Dogs Really Are Man's Best Friend

My friend and I decided to do a last minted road trip.  My only requirement, was that I had to be able to take the hound.  I've been traveling so much lately my four legged best buddy has spent more time in a kennel than at home with me.   For a quick getaway we wanted something close, no more than a 2-3 hour drive.  We settled on Santa Ynez area and found a great pet friendly Marriott in the area.   It's amazing how relaxing just getting a couple hours outside of town can be.  This was no major adventure, but a great trip none the less.  

It was nice to walk around Solvang, with the hound in tow. So many places were dog friendly, Lucy Grace felt very welcome and loved all the attention she got!  After a couple of hours walking around the quaint little town of Solvang, it was time to head to Dierberg for a little anniversary party.   My friend is a wine club member there, so we got to taste for free and spent the afternoon, sitting on the lawn, listening to music and chowing down on some wood-fired pizza.  The pizza was made www.fireandwinecatering.com and it was delicious!   What a great way to spend a Saturday. 

We followed this chill Saturday afternoon with dinner at Sides Hardware and Shoes.  Lucy Grace was thrilled to see she wasn't the only hound out on the patio.   She got to meet some new four legged friends and so did we.    All in all a nice relaxing weekend, made all the better by sharing not only with one of my good friends, but with my best buddy, the amazing Lucy Grace!

There's beauty in the everyday...you just have to open your eyes

It's amazing how much beauty you find in the world when you just open your eyes and pay attention...

The weekend goes by too fast...

So the Traveling Hillbilly arrived at that beautiful house on Friday and now here it is Sunday night already.  Where did the long weekend go?  I'm just not ready to leave and get back into the hustle and bustle of my normal day to day.   We had an amazing experience at the J Bubble Room yesterday.   A five course tasting of delicious food, paired with wonderful wines was an amazing way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon. 












And what better way to spend a Sunday than by having a great brunch at the BarnDiva, followed by a lazy afternoon and then a great home cooked dinner? 

Great time, catching up with great friends and to top it all off, Die Hard just happens to be on tonight!

My new home....at least for the next few days

I hope to enjoy some good wine, spend time with good friends, relax and get centered over the next few days.   And where better to do it than at this beautiful place?

A Tough Year

Sorry there haven't been post in the past year, but last year was a tough year for the Traveling Hillbilly.   Given some serious family health issues, the Traveling Hillbilly was not able to travel for most of last year.  However, the goal for this year is to change that and make 2015, a year full of adventure.  

What better way to start that than a road trip to northern California to catch up with dear friends?   The drive from LA to Healdsburg was absolutely beautiful.   It was surprisingly quite green.  When I travel to foreign places, I'm often in awe of the beauty that exists in this world.  But the drive yesterday, reminded me just how beautiful California truly is.  The rolling greens hills, against the back drop of a stunningly blue sky made the long drive quite enjoyable.  

The Scenic Wineries and then some..

Today we started out at Calcareous Vineyard calcareous.com.   What a beautiful, panoramic view they have! It has to be one the best views I've seen in Paso.   Plus they have a lot of great outdoor seating to enjoy the view.   They have wine and food pairings on the weekend, but not during the week so I can't speak for the food.   However, the Traveling Hillbilly thinks this might be a great place to grab lunch or a snack.

After that we headed to Chateau Margene chateaumargene.com.  Given it was not on a hilltop the view was not quite as spectacular as Calcareous, but was still a beautiful place.  Wines were pricey, but good.

For lunch we headed to Aron Hill Vineyards aronhillvineyards.com.   They have delicious salads and paninis.   We didn't do a tasting here, but I did order a glass of their Chardonnay with my lunch.  It was delicious.


We had time for one more stop before calling it a day.  We headed to Herman Story hermanstorywines.com.   They are typically only open Thursday-Sunday, but thanks to our friend Edgar, of Bodega de Edgar, bodegadeedgar.com we were able to get an appointment.  They treated us so well and we got to try a lot of great wines!   Russell and his team seem to truly enjoy what they do and you can tell they have a lot of fun there.   Hank, Russell's dog, was also on sight and he was a lot of fun too!

The Traveling Hillbilly Will not Be Deterred by the 405 Closing!

What better way to spend the long holiday weekend than wine tasting in Paso Robles?   Actually heading up on Sunday to go wine tasting Mon-Wed is better, this way you beat the crowds.   Traffic on the 405 wasn't too bad heading out Sunday morning, however we figured why run the risk of getting stuck and headed up PCH.  Plus, it's much more scenic drive.  

We had a great day driving up the coast and stopped at one of my favorite wineries, Zaca Mesa zacamesa.com on the way to Paso.  With Monday being a holiday, it was packed on Sunday.  It's not nearly as much fun to do a tasting when it's so crowded.  The staff is just so busy pouring they do not really have time to talk to you and share information about the wines.  Despite the crowds, the wines of course were delicious and we got to meet Cheeseburger, commonly know as Cheese, a boxer/great Dane mix!   He was a pretty cool dog.

We figured we could make one more stop before heading to the hotel, so we stopped at Fess Parker fessparker.com They also make some great wines, but their wines are little on the pricier side, so it's usually not the best place to try and buy and everyday red.  However, they had quite the deal on one of their blends.   Unfortunately it wasn't on the tasting menu so we bought a bottle to try and then wound up buying a whole case.   The price was just too good to pass up.

The Traveling Hillbilly Makes Wine?

The Traveling Hillbilly was offered the chance to work (volunteer) at a ranch in Santa Ynez for a couple of days and see first- hand what goes in the wine making process.   First, I could have not had a more beautiful day for the drive up.   The 2 ½ drive from Los Angeles was absolutely beautiful.  Blue skies above, clear blue waters on the left and beautiful mountains on the right, all made for a truly scenic drive.  Plus it was about 70 degrees and with minimal traffic, the drive went quickly.

I arrived at the ranch and it is quite charming.   As I park and get out of my car, I see an older gentleman and ask if Mike is around.  He says, follow me.  It turns out, he’s Mike’s dad and the one who bought the ranch over 30 years ago.   It started at as a horse and cattle ranch and they started planting grapes about 10 years ago.    He’s 89 years old and is quite the charmer!

After settling in, Mike starts giving me some background on the process and teaching me some of the terminology.  It’s a lot to take in but all very interesting.  We do a quick tour of the vineyard and he explains the different theories about planting the vines.   There is a reason or theory for everything from how far apart to plant the vines, to what the right length of each vine should be.   He tells me there’s a common saying, “there are a 1,000 decisions in making a bottle of wine” and I believe it.   Given all the work that goes into making one bottle of wine, it’s amazing every bottle isn’t at least $100 each. 

The Big Chill - 21st Century

Some of my friends decided they wanted to spend their birthday with good friends by renting a house in Sonoma for a long weekend. So here we are, eight of us, renting this beautiful house in wine country. We all arrived late yesterday and we have a private wine tour scheduled for today. After introductions, a few cocktails and a very late dinner it was time to call it a night.

Ahhhh, a full night’s sleep. I can’t remember the last time I actually slept several hours in a row without waking up! The Traveling Hillbilly must admit it was nice to wake up in such a calm and peaceful place. It was time to put on the running shoes, grab the ipod and go exploring. There’s nothing like being on the road in the early morning hours when all is still quiet. A few good tunes, make it even better. It truly is one of the best ways to clear your head.

I think it’s going to be a great weekend. As someone said last night, it’s kind of like the movie, The Big Chill. Except we are here for a celebration. We’ll see if that holds true as the weekend progresses.

Do we have to leave?

While the Traveling Hillbilly’s long weekend in Northern California is not over, it is time to leave the Hotel Healdsburg and this lovely wine region. The Traveling Hillbilly is not ready to leave but it is time to head back to San Francisco for a night out with friends. Hopefully we can fit in a stop at Silver Oak before heading out!

Day 2 – A full day of wine tasting!

We decide to join a tour so we can truly enjoy a day of wine tasting without having to worry about driving. Wine tasting is no fun when only one person can truly indulge. We join Platypus tours which usually takes smaller groups and customizes the tour based on the group. Floyd, picks us up at the hotel at 10:30am and then it’s off to pick up two more people. We’ve completely lucked out, there are only going to be four of us on the tour for the day. Another plus of touring on a weekday. Turns out, the other two folks, Andy and Sarah, are a couple celebrating their 4 year anniversary.

The roads are winding, the van ride is bumpy and it turns out the Traveling Hillbilly is the only one on the tour who doesn’t have issues with getting car sick! Things start out pretty rough. For the first 30-40 minutes of the ride, it looked like it might get ugly and messy in the back of the van, but we stopped at our first winery before anyone tossed their cookies! Whew! The first stop, Alderbrook. The Traveling Hillbilly was disappointed in this winery as were the rest of the crew. We were all ready to head on to the next destination. We hopped in the van and headed off to Everett Ridge Winery. We all LOVED Everett Ridge. We got to sit outside with amazing views of the winery, while Ben, who has a true passion for the wines he serves, proceeded to allow us to sample at least 8 different wines! Floyd realizing we were all having a good time and might be staying for a while, stealthily disappeared only to reappear with a nice cheese tray for us to sample with our wines. We all loved Everett Ridge and each bought multiple bottles of wine! All in all it was an amazing place and Ben was key in making it a truly great experience! Thanks Ben!

Next up? We headed to De La Montanya for more tasting and a picnic lunch. While we were engrossed in our tasting, Floyd once again snuck away and started preparing a great little picnic lunch for us. We decided to buy a bottle of wine to enjoy with our lunch and all sat outside on this lovely spring day and indulged!

My friend and I really lucked out. Andy and Sarah were a really terrific couple and Floyd was pretty cool too. We all had a great time.

Next up, a cool little winery with a tasting room inside a cave, Bella Vineyards & Wine Caves. Here, thanks to Sarah’s inquisitive and outspoken nature, we actually got to sample some wine right out of the barrel. While we were checking the cave out, we stumbled upon a man, taking some wine out the barrels to test the taste. Sarah asked him what he was doing and when he told her he was do a taste test, she asked if we could try some too! He politely obliged the request and proceeded to tell us about their wine making process. Little did we know until later, he was actually one of the owners of the winery. Thanks Sarah for making this a little more unique experience for all of us!

The last stop, Raymond Burr Vineyards. Here we got to taste some wine, play with Lucy (a cute and hyper little pup) and have our picture taken holding Raymond’s Emmys. It was a fairly quick stop and the Traveling Hillbilly has to admit, after an afternoon of wine tasting, this last stop is a little fuzzy

Hotel Healdsburg – Day 1

We arrive at the hotel minutes before our spa appointments. We don’t even have time to check in. We pull up to the hotel and tell the valet we’re staying at the hotel, but will have to check in after our spa appointments. He kindly tells us he’ll take our luggage to the room and it will be waiting for us whenever we’re ready. First impression of The Hotel Healdsburg? What great service.

What about those spa appointments? All the Traveling Hillbilly can say is aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Second impression of the Hotel Healdsburg? What great service.

After a relaxing couple of hours at the spa, it’s time to officially check in to the hotel and get ready for dinner. The room is really large for a hotel room. The bathroom is the biggest the Traveling Hillbilly has ever seen in a hotel. The bathroom is probably the size of the Traveling Hillbilly’s guestroom!

We have reservations at the hotel restaurant, The Dry Creek Kitchen, a Charlie Palmer restaurant. The dinner was fabulous. The food was delicious, the wine was top notch (cheers to the Sommelier for a great reco) and the service was great. Third impression of the Hotel Healdsburg? What great service. Are y’all starting to see a pattern here? The Traveling Hillbilly highly recommends the Hotel Healdsburg.

P.S. You must try the Guiness Ice Cream. Yum! Yum! Yum!

Getting Arrested in Sonoma?

Turns out my friend is looking for a rental for the summer in the area, so next stop is a house on the potential list. We stop at this amazing house in the heart of Sonoma. We go inside and quickly try to disarm the alarm. Suddenly the alarm goes off and we panic assuming we’re sure to be arrested any moment. Luckily we get a hold of the owner and are able to disarm the alarm. Whhhheeeeewwwwwww! Close call. Time to get back on the road.

The second house was actually located on a vineyard and the Traveling Hillbilly considered it to be more of an estate than a house! It had absolutely stunning grounds with a little brook running through it. As you enter the main gait, there’s a “geese crossing” sign. The landscape was truly stunning.

My friend is going to have a tough decision choosing. Both houses were amazing.

Wine Tasting in Northern California

So the Traveling Hillbilly decides to meet up with a friend in San Francisco for a weekend of wine tasting up north. First on the list is a stop at Domain Caneros, a recommendation from a co-worker that has wonderful sparkling wines. It turns out to be a great recommendation. We sit outside on a fabulous sunny day and have a flight of delicious sparkling wines. The Traveling Hillbilly ponders if life can get any better!