Halperin & Christ

home sweet home. we are back….hard to believe but here we are. hank was greeted by another cream colored vw parked right in front of our house! made him happy.

those stalkers, barb and david are with us again! we can’t seem to shake them. every time we want to go wine tasting there they are.

seriously speaking, we thought it would be a poetic or at least a symmetrical end to travels with hank if we went wine tasting with barb and david at the end of our trip just like we started. they kindly obliged. (actually it was their idea and we jumped on it.)

so here we are in paso robles drowning our return from sabbatical sorrows with zinfandel, tempranillo, syrah, and any other potable local product.

the wine country here is absolute gorgeous, in fact our whole drive up the coast (starting in baja) has been lined with all colors of wildflowers. the last day was dominated by yellow mustard, purple lupen and orange poppies. the wineries are tucked into rolling hills covered with old oaks and linked by beautiful vistas of greenery in all directions.

we left fran’s mom after a relaxing stay of about 10 days. eric finished up a very short “honey do” list, while fran caught up with old family friends.  a quick one night stop over at the state beach in carpinteria ($35/night, yikes!!) for old times sake.  we did eat at the palms, with many remembrences of amor, even took the baked potato for breakfast the next day. we observed the seals for quite awhile, all they do is bask in the sun, swim and flop about. what a life!

after carpinteria we drove up to pismo beach and walked along the water enjoying the sunny weather and watching the world go by. many people were out and about, walking, surfing, skimboarding, making out and engaging in other beach activities.

we ate the obligatory fried clams, cruised the down town and headed further north to join our friends. we found them in a downtown winetasting store. (quel surprise!)

that evening we had tasty thai food and spent the later hours playing pool, singing karaoke (wide open spaces by the dixie chicks) and blending into the local flora and fauna. (we didn’t blend that well but eric’s excellent pool playing made up for any discrepancies.)

today we made the winery rounds till we could drink no more. we topped the day off with a fabulous dinner at artisan restaurant.  still on sabbatical……