California - Part 2

From Gilroy, we continued south to Paso Robles.

* Paso Robles, CA - 14 nights here. This was a destination on our bucket list. We fell in love with the wine of this area a few years ago and had the pleasure of getting to visit in person now! Spending time here during the holiday season was fantastic. Our first night in town there was a Christmas Parade that we happened upon and the town square had all of its trees wrapped in lights. I love that! Another evening closed down their historic Vine Street and all the houses and businesses on the 5 block stretch are decorated; one house was the "home" of Ebenezer Scrooge and he did a whole bit with the crowd outside. There was a mini sledding hill with trucked-in snow. A few houses had musicians, there was a stage with local dance troupes performing, and of course there was good people watching as we wandered the street.

If you thought wine country was only in Napa, you need to look up Paso Robles. Downtown has multiple tasting rooms, but there are hundreds of vineyards on Highway 46 and the surrounding area.

The highlight of our time here was visiting JUSTIN, the vineyard that started our obsession with the area. Chad discovered they have a Michelin Star restaurant on their property, which we decided was the perfect holiday gift to ourselves. If you ever have the opportunity to splurge on a Michelin Star restaurant, I would highly recommend going for it. It definitely created a core memory for me. The service was outstanding, each course had an element that was amazing, and the Wagyu beef course left us both speechless. We also did the wine pairing with dinner, which highlighted our meal in a stellar way. A few bottles made their way home with us and will travel along on our perpetual roadtrip!

Chronic Cellars is another of our favorites, which has a more casual vibe; someone used the phrase of "porch pounder" awhile back and this falls into that camp for us! They have easy drinking wine that has a little sass in their varietal names. It's just fun.

Never fear, there is also beer here! 805 by Firestone Walker is headquartered in Paso Robles, as well. We had dinner at their brewery tap room with a delicious flight of beer. Another restaurant in Paso had a self-serve tap wall where you could try by the ounce. It was a great way to try some new things without committing to a large pour.

Other highlights:

* Estrella Warbird Airplane and Automobile Museum

*Ann experienced three acupuncture visits while we were here. Some neck and shoulder pain have been in tow on this journey and the treatments helped relieve some tension and some pain. I will be seeking this out again!

* Sun Outdoors Central Coast Wine Country RV park was very nice. It was definitely "off season" for them. We were one of about 10 rigs there at any one time! It was a nice setup and pretty landscape, so we may look up other locations they have around the country.

Next stop...Coachella, CA.