Another year, another Labor Day weekend approaches. We planned a revisit to the Santa Ynez Valley again for a couple of days. Staying in the same lovely rental home, planning some amazing wine country meals at the local cafe in town and, of course, lots and lots of wine tastings in one of the best pinot noir areas in California. It has been an insane few weeks at the office lately thanks to several large projects in the works - I have been working weekends, evenings and generally wanting to punch people in the face for the past 3 weeks so this trip is long overdue for me. I intend to enjoy it to the fullest.
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| Santa Ynez Valley (Sotheby's) |
Our next door neighbor, also a wine lover, is joining us this trip so we're really looking forward to showing him around as this is our 3rd trip there. The rustic little town of Los Olivos is just perfect for us as everything is in walking distance, there is a farmer's market on Saturday and Sunday, it has a 2-3 cute cafes and over 20 tasting rooms in a 3 block area. Yes, over 20 tasting rooms all within
walking stumbling distance so I can do some serious damage.
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| Farmer's Market - Los Olivos |
About 10 minutes away is also the super cute (if a little fake) town of Solvang, which is actually the largest Dutch community in the United States. It has windmills, smorgasbords, bakeries and more tasting rooms. The big thing to eat there are abelskivers, which are basically pancake balls filled with jam and covered with powdered sugar. I actually haven't had one yet b/c they don't exactly look healthy but I may make an exception this trip.
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| How cute is this place? |
If the town looks familiar it's because that where the movie Sideways was filmed (remember Jack and Miles?). We usually visit several of the places where the movie was filmed, including the Hitchin' Post for steak and the Los Olivos Cafe, both of which happen to have great food as well. There are tons and tons of wineries in the general area too. Too many to visit all of them, unfortunately.
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| This will be me and Steve in a few days |
The weather is supposed to be perfect the whole time. Highs in the mid 80's and lows in the low 50's. I plan to go jogging every morning when it's about 55-60 degrees (what a treat compared to Texas where it is in the 90's and crazy humid right now) to work off all the wine and food. Counting down.....
