Day 4: We’re going down…to Paso Robles

Beautiful Highway 1

On another beautiful sunny California day, we headed South on Highway 1 to Paso Robles.

Highway 1 is a breath-takingly beautiful drive down the coast of California. It reminds me of the Chapmans Peak drive in Cape Town, with the mountains, cliffs and amazing ocean forming one after another picture-perfect moments. (warning: don’t take this road if you are in a hurry - we stood still for about 20 minutes twice during the course of the drive due to road works).

Looks a lot like Chapman's Peak in Cape Town

On our way down we stopped at a place where huge club of seals made themselves at home. It was just such an odd/cool/bizarre/weird thing to experience, they are all either lying on the sand or floating/swimming around in the sea, making odd noises, scratching themselves and just all together having the laziest lives of any creature that I have ever seen.

Some more Highway 1 prettiness

We stopped briefly at Hearst Castle, which was built by the newspaper magnate William Hearst. I’ve heard that it is worth going on the tour, as it is something to see because of its crazy opulence, but since we didn’t really have the time, a quick shop in the gift shop was fine by moi. I was thirsty and there was only one thing that could quench my thirst…wine…copious amounts of it.

Beautiful hilly drive toward Paso Robles

Paso Robles was a welcome sight. It felt like we were entering my kind of place. Beautiful hills, covered with vines and a promise of the sea nearby - just like Stellenbosch (the town where I went to University). Okay, the town itself is not as pretty as Stellenbosch, but the surrounding area is.

Tables Creek's sister winery - Domaine de Beaucastel

We went to 3 vineyards: Justin, Tablas Creek and Adelaida. I enjoyed the wine from all 3. There were a few stars, like Isocles from Justin. There were so many more wineries that we wanted to visit, but the time just ran out. We paid $10 per person to taste at each one of the vineries, so the cost added up really quickly, but at least you got to take the glasses home with you. (not really practical if you are on a fly-in, fly-out holiday, but fine if you are on a road trip. One thing that I must mention though, is that the wines in general, are really heavily priced. You would think that wines are cheaper on the farm, but it isn’t really. If find that the Californian wines are slightly overpriced in general, but there are quite a few wines that I would happily pay the big price tags for.

Each year the area of Paso Robles has a Rhone valley festival - which we off course missed by 2 (yes TWO) days. I was very upset, especially since a French wine-maker friend, Stephane, was at the festival. What a pity - NOT cool.

Adelaida's tasting room

Justin had great wines and apparently the restaurant is fabulous - unfortunately they’re only open for dinner. Tablas Creek has a sister winery in France called Domaine du Beaucastel. The wines are typical of the area and we enjoyed it a lot - but no restaurant. Then, we stopped at Adelaida - great wines - worth the stop and still - no restaurant. Note to South Africans: these wineries are not like ours where they all have restaurants and you can sit in the sun while sipping on the wine that you just tasted and stuff your face with lovely food. I had to be content with a packet of Cheetos that I luckily purchased at the Hears Castle gift shop. Not exactly the perfect accompaniment for the great wines that we tasted, but it did the job.

The lack of a fabulous lunch was a bit disappointing, but our meal that evening completely made up for it. We got a few recommendations from the locals, but because it was a Monday night, not all the restaurants were open, so we went to Villa Creek. The food was divine! We had:

Starters:

Tuna Ceviche, Blood Orange and Avo

Pear, Pancetta, nectarine and green leaf salad

Mains:

Gnocchi, Wild Mushrooms, Pork Ragout - the STAR of the show

Brisket stuffed Poblano Pepper, Mole

The food was amazing and the local wine just lovely. All-in-all - a great day and fab dinner!

An Ode to South Africa - World Cup 2010

I am so excited about sharing the rest of my amazing road trip with all of you, but I just have to take a very short hiatus to say to my dear South Africa, the land of my birth: Go for it South Africa, blow on your Vuvuzelas and celebrate this amazing time that you and all of our guests from around the world are all about to experience! It is a once in a life-time opportunity, make the most of it, spread joy and unity and support Bafana Bafana during World Cup 2010. I am jealous!

This is an ode to South Africa - not in the lyrical poem sense of the word, but in pictures with beautiful views from our "world-in-one-country".

The beautiful Paarl - my hometown

Stellenbosch Wine Area

Amazing African Sunset

Blyde River Canyon

Peek-a-boo Monsieur Hippo

Amazing Elephant

The amazing route from Hout Bay to Sea Point

Going up Table Mountain with the cable car

Seeing Camps Bay from Table Mountain

Table Mountain and Cape Town Harbour

If anyone has some photos that you feel I should add (especially World Cup related), please send them to me.

Day 3 - Monterey & Carmel-by-the-sea

Cannery Row

The town of Monterey as a great place to visit with many things to do. We spent the morning in Cannery Row, which is filled with shops, restaurants and hotels. For some really great chocolate treats, stop by Ghirardelli Square - yum. We had some fabulous chocolaty goodness there - some kind of super-thick and creamy hot chocolate - yum yum. We didn’t stop by the Aquarium, but we were told by the locals that its worth the visit, so maybe next time…

 

Chocolatey Goodness at Ghirardelli!

The best way to our next destination, Carmel-by-the-Sea, from Monterey, is to drive on 17-mile drive which takes you right past the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Course. You have to pay a small fee to take this scenic drive, but it is well worth the cost because the views are breathtaking. You have the ocean on the right and golf courses as well as a few fabulous homes on your left, for most of the drive. The only thing that made it even more special than it already is, was a dolphin sighting - amazing!

Entering 17-Mile Drive

17-Mile drive - beautiful!

You drive past a few (2 I think?) golf courses to get to Pebble Beach, and those courses look pretty cool too, but once you get to Pebble Beach, you know why it has the status that it has (and greatly deserves). It is just absolutely beautiful. I am not a golfer myself - yet - but I highly recommend all you golfers out there to one day go play there. My friend Butterfly’s husband (Beautiful Boy) played the course with his dad and it was an experience that he’ll never forget.

Pebble Beach Club House

Carmel-by-the-Sea is a quaint little town with beautiful beaches and interesting houses and many interesting shops and galleries. The town is also home to a large community of actors and poets, one of them being Clint Eastwood who was the town’s mayor in the 80’s. The shopping and restaurant area is a short drive away from the beach and is quite hilly. Be careful while doing window shopping, because the pavements are quite slippery and uneven. This would explain the bizarre law that they have which prevents one from wearing high-heels without a permit. Unfortunately I didn’t know about this law until it was too late.

Lovely lunch outside - pre-fall!

After a beautiful lunch of fabulously succulent duck and gorgeous wine, outside in the sunshine, we decided to go for a spot of shopping. I wore flat - I repeat - FLAT sandals, but even they were no match for the steep and dodgy pavements of this town. One second I was walking and the next I was sitting on the pavement in a hurdler-type position. When I got up, I winced from pain. The top of my left foot was scraped. In some spots only a layer or to of skin was missing, but in other spots, it was blood and gore all over the show. This kind-of spoiled the afternoon slightly, because I could no longer wear my shoe and I didn’t want to walk through the town with a painfully burning and bleeding foot. Thank goodness I remembered the emergency kit, so when we got to the car, my hubby cleaned my wounds, bandaged me up and gave me a pain killer. After a bit of a nap (we were on holiday afterall), I was feeling much better and ready to take on another one of Monterey’s great seafood restaurants for some fabulously fresh scallops, prawns and calamari.

The view from our table at Fisherman's Wharf

Day 2 - Lake Tahoe to Monterey - Part II

Lunchtime came and we were both hungry, but we decided to drive past all the brightly colored junk food joints. We were in California afterall…and if their cows ate natural great food, why wouldn’t we. To my great excitement, we spotted a farm-stall - yes, a farm-stall!!! I miss a good South African farm-stall with freshly baked bread and local treats. This one had all of that and more…they had some great looking local veggies and organic meat. We were going to grab and go, but after taking one look at their quiches and other freshly baked goodies, we realized we had to sit down and eat this one with a knife and fork. I soon realized that the locals in this part of California don’t get many foreigners here, because as soon as we opened our mouths, the entire place stared at us. Oh well, stare away people…because I was about to scoff that quiche down with gusto!

The Beach in Monterey

We took a detour to go check out Antioch, where my husband’s colleague just bought a house and after a quick snack & drink with him, (the colleague) in the outskirts of San Jose, we were on our way to Monterey.

Monterey is a really pretty seaside town. Our hotel was about a mile or 2 from the Harbour and Fisherman’s Wharf, so we decided to walk there, next to the ocean. It was a beautiful but very chilly walk, so when we got to Fisherman’s Wharf, I was ready for some retail therapy. Unfortunately, little touristy souvenir shops are no place for a very stylish find, so I had to get something practical. Not sure if I will ever wear it again, but I am now the proud owner of a black windbreaker with a Monterey badge on it. Sometimes fashion needs to suffer when one is freezing! Sorry to disappoint all my fashionistas out there!

Monterey Harbour

We had a wonderful meal of fresh oysters and fish (crab stuffed salmon for me and sword-fish for the hubby). I don’t know why, but seafood just tastes better if you are right by the ocean. (probably because it is fresher - duh!).

Our walk back to the hotel was a lot warmer - thanks to my not-so-stylish lifesaver: my Monterey jacket!

What a great day - we traveled from the mountains to the ocean and ended it with a great meal by the sea.