We stayed around camp for the first few days just checking out the preserve and of course keeping up on all the Olympics activity. Lots of history on this preserve and it's the only truly working ranch with cattle and horses in the Thousand Trails system. We attended a dog herding exercise of young calfs and then we watched them try out the bucking capabilities of young calfs using a stuffed bear cowboy. They had at least 60 horses on the ranch. Below is a teddy bear dressed up like a cowboy that they used to put on the young bulls for bucking practice. Quite interesting.
We attended three wine tasting events, meeting others and giving and getting good wine tips. Whether we wine taste in the park or in some of the local wineries one of the best parts is meeting people who also enjoy the wine. In the park we met a very young couple who are raising six kids who just joined TTN. After the event they found our campsite and brought us a bottle of wine from one of their favorite wineries in the area. Of course that gave us the opportunity to share a bottle from the Walla Walla area.
We also spent a day grilling our first attempt at Pork Spareribs - trying a different rub for each of the 3 different slabs. They all turned out great and something we look forward to trying again. Later in the trip we also did our first grilled meatloaf with jalapeños and garlic - it turned out great as well. I also made cookies for the first time in our motorhome oven and with a few adjustments for cooking time, it was a success.
In the park, our wifi and cell service is really poor, including the wifi in the adult lodge. I had planned on doing lots of updates, email, taxes, etc. but I don't have that kind of patience. It was taking 1/2 hour per picture to upload, sometimes 10 minutes to load a website and many times it would take so long it failed. So one of our days we went into Santa Ynez, sat in a city park and was able to get service enough to do some updates. We also decided since we were there we should do at least one winery, so we chose Gainey. Their wines were really full bodied and very good and again we met a really fun couple who were celebrating their anniversary.
Prior to the heavy rainfalls, we went into the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. We enjoyed the sites there, especially boarding Airforce One. They also had a replica of what the oval office looked like when Reagan was there. There was also a part of the actual Berlin wall outside of the building which is the last picture in this grouping.
We went to Solvang to check out the shops as Craig and I had not been there since I was sent to the Westlake area for six weeks during the Northridge earthquake in 1994. Lots had changed and the day we were there it was pretty dead - lots of shops closed. So, we went wine tasting instead in Santa Ynez and then went back to Solvang for the weekly market - got great fresh veggies, fruits and flowers. The second picture is of one of the wineries we went to in Santa Ynez - Bridlewood winery. All the wineries were quite interesting - some big estates, some small warehouses, some cabins, etc.
So by the end of our trip in this area, we had spent time driving up and down the coast, checking out downtown Santa Barbara, went to dinner at Cold Springs Tavern which was an old stagecoach stop in the 1860s (Pictures below) and tried out a couple of other great restaurants.
We also made it to a couple of additional wineries in the Lompoc, Buellton, Los Olivos Santa Ynez area. We went to Flying Goat Cellars, Palmina, Sunstone, Blackjack, Epiphany, Babcock and Carhartt. Babcock was one of our favorites as we had a great server pouring the wine. Also, the Carhartt winery was interesting as it is in the family of the Carhartt clothing manufacturers. It's a good time to leave as our wine storage area in the motorhome is full.
So, on Monday, March 10 we moved onto Palm Springs Thousand Trails park.
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