoo you pay $5 to taste 4 wines and then if you decide to buy a wine you get $5 off. Hmmm. Tasty wines! A blush pinot noir! Craziness! And I like it! Even crazier! After tasting our wines (+5 for California wineries and hooking up visitors with more than a teensy taste!) we head off to Mosby!

Mosby is known for Cal-Italia wines. If I remember correctly, that means that the grapes are from California but are made into wine using an Italian style. http://www.mosbywines.com/new/mainpage.php
I wasn’t sure how to feel about Mosby, but Michael was a little apprehensive. What a surprise! Mosby turns out to be our favorite stop of the day! All the wine is tasty (I believe we tasted 5 wines) and then the dessert wine kicks me in the butt. Wow. I think I’m getting a little buzzed out here.

I can’t remember the woman’s name who worked at Mosby but she was awesome and she was married to Chris from Sanford! Hahaah. She took an awesome picture of us in front of the vineyard. I bought 2 more bottles of wine and Michael gave in and purchased one as well. Mikey also joined the wine taster’s club to get wine in the mail, but unfortunately there are a whole bunch of states (including MD & NJ) that don’t allow vineyards to ship wine directly to consumers. Bah! Hey ya know what, if you like wine and you think this sucks, go check out http://freethegrapes.org/index.html.

At this point, we’re feeling pretty good. We decide that there is no way in hell we are going to 4 wineries. Our next stop is our last stop. We head over to Sunstone Winery but they are packed and we like it better when we get lots of attention. So we bust out and head over to Kalyra which uses California and Australian grapes for their wine. http://www.kalyrawinery.com/ At this point it is getting HOT and we are tasting 6 more wines. We learn that KT does NOT LIKE Australian Riesling. I do however, like the breadsticks at Kalyra. Whatever Michael, I was drunk and I was hot!!!!

After our tasting (You know I’m drunk, I bought a white wine!!) we decide to head back to the motel so we can nap pre-dinner. After we sleep off our wine and decide to check out a little bit of Solvang. Too bad everything in Solvang closes at 4. What the crap! What kind of tourist trap town is this! Tourist trap towns should be open at least until 7. Anyhoo, it appeared to be a cute town, I wish we would have gotten to see some more of the shops.

By the time we got to the Hitching Post I was famished. Unfortunately, my wine drinking from earlier in the day has precluded me from enjoying my Hitching Post wine. Our meal was mighty tasty, the steak was cooked perfectly and was amazingly delicious. You get a lot of food for the money you pay. After our meal we go back to the motel and Michael watches American Idol crown Carrie Underwood as the champ.

The next morning I have a financial crisis. I have been keeping a running list of all the money I spent, taking daily deductions. Somewhere along the way I started to calculate my deductions in the opposite way that I had been doing it previously. So I am faced with the daunting notion that I have 3 days and about $75. Lovely. Michael decides that he is going to Damn the Man and he goes to the smack machine so that he can drain the remainder of his checking account before the bank catches on.

Hmm. What is the best way to forget your financial woes? A Danish danish of course. Michael kept yelling at me that all danishes are Danish but I disagree. Most danishes are not authentic danishes, so I was very excited to try some super tasty, super fattening danishes. We popped our heads into the Solvang Bakery and ordered a chocolate éclair and an apple danish to split. We also each ordered our own danishes. For me, strawberry and cheese, for Michael, cheese and powdered sugar. Hot Damn! Them danishes were delic!!!! We leave Solvang as we are stuffing our faces with tasty Danish treats. Now we are off to Santa Barbara!

Unfortunately it was an overcast day in Santa Barbara. We a drive by downtown, lots of shops line the streets and ohhhhh! Lots of expensive vehicles. We park next to the famous palm tree lined street and head over to the pier. Nothing especially exciting here so we grab some postcards and head off to SB’s #1 tourist attraction, the Santa Barbara Misssion.

OH. My. God. This is my worse nightmare. Children everywhere. Running around, wild and yelling and screaming and definitely not under control. So we take a picture if front of the Santa Barabara Mission's lovely fountain and we get the hell out of there. Maybe it would have been nice to go inside and check out the Mission, but most likely I would have committed mass murder.

As we make our way to LA something absolutely terrifying hits me. We are about to hit one of the most traffic clogged cities in America and Michael is driving! Dant Dant Dannnnnnnnnt!

It is not that I think Michael is a horrendous driver, but there is something about Maryland drivers, they are too leisurely, too pleasant. There is no sense of urgency in their driving, no aggression, no offense or defense…they are just happy to tra la la their way around town. Really, I’m not kidding. I lived in Maryland for six months and I was deathly afraid that the MD driver mindset would overtake me, thankfully I moved to Philly…hee hee..now that mindset I like…anyhoo…yeah, so Michael driving into LA was like that scene in the Lion King. Happy little Simba in the middle of a stampede. And then, we hit the LA parking lot traffic. It is 2:15! Don’t any of these jerks have jobs!!!!

I have to give Michael a lot of credit, he got us safe and sound to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.


Ahhh the Westin Bonaventure! This hotel (which is massive) was in a number of movies including Forget Paris and True Lies. For me though, it is all about Midnight Madness. How can you beet Pabst Blue Ribbon and “Look Between the Two Giant Melons” and little angry teenage Michael J Fox? You can’t!!! So yeah, I was pretty excited about this joint.

The Bonaventure is in downtown LA so if you are ever going for pleasure you probably won’t stay here as downtown LA is BORING. If we were staying for longer than 1 night I probably would have coughed up the cash for Santa Monica or WeHO but since we were in LA for a total of 15 hours it really didn’t matter to much.

Westin Bonaventure

Water Pressure 3
Temp Control 4
Staff Helpfulness 5
Coffee 3
Noise Level 3
Beds 3.5
Décor 4.5 (We really really liked the décor of the rooms)
Facilities 4

+5 for moving us to another room because the AC unit was making crazy noises.
+2 For empty fridge!!!

After we are settled we decide to check out the huge food court the Bonaventure has. There are many choices and we go with Chinese. Unfortunately it is the end of the day so I’m not sure that the food is so fresh, but I’ve had worse.

I want to relay a little story that shows how in sync (tee hee hee) Michael and I are, even when I’m about to murder him.

After eating yucky chinese I was a little tired; Michael was finishing up his meal. For some reason I began to become irrationally annoyed by his entire existence. I started to stare at him while he was eating. It was like a scene from a movie. Watching him in slow motion shoveling food into his mouth and becoming more disgusted with him as the seconds went on…and then just as I was reaching my breaking point Michael looked up at me and smiled. “I feel like you are looking at me like we are in a movie and you are completely sickened by me and can’t wait for me to stop stuffing my face.”

A few hours later Nellie & Francine were at our door! Hooray! They told us a horrifying story in which they encountered a bear while camping just this morning! They are lucky to have escaped with their lives!!! EEEEE! Then Kim & Andy Green were in our room! EEE! What a wacky Rutgers Reunion! I get a hold of my West Coast Clone, Erin, and we decide to go for some Mexican! In further proof that she is in fact my west coast clone, Erin is sporting an “I love pirates” shirt and when I tell her about the mountain lions she asks if I "went all Parent Trap with two sticks"!!!! I heart Erin!!!! Dinner at El Choro was tasty, I enjoyed my margarita and then we headed over to the Irish Pub for a few beers. It was a very entertaining evening with friends that I don’t get to see as often as I like….(COUGH new Orleans hint hint)…
Stay Tuned for our thrilling conclusion…San Diego!!!!