The Aftermath

So I just got back from the camping trip. And by just got back, I mean that I've had time to take the necessary nap and shower to recover from the camping trip. Let me just tell you upfront, it was great. One of the better times I've had in the past couple years, I'd say. I'm sad for all of you who couldn't go, because you missed some fun happenings.

Let's, see... where to start. First, the camping site that we were headed to was a bit of a wild card. I had never been there, but the site we wanted to go to was not available, so I found this site though the Reserve America website. We weren't entirely sure how to get there, even with instructions. It turned out to be a pretty sweet place, but more on that later.

So Thursday night, Chris, Rob, and I went grocery shopping for the trip, which was really brave of Nat, because she trusted us to buy the food. And I'd say we did a pretty good job. But we had to do speed shopping, because the store was closing at 9, and we got there about 8:30. What kind of grocery store closes at 9. We made it safely out with a couple minutes to spare, almost forgetting the S'more fixings, jam, sausage, and tortillas, but managing to get everything we needed. I was impressed with us.

We left Friday around noon. Well, we were supposed to leave around noon, but I showed up late (11:30), and Rob couldn't tear himself away from the tv, so we left a little later than we thought we would, I think around 12:45. After various errands we still had to run, we left Bakersfield probably around 1:30. We headed to Santa Maria and beyond.

Now, Chris had done his homework to find some different wineries that we would go to, but saw so many that he decided we would kind of just go where looked fun. We were expecting something along the lines of Paso Robles, where there are huge signs that say, "Wine this way!" but alas, this is not the case in Santa Barbara County. We got off at Bulleton, and put in the Sideways soundtrack to get us ready. But we could find no wineries! We finally found one, but there was a w-word going on (Rob and Chris kept sushing me, but I say, if they want to have their w-word at a winery, they can deal with the noise! I'm not sushing) but it was so crowded, we decided not to fight the crowd.

Feeling defeated (and somewhat confused) we decided just to head to camp and check that out. Hopefully it would be more of a success than wine tasting was (on the first day). Turns out that it was a success, because the campsite was pretty nice. There was a (mostly dry) creek running pretty close to it, which we got to explore, and also held some nice wood for us to gather. Nat showed up about an hour after us, and then the real party started.

A little about the campsite. There were some very interesting people camping by us. One party had four tents (I think) but 5 SUVs and one little car. Another site had a "Mystery Machine" van and that was it. I think we sometimes saw an air mattress lying around. Another site had four tents, a psuedo-tent for keeping bugs away from the table, a bike, and an air rifle. All of this came from one truck, not to mention probably 5 or 6 people. The final site had a motorhome, and old beat up car, and a tv. So it was an interesting place.

On Saturday, we decided since we had no luck and Nat had never been wine tasting, that we would forgo the hike and exploring in favor of finding some wineries. We headed towards Lompoc and scored! We found a very nice winery by the name of Melville, where there was a very fun pourer who gave us the hookups. Not only did she pour us very nicely sized portions of each wine (about a third full of very large glasses), but she told us of some of the better wineries around the area. It was great.

The rest of the day was kind of normal, except for the last one we went to, which is owned by two Aussie brothers. There was a very different atmosophere there than most of wineries, which was fun. It was much more laid-back, and struck me as I think an Aussie winery should.

Sunday, we hit a couple more (2) wineries on our way out after breaking camp. They were pretty good. The thing about SBC wineries that's different from the PR wineries is that all of the Paso wineries are located at the vineyard, which I think is pretty awesome. It gives you the whole atmosophere, and just plain looks cool.

Most of the SBC wineries are not located on vineyards. A lot of them are like little stores in the small towns around there. I think I prefer the Paso wineries better. Plus, SBC doesn't make a lot of Zin because the grapes need more heat. They can turn out a lot of Syrah, which is nice. But Paso has the Zins, of which I am a fan.

And if you read this whole thing, I'm impressed and amazed. Check out my site soon for some of the quotes from the trip, which are pretty funny.