The whirlwind tour of California continued this weekend as Joy and I try to share what her parents have been missing while they’ve been working for the past 25 years in the US. With only two weeks before the retire back in Thailand we took them up north to show them Santa Barbara, Solvang, and some wineries. Of course the mothers were more excited about going to Chumash Casino but still enjoyed all the other things that we got to do as well.
My parents came by our house at 6:30am for the quick 2 hour drive up to North Southern California(?). We got to Solvang around 9am and just in time for breakfast at Paula’s Pancake House where Joy wanted to try their Sweedish Pancakes, and i got my favorite chicken fried steak and eggs. We walked around town and looked at the windmills and all the tasting rooms got our palettes watering.
The mothers were dropped off at the Casino as the fathers accompanied and dd’d our wine tour of the Los Olivos Santa Ynez Valley, CA. Tiffany was very adamant about us checking out Saarloos and Sons for their wine and cupcakes, and it was really simple to find since its the first one you see when you turn onto the main street where all the winery stores are. Lets just say that we started there with our free sample tasting for checking-in on foursquare, and ended there with the full cupcake and wine pairing tasting. We made friends with Keith Saarloos the son of the found and bonded instantly with quick references to Arrested Development and the Office. We also tasted some from Carhartt but found them slightly weaker in flavor than the Saarloos and is why we ended up coming home with three of their bottles.
After we finished we drove down to Ventura for some fried seafood by the marina at Andria’s Seafood Restaurant. We ate plenty of fried fish, fried shrimp and a few bowls of clam chowder. To end the day we did a little shopping at the Camarillo outlets and made it home before 9pm.
