California Trip, September 2014

Monday, September 22

Went wine-tasting today, up the Foxen Canyon Road. I was surprised at how desolate it was. People don't think of desert usually when they think of California. They think of vineyards and beaches, raisins and giant sequoias. But this is desert, dry grass, dust, and scrubby live oak scattered here and there. And then, through the magic of irrigation, vineyards across the dry valley.

Foxen Canyon Road, driving past vineyards. The one in the foreground
is a fairly new vineyard, not yielding much yet.

Since I was taking cough medicine, I wasn't able to do much wine tasting, but we stopped at some interesting tasting shacks. Not crowded at all, nothing like Napa or Sonoma Valley.

Rancho Sisquoc winery

I think our favorite wine tasting experience was at Demetria Vineyards. It was a long drive through basically nothing to get there, but the setting was shady and beautiful, and it reminded us very much of Tuscany in Italy.

Demetria Vineyards. This was the view from where we sat at a
table in the shade sipping wine.

Our strangest sight today was a tarantula. As we departed Demetria, he crawled across the road in front of us, a chilling thing to see. We stopped and took pictures.

Tarantula. He was probably about 4 inches across. Big and wooly. {shiver}

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