Day Trip!

We took a great little last-minute day trip yesterday with all the friends for Hubby's birthday. We gathered together early in the day and made our way up north. It was a fairly rough start - we left late, we had a sick passenger, we got a speeding ticket. I wasn't sure how this going to turn out.
We stopped in Santa Barbara for some eats and since we were already running late, we didn't get to spend much time there. We had wanted to hang out and eat ice cream and shop, but we had other places to be, so we pretty much ate and ran. We drove up a little further to Los Olivos where they have the prettiest scenery and some really nice wineries. I think each of us mentioned at least once how nice it would be to move there. We could start a winery of our own and be rich and just live in the beautiful area. Good idea, huh?

Anyway, our first stop was Firestone Winery. I've been there a few times (due to the nature of my last job) and wanted everyone else to see it, since they have such a nice tasting room and they do a pretty decent tour. You get to see the vineyard, where they crush the grapes, where they store the wine and get some history and how it all began. Its a really cool little place. After Firestone, we had time for just one more winery, so we went up the road to Fess Parker. That winery was beautiful! They have a big open grassy area where you can sit and relax or maybe have a picnic. Everyone seemed to enjoy the wine and the atmosphere. I think this may be something we will have to do again.

The next location on the list was Chumash Indian Casino. It's about 20 minutes from the wineries and once we got there, we had some mixed luck. A third of the group ended up winning, a third ended up losing and a third ended up about even. We only gambled for like an hour and decided to quit while we were ahead (or not) and go get some dinner. We drove into Solvang, a very charming little Danish town. All the buildings look like something you'd find in Europe - windmills and all. We ate at an adorable little place called Little Mermaid. I say adorable, but let me explain. When we first walked up, it looked a little scary and dumpy honestly. We all sort of looked around like "Are we sure we want to eat here?" I know everyone was having second thoughts. But the women working inside were very sweet - Danish costumes and all - and the food seemed almost home made. We ended up having a lovely time there.

It was the perfect ending to what turned out to be a great day. PHEW!