wine tasting weekend in santa barbara

our weekend trip to the santa ynez valley in santa barbara county was carefully & thoughtfully planned, and very generously paid for, by our friend trevor as a token of appreciation for simply being supportive during lea's battle with, and defeat of, cancer last year.  as a bonus to everyone, i was designated as the sober driver based solely on the fact that i am pregnant.

it was an honor to chauffeur the gang around considering lea had done it twice before.  and all things considered i must say sober in santa barbara was not a bad way to go!  

we started with breakfast at summerland cafe...

a short while later we arrived at the first winery of the day, zaca mesa.
shortly after our arrival a bus load of elderly tourists arrived so we headed for higher grounds in the picnic area just above the winery.  calle quickly made himself at home...

our next stop was fess parker; the winery owned and operated by the late fess parker himself.  for those of you too young to know who fess parker is, have you ever heard of davy crockett?  how about daniel boone?  mr. parker had passed away the day before at age 85 and all through the town flags were at half mast [or half staff] in his honor.

next we headed to firestone wineries where we had a private tasting and a enjoyed a delicious picnic lunch in the sun.
we headed into los olivos to catch the end of trevor's beloved KU basketball game at the local wetting spot, mattie's tavern.  


after a long day of wine tasting and strolling the streets of los olivos, we headed to our beautiful hotel, corque, located in solvang.

we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the hotel restaurant, root 246, and although i was tucked into bed before 11:00 the rest of the group spent a few hours in the lounge listening to live music and dancing like crazy.

we arose early the next morning for a short jaunt through solvang to find turkish peppers and salt licorice for josef as well as a variety of cheese for our afternoon picnic.

this cheese shop smelled awful but carried the best variety of cheese.  i left with three varieties and felt quite victorious in doing so!
after successfully arming ourselves with picnic necessities, we headed to kalyra for the first tasting of the day.  

it's been a long, hard battle but on this beautiful sunday morning calle johan albert holmgren finally found his swirl!
after this miraculous event we headed to the most beautiful winery in the valley, sunstone.
our next stop was lincourt, a sister winery to firestone, where we not only tasted wine but also climbed trees...

after a beautiful weekend in the wine country, we began our journey home.  it wouldn't be a trip to santa barbara without stopping at cold springs tavern...
clearly, we weren't the only people thinking it would be a nice place to spend a little piece of sunday afternoon...