So Long Paso Robles

One last view from just outside our room at High Ridge Manor. Our last day in Paso Robles was just perfect weatherwise. We drove the Peachy Canyon bike route from the day before with the top down in the convertible. It was plenty warm enough for a 30 mph drive through these rolling hills.

As it turns out, we actually biked a marathon; 26.2 miles. It was consistently hilly albeit not like West Virginia hills, Jim. Still, a very healthy bike loop when you haven't been riding at all (And we went for a run in the morning before breakfast! My kind of vacation.)

After driving the loop road and buying a few additional bottles of wine (Opolo and Windward), we drove back into Paso to buy packaging and mail our special wines back home. Then, we had an excellent late lunch at the Wine Attic in town, eating in their courtyard with the patio heater on. Laurie had a chevre and tomato sandwich and I had an Ahi tuna sandwich that was to die for. With the accompanying local Cabs with our meal, it was the perfect ending to our visit in Paso Robles.

At about 4:30pm we headed south for LA where we'd meet Tom and Lori at their weekly wine tasting class. Tonight was the last class so they were sampling champagnes and dessert wines. We showed up at the very end of the class and the instructor graciously allowed us to sample a couple ourselves.

We stayed at Tom's and Lori's house that night in Rancho Palos Verdes. This is a beautiful neighborhood in southern Cal, only 6 blocks from the ocean and the luring, magnificent Trump golf course right along the shoreline. $300 for a round on the weekends; $190 during the week. Despite the hefty pricetag, it would be worth doing once. The views are simply stunning. Half my tee shots would probably be in the Pacific Ocean but who cares...tee up another one and whale it into oblivion. (Tom - if you're reading this, next time we come out there, let's line up a weekday teetime and I'll bring a few cases of balls; hey, I might even have to have a cigar for the occasion...and a bottle of Dom.)

Tom and Lori have a wonderful house with a war zone in the back yard that will eventually be where they spend a lot of their time - a pool, hot tub, patio, and a killer BBQ setup. Also it was nice to see Tom with some real furniture in his house. Thanks, Lori. Also great to see the Chetster and meet Chucky. (Below is a photo of their house.)