Got home last night at about eight, after an 11 hour run from Buellton, California where we had spent most of the week celebrating the marriage of our daughter to some guy from Minnesota. Last Friday the wedding party went on a wine tour of three wineries. Here I am at the third, Saca Mesa, where we were waiting for the first serving and my nephew James Radina took this pic:
Great shot of the order of the servings and the glasses lined up. There were some 21 people in our party. One odd thing was an old school photographer with the big-assed lenses hanging around his neck kept shooting photos of me, getting down on the floor and shooting up, etc. I assumed he was from the winery, but then he showed up at the second and third places as well. Kathy finally asked him what it was for and he told her he works for the LA Times and they're doing a feature on the San Ynez Wine Country in the Sunday supplement of The Los Angeles Magazine and he thought I was photogenic and was angling for a cover shot. Ha. Supposed to be in next week's edition. We'll see.
The day after the wedding, my Kingman compadres and our wives took off on a day trip in the Flex and we motored up to Morro Bay and down to Pismo Beach where we had dinner at Steamers right up off the beach. On the way up, Darlene Harshberger told us about a famous BBQ place called, appropriately, BBQ-Land and we had lunch there. Here are the three Kingman amigos, me, Dan The Man and Charlie Waters, porked out, on the way out:
That night I downloaded the Beach Boys album Holland from iTunes ($9.95) because Dan Harshberger kept singing the lyric "where the barrancas carved the coastline" and he couldn't remember which song that was from. Found it, bought it and played it ON MY PHONE at breakfast the next morning.
The Ds (Dan and Darlene) left on Monday morning and the Waters took us down to Santa Barbara for the day. Took The Land Shark Tour which is a bus that turns into a boat and takes you on a driving tour of Santa Barbara then goes right into the water and cruises the bay, out to a bouy where a gang of sea lions was sun bathing.
Did you know sea lions sleep 23 hours a day? Then go eat and make love and take another long nap. If you've ever wondered the difference between seals and sea lions, well, it's the ears. Sea lions have little ears protruding. I assume there are other differences but that's all i heard from the tour guide, who was quite funny, by the way.
Here we are enjoying the cool breezes coming off of David Crosby's boat (which is for sale at $750,000). Saw many famous boats in the harbor including Warren Buffet's, etc. Quite impressive.
After our Land Shark tour of Santa Barbara on Monday we landed at the Palace Grill just off State Street. Charlie Waters has fond memories of this place because it was the first place his son Rich actually paid for a meal. Ha. Great food, by the way. That's Charles, Linda, Kathy and me eatin' gumbo.
i had a cajun martini which was quite good:
Hot and spicy, just like I like my tax accountants. Ha.
Saw lots of new country. Very historic too. Saw all the Buellton locations for the movie Sideways. We had dinner at AJ Spurs where Hayden Church picked up the fat chick.
And, of course, we had split-pea soup at Anderson's which was right next door to The Split Pea Inn, where we stayed.
Saw the mountains where Reagan's Ranch was located, general area of Michael Jackson's Ranch, Charlie Sheen's favorite crack house. Very rich area. Lots of history.
"Water, water, get yourself in that cool, clear water. . ."
—The Beach Boys, Holland
