On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
PAM Dirac
One of my brothers was getting married the first week in May near San Diego so that was a definite trip. We decided to combine it with a trip up to the Silicon Valley area to see old friends. Instead of flying up from San Diego we took the train.
My brother decided to get married at Lake Cuyamaca, a low key vacation place about an hour drive from San Diego. We rented a house that had my wife and I, two other brothers and two adult nieces. It was very comfortable and very fun. This is a view from the deck of the house. The wedding itself was very relaxed and fun and came off beautifully. It was especially fun to have most of our California cousins there. My mother had six boys and her sister had 2 girls and 3 boys. My aunt’s family moved to California from Rochester, NY in the early 1960s, so the cousins grew up pretty far apart. Probably a good thing for society. If we had all grown up together, although unlikely, we might have taken over the world. More likely we would have all gone to jail. Pictures of the mayhem omitted to protect the guilty.
We took the Pacific Surfliner up the coast. It lives up to the name. You could see the sea almost the whole way up. The next set of pictures were all taken out of the train window. Here is the view not very far north of San Diego.
Sometimes the train got a little closer to the sea than felt comfortable. I don’t know how hard they have to work on erosion control, but you do wonder if they are going to have to build new tracks at some point.
A fair amount of the time the land side view from the train was pretty standard California sprawl, but there was some more interesting views as you got farther north.
It was a long train ride. It was scheduled for about 8.5 hours but actually took closer to 9.5 hours. After all the wedding commotion it wasn’t a bad thing at all to just relax and enjoy the views. The only thing I would change is to bring something decent to eat. The options on the train were not good. It did give a chance to see a lovely sunset from the train window. This train ended in San Luis Obispo and our friends picked us up at the train station.
We stayed in a very 60s motel in Paso Robles and visited a bunch of wineries. The one I was most anxious to see was Tablas Creek. They are very committed to growing their grapes and making their wine sustainably. As a chemist, the use of “organic” as kind of a synonym for “natural” always seemed weird to me and the rules seemed pretty arbitrary. “Sustainable” seems much more concrete: if what we are doing now is continued for 100 years is it likely that people then could carry on for another 100 years? It seems the term that is being used is “regenerative organic” and Tablas Creek claims to be the first vineyard in the world to get that certification. They do a lot of things to try to meet that goal, there are two things I really like: a flock of sheep for managing the vineyard floor and head-trained vines. This picture is of “Scruffy Hill” and it is covered in head-trained vines. No trellis, no irrigation, and each vine grows like a little bush. Lower yields and more hand labor, but some fantastic wines.
I had never seen so many head-trained vines as I did in Paso Robles, and that trend continued when we went north and stayed in Sunnyvale. We visited Ridge Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. These are about 75 years old.
A closer view of the gnarly vines and shoots just taking off where ever. The winery is pretty far up the mountain and the views of the valley are fantastic. You can see how obsessed with head-trained vines I am that a got plenty of vine views, but no valley views. A little peek in the background of this picture is as close as I got.
One of our friends is very much into sourdough bread baking and makes incredibly delicious bread. Partly because we wanted to continue to eat delicious bread and partly because she is quite the evangelist for sourdough, we came home with a bit of her starter. We are keeping it alive, but let’s say the bread making is a work in progress
Monday Night I Need More Time In the Day Open Thread
Manyakitty
Fabulous 🤩 thanks for sharing!
Baud
I love California.
BretH
Finally! I understand the meaning behind Gnarley Head wines.
Ramalama
Can we hear more about youse with the cousins taking over the world, and possibly jail time? Nice descriptions about the train and vineyard.
Nukular Biskits
Been to Lake Cuyamaca many a time, on my way to Julian.
When I have a free weekend during most of my business trips to SAN, I like to drive east on I-8, head north on Hwy 79. Beautiful views all the way. Stop in Julian for the obligatory apple pie a la mode & cup o’ joe.
Then head east on Hwy 78 down the backside of the mountains and into the desert, eventually making my way to the Salton Sea or, alternately, taking S2 to Ocotillo.
Alternately, I’ll take 79 west out of Julian, through Ramona, passing (and stopping!) at numerous small vineyards and wineries.
Highly recommend!
Martin
The tracks get destroyed near San Clemente nearly annually now. The cost to mitigate the sea level problem is projected at $20B, which is about the cost to extend HSR from LA to SD, and which seems like a better deal unless you live in one of the coastal cities served by train from San Clemente south. The HSR would go inland and not approach the coast until it reached San Diego.
Martin
We take the 101 north from Paso Robles when we go see my son near Santa Cruz. Yeah, we grow a lot of grapes. Lot of labor involved, which is why CA grows all of these crops. Most of the rest of the US is too hostile to that labor, so they are over-reliant on machine crops, which is why crop revenue in CA is quite high. Wine grapes will earn you about 10x what most machine crops will earn per acre, and is pretty happy growing on land that tractors aren’t very fond of, which CA also has a lot of.
raven
My family also moved to LA in the early 60’s back when Orange County was, well, oranges except for Knotts Berry Farm and the newly opened Disneyland. My dad was a Navy officer and we spent a couple of summers in La Jolla but otherwise lived in Whittier. I have always wanted to take that train ride! Thanks.
raven
Terry Hoage, Georgia and NFL player have a winery in Paso Robles.
The Terry Hoage Vineyard is owned and farmed by Jennifer and Terry Hoage. It consists of rolling hillsides and a beautiful bass pond where dragon flies abound
BruceFromOhio
Great story, and fabulous pictures! Thank you for sharing. Good luck with the bread, a fresh loaf with a crunchy crust is a joy to behold.
PAM Dirac
@raven:
I liked Paso Robles a lot, not only for the head trained vines, but because the area seems to favor the Rhone varieties. I see the Terry Hoage vineyard is no exception and grows really well regarded syrah and grenache. Unfortunately their vines got a virus and had to be replanted. Living things, plants as well as people, don’t always behave according to plan.
eclare
What odd looking grapevines, thanks!
PAM Dirac
@BruceFromOhio:
The really nice crunchy crust has been there since attempt #1, but the bread itself was too soggy and dense. It seems the amount of water in the mix needs to be really precise. I now add less that the recipe amount and then add more almost drop wise till the dough is right. Attempt #4 last weekend disappeared very quickly, so it is getting closer.
PAM Dirac
@Nukular Biskits:
We did the I8 to 79 North and the views were wonderful. Others did the Ramona route into the top side of Julian and saw a bunch of wineries. They were most taken by a camel dairy. There is an actual place that keep camels and milks them and makes camel cheese. Didn’t get a chance to sample any of that.
Albatrossity
Thanks for the pic, and the stories. Paso has lots of great wineries, but yes, Tablas Creek is worth the visit. Other good ones we have been introduced to (my son and daughter-in-law live in Paso Robles) are Brecon, Halter Ranch, and Four Lanterns. Like you, I am fond of Rhone-type wines, and the wineries in the Paso region deliver on those!
And Ridge is a great winery too. Pricey, but many of their zinfandels can be cellar-aged for quite a few years, which in contrary to the trend these days.
PAM Dirac
@Albatrossity:
We weren’t too ambitious and went to three other wineries: JDusi, BENOM, and Sixmilebridge. All were very pleasant with interesting and excellent wines. I choose Sixmilebridge just for the name. There is a town in County Clare Ireland with that name, including the lack of spaces. One of my ancestors was born about mile outside that village. Sure enough, the owners of the winery had an ancestor from that area and had named the winery for the village. Had a very nice chat about County Clare. It’s been a fairly long time since I’ve been to Sonoma, but I liked the Paso Robles area much more. Not only was it more Rhone oriented, but there seemed to be much more individuality, each with there own little quirks.
Albatrossity
@PAM Dirac: Yeah, quirky is a good descriptor for some of those wineries. Another example would be Brecon (the best winery I’ve visited out there), where the owner is Australian and the wines have names like “Last Sandwich” and “Haggis Basher”.
Love the story about the County Clare connection!
pieceofpeace
@Martin: Yes, we have same problem in north Big Sur,CA area, with land slides. And Pacifica, on the coast south of SF on the peninsula, they’ve had worsening problems on the ocean’s frontside.
I’ve not read of what, if any, fixes are in the works, either short or long term, but CA coast is usually a priority concern.
dilbert dogbert
My wife’s grand father had a ranch in Creston near Paso. It is now the Cass Winery. If you had toured the Creston area you could have visited the site where L. Ron Hubbard will return to earth. If you had toured the Adeledia winerys, you could have visited my grand father’s grave in the Adeledia cemetery. My late wife was a Morro Bay girl. My current wonder wife was born in SLO. My mother was born up Thunder Canyon near Cayucos. My wife and I have so many connections to the area. We met in the SF Bay Area after our partners died. A pure accidental meeting.
BigJimSlade
Ridge and Tablas Creek – fine choices!