daytrip to the wine country

the weekend began with the standard saturday morning soccer game consisting of stefan, trevor, josef, me, and sixteen angry arabs. after being down 1-3 at halftime we came back and tied it before i assisted the game winning goal! what a start to the weekend!

nicole's weekend started off just as well with a hair appointment at salon de la mer, and a visit with her favorite hair stylist, gina. after hanging out at home, relaxing and listening to some rod stewart, we drove down to lea & trev's in newport for game night. (trev & i beat the girls at a serious round of pictionary).

early sunday morning we rolled out of newport on schedule at 7:41 a.m., heading to santa barbara for a day at the wineries.

first stop, ihop (international house of pancakes) in northridge. can't beat a big breakfast with lots of coffee for $5.99 per person!

after a very pleasant & quick drive, we arrived at the first winery of the day, gainey.  although the grounds were beautiful, the wines didn't quite meet our expectations, or the price tag...

please note, the dancing session below was pre-wine tasting, but post coffee consumption!
kalyra was our next stop. nicole and i are members of this winery; really more for the fun atmosphere than for their wines. we sampled three white and three red wines, but really enjoyed the music, people and pretty surroundings more.
fun fact: kalyra is run by australians and can be seen in the movie sideways.  
our next stop was fess parker, known for their incredible [and expensive] wines. we all agreed the tasting was the best of the day, and were thankful trevor had done his homework and found free tasting coupons celebrating the 20th anniversary of this establishment.  

fun fact: fess parker is owned by the actor who played disney's davey crocket.

we ended the day at zaca mesa, whose wines we are fond of, and can actualy afford.  after the tasting we set up a picnic overlooking the santa ynez valley. lots of wine, cheese and good conversation.

as usual, trev and i had to come up with a competition. please see below the perfectly captured image of  our "swing yourself and jump as far from the trellis as possible" finale! who won? come on...

we returned home about 9:00 to watch the [recorded] chargers game; a victory of 21-20 won in the last 21 seconds as my favorite player, vinnie jackson ran in the final touchdown.  a perfect end to a perfect day.