Leaving the high desert behind us we drove west and settled into Paso Robles to stay at Cava Robles RV Resort. We had stayed at this resort in October 2018 at the site next door. Beautiful place! Three years ago I commented that the place would be outstanding when the vegetation matures. Well, the vegetation hasn’t grown that much, but the place is outstanding.
And Bear’s favorite spot:
He was so cute – we could just open our door for him and he would run over to the dog park. Talk about easy!
After getting set up and doing some cleaning, we headed over to the Ward’s house. Shelly (BeautiControl gal) and Harvey moved here about four years ago and purchased a house in the cute downtown area. As a bonus, Anne (BeautiControl gal) and Ant Cannon were also visiting from Ohio. The six of us went to the Fish Gaucho restaurant for dinner.
Excellent meal and it was great catching up with everyone. The Cannon’s were heading to a wedding the next day so we wouldn’t be able to see them again on this visit.
We spent the next day cleaning the Busse Bus and the truck as we are receiving visitors for the next week. Now you wouldn’t think that cleaning such a small space would take a great deal of time, but you would be wrong.
Shelly and Harvey swung by for dinner. I made lobster and steak on the grill, Katrina made brussel sprouts, and Shelly brought a caprese salad.
Wonderful meal! I tell you that the Traeger has been awesome!
The following day we finished cleaning in time to meet up with the Wards for dinner at Don Q, but we found out that they were closed. We adjusted and hit a little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant called Touch of Mexico.
Food was pretty good. We headed back to the Busse Bus and waited for the Fluharty’s to drive in from Santa Barbara.
The Fluharty’s rented electric bikes so that the Wards, us and them could ride in the local vineyards. We drove the bikes up to San Miguel Mission:
This mission was founded in 1797 and is a Catholic Church as part of all the missions up and down the west coast as Catholics were evangelizing to the natives. The mission was self contained, meaning that they housed stables, houses, vegetable / fruit gardens, etc.
Mexican lunch at Taco Mafia in San Miguel.
Great food and a lot of it! They kept our leftovers that we picked up later with the truck. Riding through the vineyards was beautiful. Stopped to fix Katrina’s flat tire.
Stopped at Four Sisters Winery.
Bought a case of red. Good thing that the Fluharty’s rentals had saddle bags to bring our booty back to the truck.
Stopped at Elk Horn bar for a quick drink as it is the second longest running bar in California. Interesting place where we left a “Flusse” dollar!
After picking up our leftovers from Taco Mafia, we headed back to the coach. The four of us got cleaned up and met the Wards for dinner at Il Cortile Ristorante in downtown Paso. Wonderful meal!
On the walk back to the car, Kevin dropped the key fob and it bounced down the storm sewer drain. We couldn’t reach them.
A very nice kid (twenty something) aided us. He even hopped down into the drains (after we got the grate off) and dug through the debris to find the key fob after Kathleen offered them $200 bucks.
The following day we packed up the bikes and drove to the coast. We stopped along the way to look at Morro Rock out in the distance:
We rode down to Moonstone beach and then up on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) to the Hearst Castle.
It was great to see zebras along the road on the former Hearst property:
We rode back the way we came and stopped for lunch at the Moonstone Beach Bar & Grill.
Loaded up the bikes and got back to Cava Robles in time to return the rentals. Later we headed to the hot tub to relax.
We started the next day with a winery visit to Alta Colina and for our tasting we were in the middle of the vineyard.
Wonderful experience with great wines! They had five vintage campers situated around their watering pond for rent. So cute!
We then headed to Calcareous Vineyard for lunch and a tasting.
We had a delicious meal with great views and tasty wine!
Spent the afternoon at the pool and then made dinner in.
Food that Kathleen and Katrina picked up at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday. Tuna, Halibut and steaks with a wonderful salad.
On Tuesday we went to Austin Hope Family vineyards and they had just started pairing their wines with the Stepladder creamery.
Wine and cheese, what could be better? So, the wine maker and the cheese maker got hitched to create this arrangement:
Beautiful secluded tasting areas on their balcony overlooking the vineyards.
On the drive back we stopped at Tooth and Nail Winery which was built to look like a castle. You even had to cross the moat to enter.
We spent the afternoon at the hot tub before meeting the Wards for a sushi dinner at Goshi Japanese Restaurant in downtown Paso Robles.
Afterwards we stopped at the Roots On Railroad bar and played a little bingo – Katrina won! It was very wonderful sitting by the fires, especially because we haven’t been able to have a campfire in months due to wild fire potential.
They were celebrating Oktoberfest:
From there we stopped at the Pine Street Saloon where Katrina participated in the karaoke while the rest of us watched.
It was good to see Katrina finally get over her shyness!
The following day we headed out to Eberle Winery. After the facility tour, we had a tasting in the “cave”.
Wonderful wines! We joined the wine club and purchased four bottles of Cab and two bottles of Grenache.
We then went over to Sculpterra for a glass of wine and to see the artworks. Lovely grounds with fairly good wines.
We drove down to Tin City and went to the BarrelHouse with the Wards as we all had signed up for Painting and Pints. We had sent in pictures of our pets a few weeks ago.
Check out the result:
Doesn’t this look a lot like Bear?
Katrina did a great job!
Stopped at the Wards for a drink before heading home. The Fluharty’s needed to finish packing as they were heading home the following morning.
The following day the Fluharty’s headed back to the airport to catch their flights home. That left us time to wash the bedding and clean the coach prior to our daughter, Ari and her husband, Matt arriving late that night. We went to see the project that Harvey is completing. The house that he is renovating is absolutely beautiful situated up on a hill overlooking a couple of valleys. Harvey sure does good work! Since it was lunchtime, we headed back into Paso Robles and ate at a small “mall” that offered a number of options. Burgers, sandwiches, vegan, local brews, and a bakery. After we placed our orders we got to eat outside.
We decided to cook out that night and Katrina and I stopped at a local butcher shop. We got the Tritip which is very common here. I’m glad that Harvey knew how to grill them to perfection!
After a wonderful meal, Katrina and I headed home and watched a little TV until Ari and Matt arrived around 11pm.
The next day we all headed out to taste some wines. Katrina arranged tastings at a number of venues. First up was Halter Ranch Vineyard. What a great place! Ari and Matt enjoyed the wines and joined their wine club, which was great because we all got our tastings for free and 20% off every bottle that we purchased. I’m convinced that they joined the wine club because Halter also featured a landing strip that Matt thought that some day he could fly into. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?
They also had a model train that ran around the area. We didn’t get to see it working, had to save something for next time!
From there we went to the DAOU Family Estates where Katrina had arranged a luncheon for us. Having a picnic lunch, drinking wine and observing the beautiful vistas was a fantastic experience!
Afterwards we went to the Tablas Creek Vineyard. Another pretty venue! I’m not sure, but by your third tasting in a day the wines taste very good.
We headed out to the coast with the intention of seeing Ragged Point which is the southern tip of Big Sur. Once we crossed the mountains and got to see the ocean we found that the fog had the entire coast fogged in. We did stop to show them Morro Rock:
We decided to try to see the Elephant Seals and got to walk down on the beach.
We didn’t see the seals, probably because we weren’t in the correct location!
We drove into Cambria and got in line for the Sea Chest restaurant. We just missed the first seating so we sat by their outdoor fire pit and cracked opened a bottle of DAOU wine. Good thing that we received glasses from our picnic lunch with them! Once we got inside to eat we all ordered their fish specials. We were not disappointed!
We headed back over the mountains and immediately the clouds dispersed. Since we were all exhausted, we retired early.
The next day was more of the same. We started at Niner Wine Estates. Wonderful experience! Niner is actually the last name of the people that started the winery. We were greeted by their son who spent a lot of time with us which was extremely nice!
Notice the heart shaped grove of trees in the background?
Our next stop was Lone Madrone where Shelly and Harvey met up with us. They are members of this boutique winery. Shelly brought a wonderful charcuterie board:
What a great little place! I can see why the Wards are club members!
Our final stop was at Eberle Winery where we started with a cave tour and then a tasting out on their deck. We were able to take Bear along through both the cave and tasting part! He really enjoyed sitting on the deck and keeping his eye on the local cat.
We dropped Bear off at the coach and went to see Sensorio, a field that has been converted with thousands of fiber optics – check out these pictures:
There was also a display of over two thousands wine bottles lit with fiber optics arranged in towers:
We enjoyed a food truck while listening to a band playing on the lawn.
From there we went to downtown Paso Robles and the 1122 Speakeasy. What a neat experience! We had to wait outside for some people to leave as the place only held 25 patrons.
Once we got in our phones were “confiscated” so that we could be transformed to prohibition. Therefore, no pictures from the inside. The two bartenders were phenomenal and my favorite drink was a smoked Manhattan. I gotta find another bartender who can create that yummy concoction!
The next morning we had a farewell breakfast with Shelly, Harvey, Ari, Matt, Katrina and I at Andrea’s On Pine. Great breakfast and we got to sit outside.
Saying our goodbyes to Ari and Matt as they drove off to catch their plane in Bakersfield.
The Wards and the Busses then headed back to the Austin Hope Winery with the Stepladder Creamery pairing that we had done a few days ago. It was just as good the second time around! We had booked the place anticipating that Ari and Matt would be able to join us before there flights, but that didn’t happen.
Since the Wards had never attended this tasting they wanted to go with us.
Afterwards we grabbed our dogs and headed to the beach near San Simeon. Bear loved playing on the beach chasing his toy and the occasional bird.
We had a relaxing evening back at the coach after giving Bear a much needed bath!
The next day we chilled at the coach and then met the Wards for dinner at the Odyssey World Cafe on the Paso Robles square where we got to sit outside on a quaint patio.
The following day we started getting the Busse Bus ready to travel. After being in one place for weeks it takes longer to pack up as more supplies get taken out of the garage bays. I gave the Traeger a deep cleaning while Katrina found places to store all the wonderful wines that we had purchased.
We were able to meet up with Shelly and Harvey for dinner at Don Q as we learned that they had reopened.
Delicious Mexican cuisine!
Before dinner, Shelly gave Katrina some succulents to take with us. Look how beautiful these are:
The next day we we finished packing up and said adios to Paso Robles. We really like this area and spending time with Shelly and Harvey. Thank you for your hospitality!
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