Matthew's web log

For the long 4th of July weekend, we spent some time on the Central Coast.  After learning that Santa Barbara is a lot further than it seems like it should be, we settled on staying in Santa Maria, about an hour closer.  It’s a bit past San Luis Obispo that we visited a few years ago.  The central attraction in the area are the numerous wineries, but we squeezed in hiking and sightseeing as well.

On our first day, we headed towards the Oceano Dunes Recreational Area.  This is primarily an area for ATV’s, but there is a preserve adjacent that is vehicle free, protected, and open to hikers.  The dunes are upwards of 500 feet of sand, so this isn’t your ordinary beach.  It was more of a struggle to find the hiking zone than it should have been, but we made it in through a back way and were delighted with a nearly empty place.  Lots of sand and one of the more unique things to be hiking through.  The photos don’t do it justice.

After a lunch stop, we went to the town of Arroyo Grande for lunch and, more importantly, a stop at Doc Bernstein’s Ice Cream Lab.  Doc’s does have times when they design new flavors before your eyes, but today it was just a regular ice cream shop with phenomenal ice cream.  The oreo cookie mint ice cream was fantastic.   After ice cream, we did a short walking tour of the downtown area.

With full stomachs, we headed back towards Santa Maria to a winery (McKeon-Phillips) that was listed on the AAA winery map.  It was really a hole in the wall in an industrial section of town.  We were surprised that there were others there and that the wine was actually good.  After our wine tasting, we returned to the hotel for showers and then went for dinner. 

On our second full day, we started at the La Purisima Mission State Historic Part, the location of another California Mission.  This one has an informative visitor center and we then tour the grounds and buildings.  The buildings were rebuilt in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corp since the original ones were destroyed in an 1812 earthquake.

After a quick pizza lunch in the nearby town of Lompoc (surely you’ve heard of it), we head to a wine tasting room that is not too far away.  We enjoyed our wine at dinner last night and found that the winery was virtually on the way to our next stop.  And how could we not go to a winery called Flying Goat whose winemaker is also the “Chief Goat herder”? 

Following wine tasting, we went to Solvang whose claim to fame is that it is a Danish town in the middle of California.  Being inland, it’s hot – 100 degrees.  As the cliché goes, it’s a “dry heat”, but 100 is hot regardless.  We wander the streets (which feel like Epcot center) and then do a tour of another mission,  Mission Saint Ines.    This one is a mix of original and rebuilt, but is interesting nonetheless.  It was damaged in the same earthquake that destroyed the La Purisima Mission. 

Now that we are good and hot, I get a scoop of ice cream to cool off before we depart for some afternoon wine tasting.  This time we’re going on the Foxen Canyon trail of wineries. It’s getting late and the wineries close early so we only had time to stop at Fess Parker.  As Lionel Hutz used to say, you might remember him from such TV characters as Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone.  The wine here was also good. 

Stopping at the hotel to shower, we then go for dinner in Pismo Beach.  We finally had a really good meal on the trip as we dined at the Ventana Grill.  Service was a little slow, but the food was good and the fog cleared out for a spectacular ocean view. 

For our last day, we started our way north with a stop in San Luis Obispo and a hike up Bishop’s Peak.  It was a well graded, moderately steep climb of 1000 feet over two miles.  The view from the top was good, but we are so used to hiking in cool weather, that the mid 70s and full sun felt hot. 

We have lunch in SLO and then make one final wine tasting stop on the way home.  L’ did some research and found a well rated winery on yelp.  Their website is quite entertaining so we figure we should check it out (my comment was that they must smoke a lot of good cork).  The bathroom at Le Cuvier Winery confirmed their funkiness. The wines are mostly unusual blends, but they also include food with the tasting and we enjoyed a few of the vintages. 

It’s now time to return home as the three day weekend comes to a close.  We had a fun time on the central coast and are returning home with our biggest haul from a wine region. 

See all the photos here:

http://sanjoseabrams.com/photos/SantaMariaJuly2011/