HELP!!!!!!

The snowcapped Sierra Nevadas as seen from the Chateau Routon Vineyard

Every rural intersection has signs to yet more wineries


This is getting to be far too much fun!!! We thought that the Santa Barbara wine region was unique and funky. The Shenandoah Valley wine region, east of Sacramento, makes the Santa Barbara area look like a corporate realm. This area is even smaller and includes the Amador, El Dorado and Fair Play wine regions. You could easily do a wine tasting on foot. The wineries are so small and so numerous that you could walk from one to another until you could no longer stand up. The winemakers are strongly individualistic, very accomplished, and specialize in Zinfandel, Syrah, and Rhone blends, with a bit of Tempranillo, late harvest and surprisingly, Port, thrown in for good measure. The oldest winery in California is here, having commenced production in 1856. This area was, after all, the centre of the 1848 California gold rush. Towns with names like El Dorado, Placerville and Carson City link back to the “old days”.

We spent the better part of the afternoon with a bio-chemist who, after retiring from hospital administration, opened a winery, Amador Cellars, which produces a grand total of 1800 cases a year. Do the math………this guy is not getting rich!! BUT…his wines are amazing. We tasted his bottled zins and syrahs from 2002, ’03 and ’04 and, were so blown away that he offered us barrel samples of ’05 and ’06. I have never tasted a barrel sample that I did not want to spit out………until today. It is sad that the only way to purchase these wines is to knock on the winery door. They sell themselves!!

Then to cap off the day, we were offered tickets to a winery “poker run” on Saturday. These tickets cost the princely sum of $49 each and include 5 wine tastings at 5 different wineries, our choice of a bottle of any of the tasted wines at each winery (total 10 bottles, each worth at least $20), a Riedel tasting glass each, a card at each winery to be played at the end as a poker hand for numerous prizes and………. DINNER. Winemakers must have serious problems with math!!!!

If we never return to Canada……… we have found a nice little winery for sale in a quaint valley in northern California!!

Giants

Redbud Trees cover the mountain slopes

We thought we were doing this trip to avoid this stuff!!!

This one's a baby ....... not much more than 2,000 years old


We headed back into the Sierra Nevada Mountains in order to see Sequoia National Park. The drive commenced on a warm, sunny morning in the San Joaquin Valley farm lands, at about 17°C and ended 2 hours later at 6,500 feet, at -3°C and, in 7 inches of fresh snow. The road into the park, up to the giant trees was restricted to vehicles with 4 wheel drive and/or chains only. Altitude is latitude!!!!

Our first hour, heading west, continued through uninterrupted factory farm land, fertile and FLAT. The farms are imposing and highly automated; employing a scale of food production unlike anything we have seen except in southern California and Arizona. Once we started climbing, the mountain meadows exploded in colour, with the Redbud Trees and Mountain Lupin Bushes taking centre stage, turning some of the mountain slopes into amazing red and violet inclines. Then we hit the snow!! Visibility dropped to zero and, we worried that we might not be able to see the tree-tops. But, as we kept climbing it almost looked like we would break into sunshine.

The giant Sequoias must be seen to be appreciated. The “General Sherman” tree is the largest living thing on earth!!! It is a 2,300 – 2,700 year old Sequoia with a height of 275 feet and a trunk circumference of 103 feet. The volume of the wood in the tree is estimated to be 52,500 cubic feet. That’s a lot of firewood!!! Redwoods can grow taller but, they cannot equal the mass of the Sequoias. And, it takes the heat of forest fires to open the female cones in order to release the seeds. Forest fire repression almost doomed the giants until scientists figured it out. Now, our buddies at the National Park Service actually start fires in the Sequoia forests in order to ensure propagation.

Fruits and Nuts

Did we take a wrong turn in County Kerry???

Young fruit trees to the horizon

Lettuce to the horizon

Food grows where water flows

The Mojave Desert has to be the most inhospitable place in North America. We spent a couple of days in the desert after leaving Las Vegas and starting our move north. The US military loves the place. In addition to Edwards Air Force Base, there are numerous testing ranges, logistics bases and a few “who knows what they are” bases in the desert. Add in a few boron mines (A little test……who remembers Wagon Train and Twenty Mule Team Borax?) and a couple of the world’s largest junk yards and, that pretty much sums up the Mojave Desert. However, there are more Joshua Trees than in Joshua Tree National Park.

BUT…….start to climb into the Sierra Nevadas and, in the space of five miles, you could be in Ireland!!!! The hill and mountain sides are a lush green, with millions of wildflowers in the mountain meadows. Trees reappear. People and habitation become apparent. It’s a different world!

Across the Sierras, we entered the San Joaquin Valley, another of “America’s breadbaskets”. We drove for over 100 miles surrounded by factory farms and orchards, stretching to the Sierras to the east and the Coastal Range to the west. Some individual orchards were miles long by miles wide. Local fruit and nuts are available everywhere. Roadside billboards broadcast “Food Grows Where Water Flows”, highlighting the importance of that resource. The systems of dikes, levees, pumps and irrigation systems are a major engineering feat. Our RV Park is even in the middle of almond orchards. Free almonds after dark!!!

More Vegas

And the beat goes on!! The bigger (better????) Las Vegas strip

Puttin' on the ol' feed bag..................AGAIN!!!!!

The Aureole wine tower - 4 stories of some of the best grape juice around!!!!

We bid adieu to the kids today at the Las Vegas airport, after far too short a visit. I think we all agreed that we are more “Santa Barbara Wine Country people” than “Las Vegas people”. But……..Las Vegas is certainly stimulation for the senses. One wonders how long can it continue. Vegas is the fastest growing community in the US with over 5,000 people moving in every month and, a new home completed every 20 minutes. There are currently 5 new casinos under construction on the strip. It is “Boomtown” USA. We were told that the water level in Lake Mead, from which Las Vegas obtains its water, is down 70 feet from its high water mark. I didn’t believe that and checked on the internet. The official number is 65 feet!!!! Who’s going to quibble over 5 feet? I’d say they have a problem!!!!

All that being said, there are wonderful experiences to be had in Vegas. Again, one of our most memorable occurred in a restaurant. (We are now back at the RV on a bread and water diet). Charlie Palmer’s Las Vegas “Aureole” is a huge departure from his New York “Aureole”. The Las Vegas version is slick, stark and modern, with its centerpiece being a 4 story, temperature and humidity controlled glass “wine tower”, around which the restaurant is built. The tower holds nearly 10,000 bottles. The wine list is so extensive that it is presented to you on a wireless, tablet computer, allowing searches by any variable imaginable. Once a wine is selected, a gymnastic “wine angel” ascends the tower to find your selection, employing a cable and pulley system. Very unique!!! The food, service and ambience made for a complete experience. Very, very good!

Seeing the kids made us think all the more about home so, tomorrow we will continue our northward trek. We have received lots of advice on what to see on the Oregon coast so, it’s 2 states to go and, we are back in Canada. I hope spring has arrived!!!!

Vegas

Walking down "the strip"

Another great Paso Robles Syrah before dinner - So much for that liver drying out thing!!

"Excalibur" at night- It's great when a night shot actually works with a pocket digital camera!!!

Brenda has not been to Las Vegas for a long time; Jonathan, never! It’s bigger; it’s brasher but, it hasn’t changed very much. The newer hotels keep trying to outdo the ones that came before and the clientele is still one of the most eclectic found anywhere. However, the days of the $9.99 buffet are long gone, replaced by every celebrity chef on the planet vying for recognition. The kids have become bigger “foodies” than us! Last night we were at Wolfgang Puck, tonight Bobby Flay, and Friday, Charlie Palmer. I remember when restaurants had names!!! Now the chef comes first, the name of the restaurant second!! Oh yes………I also understand that there is some gambling done here!!

Last night we had tickets to the Cirque de Soliel’s “Ka”. None of us knew what to expect! The show was a sensory smorgasbord, with each scene/act more unique than the one before. The staging and the physical acts were unlike anything any of us had ever seen, making us all want to see the other Cirque shows in town. Maybe next time.

The next few days will be spent exploring the town and taking in whatever comes at us. We all want to experience each of the new hotels. We are staying at the Luxor, wandered through Excalibur and New York, New York, had a drink at Bellagio and, ate at the MGM. And…….we only got here at 3:00 P.M. yesterday. We have neither lost nor won any money, except that which continually flows from one’s pockets in the normal course of events. I wonder if I could pay for this part of the trip at the tables?????? Hmmmmmmmm………..

Goodbye Wine

A "BIG" taste (the bottle!!!)

We drank so much wine........we were seeing Ostriches

Each day, we have been taking new routes through the Santa Barbara hill country (Santa Ynez Valley), finding wineries and small towns nestled in the many small valleys. As with most wine areas, there is lots of “plonk” to taste but, I think we all agree that the percentage of good wine is higher than in most wine regions. We tasted some wines of which there were only 45 cases produced (2 barrels). Very interesting!! The area excels in Rhone varietals and Syrahs. The late harvest wines are also excellent.

We explored the city of Santa Barbara today, having lunch at a wonderful shellfish restaurant on the city pier. There are even full fledged wineries in the middle of the city. The city center is one of the most well preserved historic downtowns we have yet seen. It is so well maintained, it looks new! The morning “maritime layer” (local euphemism for fog) is omnipresent in the morning but, burns off before noon to present a perfect sunny afternoon every day. I guess the grapes love it. Us too!

BUT, the livers must get a reprieve so, we are off in the morning, across the desert, on the way to Las Vegas. We’ll park our tin home in Barstow, spend the night and, then move on to the lights. Stay tuned!!

Company!!!!

A great picnic with Dawn and Bill at Curtis Winery

Overlooking LA from "the Getty"

Having been away so long, it is always wonderful to see people from “home”. We spent the past two days with Dawn and Bill, fellow wine lovers from Waterloo. They arrived on Wednesday and helped us tour yet more wineries. Great friends, great wines, and fun times. We even watched the movie “Sideways” in an effort to figure out why both couples thought it had been filmed in Napa. All the places we have been visiting were clearly there!

The visit seemed to pass in a heartbeat. We then drove back into LA to pick up Jonathan and Meghann who will be with us for a week. While in LA, we took in the Getty Museum, a spectacular hilltop complex, unlike most museums. Very modern, very busy but, very efficient. It is itself an architectural artwork.

Our wonderfully democratic group decided to buy a “star map” and tour the homes of the Hollywood elite. We saw some wonderful gates and hedges!!!! Then up the Pacific Coast highway for the 2 ½ hour drive back to the old “Pecan” in Buellton. Along the way, we passed through Malibu and the sea-side towns. 100’s of hearty surfers were in the surf all along the route. It is difficult to see the appeal of Malibu real-estate given that the beach houses are literally touching each other. Not our cup of tea!

We are very much looking forward to the next week of touring with the kids. After the wine region, we’ll be heading back across the desert to Las Vegas for a few days of “livin’ large” at the Luxor.