Day 7-10 - Sin (sick) city and the long winding road...

On day 7, after a quick stop in Los Angeles at the South African Embassy to apply for a new passport, we headed to Viva Las Vegas. Getting out of Los Angeles was quite the mission, because as we have all been informed, the traffic in LA is very very crazy and I couldn't wait to get out of the hecticness on to the nice big road on our way to Vegas!

The Strip at night

 

I've been to Vegas 4 times, and I've loved every moment. Most people might not believe that I, food-culture-and-fashion-loving moi, could love the drunken debauchery of Las Vegas, but that is just because most of those people have never been to Vegas. The place has turned into a foodie and shoppers paradise. All the hotels on the strip have numerous restaurants and most of them are owned by celebrity chefs. Eating in one of the celebrity owned joints can break the bank, but the culinary experiences will more than likely stay with you forever. 

 

To finish off our culinary expedition/road trip, we wanted to go to the annual Vegas Uncorked festival. It is an amazing food festival with fantastic food opportunities, such as dinner with Joel Robuchon (named chef of the century) and a few very well known chefs, wine tastings and a grand tasting where you can taste small plates from about 150 different restaurants and sip wines from all over the world.

Just before the Grand Tasting, everyone is adding the finishing touches

We enjoyed the Grand Tasting immensely and even though it is very pricey and a bit over-crowded at times, I highly recommend any food-fanatic to attend.

Some of the celebrity chefs

Unfortunately, the towards the end of the Grand Tasting, our trip turned slightly sour because the old hubster started getting very sick. For the next day and a half he could barely leave the room, except to join me for lunch, dinner and a quick spot of post-dinner gambling. How disappointing! I had a whole list of things that I wanted to do and places that I wanted to visit, but spending a whole day on my own didn't sound so great, so I didn't wander off too far. Afterall, we are just an hour away (by plane), so we can come again. 

The Mirage Water Feature

I have so much to say about Las Vegas - I'll have to write a few posts about it to cover most of it. In fact, I wrote an article for an English magazine called SA Promo about Las Vegas, and it featured in their July 2010 issue. (I was very chuffed!) I still have no idea how I managed to squeeze my love, feelings, thoughts and more about this great place into 1 tiny article. It took some hard work and edit, edit edit. You can read my article "Las Vegas - desert city of lights and water" on the SA Promo magazine link http://www.sapromo.com/magazine/book/38-sa-promo-magazine-issue-38/1-sa-promo-magazine

Bye-bye, Las Vegas!

Our drive back on day 10 was pretty uneventful - excruciatingly long, and just very blah. My husband was still ill and I sat there with my mind full of happy thoughts, joyous images and just a great feeling about our road trip. I thought I'd start blogging about the trip immediately - right inside the car - afterall I had around 10 hours, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It just felt like that would be as if I'm admitting to myself that our trip was over and I didn't want it to end. I guess that is also why I'm dragging my blog posts out. The longer I write about it, the more connected I still am with it. I absolutely love travelling. If I could travel every month or two, I'd be beside myself, but unfortunately the daily grind and lack of funds won't allow it. So for now, I'll just have to relive it by blogging about past and future trips and the meals that I enjoyed on them.

Day 6: Santa Barbara

After a busy few days, we decided to spend the whole day in Santa Barbara...do a bit of sight-seeing, some wine tasting and a spot of shopping. We arrived on Shoreline Drive and thought it was just beautiful. The ocean was full of people doing different kinds of water sports and looked very inviting indeed.

Sterns Wharf Pier

The Mediterranean architecture of the city gives it a great holiday feel.

In a very un-seafood-mission-like fashion (I was on a seafood mission - afterall, we were right by the ocean!!!), we decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (a Mexican Holiday) by eating in a Mexican Restaurant. The food was great...the margaritas, even better. My friend, Yummy Mummy, has been telling me for yonks about how fabulous the Mexican food is in California...and she was right - the food was awesome. (I've become quite the Mexican cuisine lover here in America - South Africa is missing out on some truly fabulous food).

On the Pier

Sterns Wharf is quite an interesting pier - with a few restaurants and little shops. You can drive onto the pier and park right by the shopping area, but even walking on it felt slightly dodgy, so I was very happy for the nearby parking area (next to the small skate park).

We did some wine tasting at the tasting rooms in Santa Barbara and I must say that I was not impressed with any of the wines that I tasted that day. After a few days of tasting the one after the other great bottle of wine, Santa Barbara was a bit of a let-down on the wine front - but still a fun place to visit.

In the afternoon we went back to our hotel and rented a little pedal car for an hour. We pedalled all around the harbour - it was fun, at times a bit hysterical and just all-in-all really enjoyable.

Yummy hot seafood platter

That night, we walked around the restaurant area and could not decide where to eat...in the end, we did the boring thing, and went back to Brophy Bros. What can I say...our experience had been so great the previous night, that we couldn't decide on any other place to go to. Our second visit was not a disappointment at all. We shared a hot mixed seafood appetizer (baked oysters, clams, mussels and calamari) and for a main course hubby had the seafood pasta (to die for!) and I had sword fish with a garlic lime sauce (Divine!!!).

Our Ventura hangout - Brophy Bros.

Our second day in the area was just as fabulous as the first, and I'm sure our 3rd will be just as great. Now...when can we come back...???

Day 5: Paso Robles to Ventura and everything inbetween

On day 5 we got up and off course, the husband had to do work for about 3 hours (on MY holiday!!!!!). We just made it downstairs to breakfast in time and afterwards we headed south, in the direction of Santa Barbara.

En route, we did a bit of a detour to see San Luis Obispo. It is such a cute town - next time we'll stay here for the night - in the Madonna Inn. Each room in the Madonna Inn has a different over-the-top theme and people rave about it. The hotel has appeared on several tv shows including The Bachelor and Girls Next Door.

Pismo Beach - as seen from the Pier

We drove past Pismo Beach and just had to stop. It is a great coastal town with an awesome beach and a huge pier.

Santa Barbara is just FAB! Its easy to see why they made a show about it and also why many of the extremely rich own property there. We visited State Street and really enjoyed it. Great shopping and a fabulous farmers market. The market is open on Tuesdays and Saturdays and I must admit, it warmed my food-loving heart to see some chefs (in their chefs' coats) buying fresh farm produce for their restaurants - those are the type of places I'd like to eat at. I also enjoyed the World Market that boasted some great South African wines and a few products like Nando's cooking sauce and Mrs Balls Chutney. I definitely recommend going to Santa Barbara.

The View from our hotel

We stayed in Ventura, about 25 minutes from Santa Barbara - also a coastal town, but smaller and less expensive. The hotel we picked is situated by the harbour, which turned out to be a great location, because you could walk from the hotel to the little shopping/restaurant area in about 15 minutes. Our pick for dinner on the first night in Ventura was Brophy Bros - a great no-nonsense casual seafood restaurant with a huge bar inside and a fabulous patio outside. You can get a table right by the patio wall and look right onto the harbour. Off course we had to try the clam chowder (included with the main course) and I had Seabass with Grand Marnier & lobster sauce while the husband enjoyed his blackened halibut. Yum-yum! Great view, great food, great service...what more could we ask for.

Ventura Harbour

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.