California Trip Part 2: Big Sur

Last Thursday, we left Paso Robles and drove west and up the coast to southern Big Sur to Treebones Resort, where we had booked a 3 night stay. Keeper and I had been to Treebones 3 summers ago (again on our Tour de CA) but we camped both nights. This time around, each couple booked campsites for one night and separate yurts for the next two nights. Treebones is awesome; the views are beautiful, the staff is friendly (hippies usually are) and it is very relaxing. There is no TV and although the lodge boasts free WiFi, it only worked in certain spots so I was lucky to check email once a day on Keeper's iphone.

The first night there, we pitched our tents, cracked open some of our Paso wine (and beer for the boys) and snacked on our gourmet cheeses. We then headed to the on-site sushi bar (new addition to Treebones since we'd last been) and had a fabulous dinner. After dinner we enjoyed some more wine and played Apples to Apples at Karen & Mike's campsite before calling it a night.

The next morning, Keeper snapped some pictures peering out of our tent...just gorgeous. We had breakfast at the lodge and then packed up our campsites, left some of our stuff to be transported to our yurts, and then headed up the road to Limekiln State Park for some light hiking. Keeper and I had been to this park 3 summers ago, but it was so pretty we wanted to come back. We did the hike to the kilns and then the hike to the waterfalls and then hiked down to the beach for awhile. We had our picnic lunch at the park and then drove north to Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park. This park has an AMAZING McWay Falls/Overlook trail with a waterfall that pours onto the beach. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. We ended up doing more sushi for dinner Friday night and then hung out in Mike and Karen's yurt for the evening, drinking wine and playing board games.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at the lodge again, then headed south to the Salmon Creek Trailhead to do some hardcore hiking. We headed up the Salmon Creek Trail with intentions of hiking to Estrella Camp and back for a total of 6.5 miles. The trail was very steep (the first mile completely uphill) with amazing views. Our friends were not that into the hike so we split up about a half mile through and Keeper and I continued on our own. We got to the first camp (Spruce Camp) which was 2 miles in, crossed the creek (on rocks), saw some waterfalls...and then noticed the trail got VERY steep with no vegetation...just rocks on a landslide area...and we decided no one needed to slide to their death on a dangerous trail...so we had lunch at Spruce Camp and headed back down the mountain. When we got back to the bottom, we scrambled down the boulders to meet up with our friends who were hanging out at Salmon Creek Falls. This was a really short trail and it was very crowded. We didn't get that close to the actual falls/swimming hole because there were loads of drunk teenagers crowding up the swimming hole....booo... We decided to head back to Treebones to enjoy the hot tub and take a nap.

Dinner turned out to be a pleasant surprise of a very reasonably priced BBQ (Keeper got the steak, I had freshly seared ahi tacos). We were also treated to a live blues duo outside of the lodge. We hung out and watched the hippies dance for a little while, then played some more games in the yurt and called it a night. We got up early the next morning and headed back to Phoenix. It was a great trip and we were sad to leave California.

California Trip Part 1: Paso Robles

We decided to plan one last west coast vacation before we moved back east. Back in early spring we decided to use our tax return money on a trip to California. We decided to go with another couple, our good friends Karen & Mike. Since we absolutely LOVED Big Sur when we went 3 summers ago as part of our big 2 week CA vacation, we knew we wanted to return (and bring our friends). Keeper suggested Paso Robles for a night on the way out to Big Sur. Wine country? Count me in!!!! I did an initial Internet search for Paso Robles bed and breakfasts... and stumbled upon Bella Collina. Instead of a traditional bed and breakfast, it was a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom guest house that is part of a winery. At a very reasonable price to split between 2 couples, we decided to book it...and what the heck, go for 2 nights instead of one.


We drove out to Paso Robles last Tuesday and the trip took a little over 9 hours. Bella Collina Vineyards was located just a mile outside of town on top of a hill and it was gorgeous. Paso was having very hot weather (in the high 90's) but no humidity and a strong breeze so it felt good to us desert dwellers. Bobbie (the owner) was a sweet older woman who met us, showed us the house and gave us suggestions on some wineries. The guest house was awesome; really clean, spacious, and cute. It was cool to be her only guests too...everything (meals, snacks, etc) was catered to us...not a group of strangers in a bed and breakfast. We went to Robert Hall first and were VERY impressed with everything we tasted. Bobbie was kind enough to call ahead for us, as Robert Hall is a personal friend of hers. We got to use her "club discount" which amounted to free tastings for all of us and 20% off the wine we bought. We each bought 3 bottles :)

Afterwards we went back to Bobbie's where she met us with a wonderful snack of bread and olive oil (she makes her own) and a bottle of her Cabernet Sauvignon. It was delicious. We also got some restaurant tips and decided to go to Basil Thai in Paso Robles. The food was great and we headed back to the vineyards to call it a night. The next morning everyone got up early and we were out the door by 6:45 am. Mike and I wanted to run and Karen and Keith drove into town to walk around the square and get coffee for everyone. I had a gorgeous run through the rolling hills of wine country. I saw deer, plenty of birds, and just took in the awesome cool morning weather and scenery. Although super hilly, my 7 mile run was fabulous. After everyone met back up again at Bobbie's we had a breakfast feast on her patio. She is an amazing cook and there is nothing like a huge, fresh breakfast after a hard run.

We took some more winery suggestions from Bobbie and decided to go to Lone Madrone and Ken Volk, since both share a tasting room space. We tasted at the Lone Madrone counter, then walked around the corner and tasted at Ken Volk. We liked both. We had our picnic lunch outside the tasting rooms and then Karen and I dropped Keith and Mike off at Firestone Walker Brewery. They had been planning/talking about this part of the trip for MONTHS. They were so excited. We took the car and headed to River Oaks Hot Springs Spa for our previously booked "winemakers package". We each got a 60 minutes massage and then shared an hour in a hot tub full of natural hot springs water complimented by a small bottle of red wine. Heaven!! After the spa, we picked up the boys, who had a GREAT time drinking beer all afternoon and went back to Bobbie's for an arugula and baked goat cheese salad and a bottle of her award winning Viogner. We decided to go to Thomas Hill Organics in Paso Robles for dinner and were not disappointed.

On our last morning in Paso, I got up early and had another fabulous 7 mile run followed by another fabulous breakfast made by Bobbie. We took some pictures out on her patio with the rose garden and then packed up our stuff and said goodbye. We stopped in town at a little cheese shop to pick up some goodies for Big Sur and then drove to Le Vigne Winery to do one more wine tasting before heading to the coast. Le Vigne was cool in that you could do a normal tasting OR you could to a 5 wine tasting paired with 5 cheeses OR a 5 wine tasting paired with 5 CHOCOLATES. Keeper and I both did the chocolate and it was AMAZING. None of us bought any wine here but Karen and I did buy some chocolate :) We had another picnic lunch outside this winery and then...








headed for Big Sur.