Pat and I had been planning a 2 week road trip to Colorado this Spring. But with the turn of events we've had with our poor seizure boy Poe, a lot of things have had to shift. But, we thought just a few days away to one of our favorite spots that's not super far would be alright. Plus it's our 3 year wedding anniversary so what better way to celebrate! We headed up a Thursday through Sunday (Sunday sadly was derailed due to Jami getting sick, sigh) but Thur, Fri and Sat were awesome!
We got a bnb super close to Downtown Paso Robles. The pickins were slim since we decided to do this somewhat last minute, but we still found a cute place that suited our needs.
On our way up Thursday we stopped at a great place in Santa Barbara called
The Secret Bao. It was delish! Then took a little stroll at a park nearby so Poe could get some walkin in.
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| Vacay officially begins |
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| Pat got a Fried Cauliflower dish and I had a Hamachi bowl! Yummy! |
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| Crab roll and Fried Chix Bao Bun |
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| What a lovely little park! |
Then settled into our bnb before we headed out to Downtown for dinner.
We opted for
Stokehouse Grill. Lovely little spot. I got a seafood pasta and there was so much fish in it! So yummy! Pat got a giant pork chop that he said was wonderful. Then we just wandered the town a bit before heading back to our place to relax for the evening.
The next morning we decided to take a morning walk through the neighborhood. I would so live there!
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| So on our walk there were Turkey Vultures just chillin. It was a little intimidating. LOL! |
Later that morning we had reservations at
Austin Hope Winery. We were planning on becoming members. We're sharing a membership with a girlfriend of mine, so it's doable! They had a cute little sign for us since we were celebrating our anniversary. It was such a beautiful day and we enjoyed a leisurely lovely tasting and joined!
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| Yay us! |
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| Poe the Wine Dog |
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| Really trying to get better at remembering to take off my sunglasses |
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| Love this view! |
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| Poe was enjoying the sun |
Next we decided to lunch at another favorite of ours Calcareous Winery. Our lunch was yummy but we did get a surprise visitor!
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| So as we're sitting there I noticed something moving in the grass...a danger noodle!! It was huge! I calmly got up and pulled Poe away from the table and whispered "Snake!" to Pat who stepped away. We were just going to wait him out, seemed like he was headed to some bushes, but then the staff all came out, some with tools, but one dude just picked him up and carried him to another area. Ha! They call him the Snake Whisperer |
On our way back to the bnb we saw a deer! We also stopped for a geocache I had spotted earlier but couldn't get to.
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| OMG HAI!!!!!! |
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| Let me hug you! |
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| Roadside geocache |
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| Why yes I'll climb through bushes in my cute sundress to find a geocache |
And now that we're Austin Hope Members - they have a tasting room in Downtown. You can get a glass of wine to have in the park! So we did just that. Then back to our bnb to chill.
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| Playin some Skip-Bo |
Saturday we had heard about a Downtown Paso Wine and Pairing Walk! Um in!! It wasn't until 3, so we did a lovely morning walk at the Salinas River Trail then had lunch at Thomas Hill Organics. The food was fantastic and a lovely patio! We wandered the downtown a bit, I found a couple of geocaches and we cheered on a protest!
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| There were cats on this trail! |
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| Waddle waddle |
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| Hell Yea! |
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| Aaaaaand need to move here |
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| Such a pretty patio for Poe |
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| Jackalope Library Geocache |
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| Got another cache! |
We had time to do a tasting before the walk so we headed over to J Dusi Winery on Nancy's rec. It was lovely! We bought a bottle of Zin!
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| I need this |
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| Cool wallpaper in the bathroom |
Then came the wine walk. This was so fun! 18 wineries (no we didn't hit them all) had food and wine pairings. They were all downtown. They gave you a wine glass and you walked around all over town to these different tasting rooms. I don't think they all have wineries of their own, but some might. I plan to do some research because there were a bunch we really liked!
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| Poe is ready to wine walk |
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| Malbec w/Mini Tacos! |
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| Blueberry & Lemon Tart |
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| That ceviche was bomb! |
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| Cab w/Cassoulet |
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| Sangiovese w/Mushroom Toast |
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| Tempranillo w/Linguica & Queso |
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| Macaroon! |
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| Parmesan Breadsticks |
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| Austin Hope had one of the best - Cab w/Black Pepper Strawberry Jam & Cream Torte |
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| Rose w/Chile Verde |
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| Rosewater Cupcake w/Rose |
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| Albarino w/an oyster (but we ate the oysters before the photo) |
We then got our "wine to go" and headed back to recover from a glorious day!
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| Poe was done |
We had planned to do some stuff on the way home Sunday, but Jami needs to learn probably not to indulge as much now that I'm going through Peri-menopause and just friggin old. But we had 3 truly glorious days and it was a much needed getaway. Pat and I spend some great quality time together, we ate good food and drank good wine and Poe did great! We certainly love it up in Paso!
