Holiday on Al's Ramblings

The fat lady is warming up

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

While the holiday has been over for almost a week already for me after 6 long days at LISA 10 Conference, today we head home.

Friday to Saturday

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A day with less driving good for me.

Dy's Day Off

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A quick run down on events for today, more to follow, maybe.

Napa and more

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Today we drove the Napa valley, it’s autumn , or fall as they say here and the colours at this time of the year are vibrant. First leg of the drive was from Santa Rosa to Calistoga and the first stop of the day was at the Petrified forest fallen and covered by ash by the eruption of Mount St Helens many years ago there are some well pressured trees now of stone, an enjoyable first stop. Next stop Calistoga an next little town with what seemed like a large proportion of quality restaurants. Just south of there Sterling Vineyard, now this vineyard looks very very nice but $25 per person for a ride in their “air tram”, cable car to the rest of us, up a small hill to the cellar doors for a tasting … well no thanks we will pass thats a bit steep. A drive on the the town of St Helena and surrounding view is great, a nice town with foodie and homeware stores, some olive oil and balsamic tasting. Further down the valley we stopped at Beaulieu Vineyard at Rutherford for a tasting purchased the Chardonnay and the Beauzeaux red blend. On Robert Mondavi winery toward Oakville, a very picture postcard winery, some more tasting and purchased a Fume Blanc , now consumed for diner. and a Pinot Noir. On to Yountville and Vintage 1870 no wine for us here but a great little art gallery Blue Heron with some fantastic photos. Final stop for the day was Oxbow Market in Napa itself before we headed back to home base in Santa Rosa via Sonoma and the Sonoma Valley wineries. A great day out. Update Winery visits in order for the daySterling Vineyard - entrance fee too priceyBeaulieu Vineyard - $15 tasting fee for 4, Chardonnay and the BeauzeauxRobert Mondavi - $20 tasting fee for 4, Fume Blanc and Pinot NoirVintage 1970 - Art gallery An interesting observation a tasting fee, whats that about, and a tasting fee thats not waived when you make a purchase. We have had the privilege of having been able to taste wines as some of the best regions in the world including Bordeaux, Burgundy, Pyrenees, Margret River, Barossa Valley and Coonawarra. We didn’t taste anything that warranted a tasting fee , sorry Napa Valley thats just poor form.

Santa Rosa day

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

First day since we arrived that we haven’t driven anywhere. Had a sleep in before we took a walk around Santa Rosa , spent a few hours wondering about made a couple of purchases and generally had a relaxing day. Took a scenic drive to Wholefoods supermarket to pick up some items to cook for diner. Managed to squeeze in a quick run to keep up with my bootcamp training while I am away and planed out the day for tomorrow.

Monterey to Santa Rosa

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Morning in Monterey and we hired some bikes and did some did the cruising up and and down the foreshore another pleasant day in California, we are certainly getting the good run with the sunshine.

View Bike Ride Monterey Foreshore in a larger map

Round the bay to Santa Cruz then we stuck to the coast and the highway one route via Half Moon Bay up to San Francisco, first time either for us traveling across the bridge so we took some tacky video footage have to upload it somewhere. In the rush of the moment I missed the turn off at the end of the bridge for the visitor lookout, so we’ll have to do that another time. We arrived at Dy’s early evening as usual she is a fantastic host, it will be great to be spending more than one night in the one location.

San Simeon to Monterey

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A great day and an early morning start we hit the 9am tour at Hearst Castle. The amount of money William Randolph Hearst must of had to get this place built is staggering. Even in this day and age getting the equipment and materials up the hill alone would be an achievement. Pay it a visit worth the time, I’d go back again. Left San Simeon just after midday and made our way up highway one toward Monterey. Definitely not the fast track but definitely the scenic one, a great drive with great views. We stopped in at Carmel to say hi Clint before talking the 17 mile drive via Pebble Beach round the coast till we finally ended up at our destination on Cannery Row.

Pacific Coast

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Day two and we drove up from and we did a bit of the tourist things in Santa Barbara visited the Santa Barbara Old Mission. With some storm cloud brewing in the background we took a stroll only the beachfront and wondered out on Stearns Warf .

Arrived

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

After a flight where the main cabin lights wouldn’t work, the lady in front of me required oxygen, and the young boy two rows behind us making use of the sick bag, we arrived in LA this morning. Close to being the last people to pick up our baggage, mostly due to the fact we had just got a queue at Immigration that moved at 1/2 the pace of the others, added to the 2 hour delay in leaving meant for a somewhat later drive from LA to Santa Barbara than expected.

Delayed

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Delayed departure so time for a final test run before we leave

Holiday Spring 2010

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

So we are off the USA do tomorrow. Actually pretty exciting for me as I have 6 days at the LISA Conference in San Jose , something I have always wanted to attended by for some reason never have.