Palm Desert or Bust!

Our first extended trip in the streamer

Day 1

We set out on Saturday November 17th bright and early, and actually on time!  Our destination was Wine Country RV resort in Paso Robles, it took us about 3 hours to pull into our nice spot, spot 84.

After we got settled we headed for a local favorite Restaurant 4 Hermanos for a little late lunch.  We then headed over the hill towards the water on the foggiest night to Hearst Castle.   It was all lit up on the hill.

We made reservations for the night tour a few months before, and the castle was all decorated for Christmas.

We are glad we did the night tour but will for sure be back to do the day tour as well.


Day 2

On our second day in Paso we set out to explore what the area is known for... WINE!

Our first stop was Linne Calodo.  This is one of the two places where we had to make reservations.  They only had one wine to taste and you were unable to purchase anything.  Interesting way to start the day, the girl that worked at the tasting room was nice and let us know that the 2012 harvest was very successful!

Our second stop was Turley, they are known for there very old vine zins.

Next we headed to Hunt, which was just a small tasting room on the side of the road, they had a lot of different wines.

Our next winery we stopped at was La Venture they had some nice blends here, and we got to keep the glass!

We then had a nice warm picnic lunch at Farmstand 46

Our fifth stop of the day was villa creek.  A very small tasting room in their production area.

Next stop was Tablas Creek, where we did a tour of their organic winery.  They do a wine that is similar to the Chateauneuf du Pape due to the soil type that is found in the Paso region

7th winery of the day (who is counting?!) was not a planned one, Adelaida.  I think this one was my favorite, the tasting room employees were very nice and they had a wide variety of wines.

Last stop of the day was Robert Hall, which was conveniently located across the street from the RV park.

We were not super hungry, but wanted to get out and see a bit more of Paso.  We searched yelp and headed to Il Cortile, it was an amazing little italian restaurant filled with locals.

Day 3

We left Paso in the late morning and headed to Flying Flags RV park in Buellton, just the three of us!

We had to make a stop in Santa Maria for some of the world famous tri-tip at Skip Gibsons

We made it to the park in the afternoon.  It was a nice park and we had the FRONT parking spot one of the "super premium sites"  It fit our little streamer just perfect.  We got all set up and Rob and I had to do some work as it was Monday.

Then we headed out to explore the area a bit.  We checked out Los Olivos, and to our surprise it was a whole street of little tasting rooms!  Just what we needed more wine!

For dinner we headed to Andersens, famous for their pea soup! It was ok!

Day 4

We toured Solvang, and started off with some amazing pancakes at Paula's

Then we had some treats at Solvang Restaurant and their famous Aebleskiver

And then headed to our last winery of the trip Alma Rosa, focused mainly on Pinots.

That night we had dinner at the Hitching Post II, made famous by the movie "Sideways"

Day 5

We got up early and made our longest drive to Palm Desert where we spent the next few days.

Rob cooked us one of his famous fried turkeys

and it was very tasty!

We spent the next few days with our family celebrating thanksgiving, with many hours spent in the swimming pool!

Day 8

Mid afternoon we left Palm Desert and headed up I-5 towards Bakersfield.  Rob tried to pick a spot for the night that would be a little off the freeway and a nice place to spend the night.  He picked RiverRun RV park.  We got there just as it was getting dark, unfortunately it was right next to highway 99 and the river was bone dry!  We watched a movie and had some thanksgiving leftovers!

Day 9

We left Bakersfield early and headed home, we made it home around 3pm.  Since it was raining most of our drive down to PD the streamer was a mud mess, so we decided to give it its first bath!  Right in front of the town house!

We had an awesome trip and we cant wait to do it again next year!

When Rob is away....

I "attempt" to make English crumpets!

When we were in England a few weeks ago and staying with Gemma and Wade, I spotted these crumpets in the supermarket.  We took them home and Wade made them for us by putting them in the toaster.  He served them with butter and honey...and they were one of the most amazing things I have ever had!  I just love English food :D

We have looked high and low for store crumpets... but no luck...

Here is my attempt to make them from scratch.....

My dough, resting in a warm place and rising!  It got lots of bubbles in it while the yeast was working

I bought two sets of rings to make the crumpets.  I found the smaller cookie cutter circle to work the best.  You cook it for about 5 minutes with the ring on, then take the ring off and finish them.  They are cooked on both sides, so they do not LOOK exactly like the crumpets from Wade and Gemma's kitchen...but they still look good!

All they need is a little butter and honey!

All wrapped up!  And ready for Rob to come home and try them :D 

Tooot Toooot... Halloween in Santa Cruz

October 27th, 2012 - Santa Cruz Redwoods RV Resort- Felton CA

Site 22

We had taken a little break from the Airstream while we were in Italy, so we were itching to get out on the road again! And it was good practice again before we head out on our week long trip. It was our kitty, Archie's, first time on the streamer. We are not sure if he is as hooked on it as we are, just yet! He is used to the big RV at the grandparents’ house.

We booked just Saturday night at the Santa Cruz RV Resort. We headed to the storage facility Saturday morning, ready to hit the road. But of course...the battery was dead in the AS! So we were unable to move the hitch up to get it to set down on the FJ. We thought for a second... and light bulb...plug the AS into the FJ, BINGO, it worked right away (Rob will look into why the battery went dead at a later time!) We hitched up and made our way to Santa Cruz! After a slightly white knuckle drive over Highway 17 (once considered the most dangerous road in America), we made it to the park. We were a little before check in, but the camp host let us right in! They were terrific hosts, and loved the AS! They assigned us site 22. It was perfect, right next to the river and no one was beside us. It had full hook-ups as well, including internet (albeit a little spotty!). It was very clean, and everyone was friendly, we will definitely be back there!

While Rob got us all hooked up (and decorated for Halloween!), I started lunch! We had croque monsieur (a French version of a ham sandwich) finished off with a sauce and a bit of cheese. They are supposed to be finished in the broiler, but since we do not have an oven... we used the crème brule torch!

We then did a little exploring the campground and the river! One small downside to this campground is that it is very close to the roaring campground... that has a ROARING train that goes through every 45 minutes or so. And they blow their whistle every time as well. We got used to it, but it would wake Archie up everytime!

Then it was time for the Giants! We watched them win game 4 (YAY!!!) of the World Series. We decided we were too full from lunch still to have our planned dinner... so Rob made his super yummy whirly pop again! By this time Archie was out and about, well kind of, he was either sleeping on the back of the couch or sleeping by the door.

Archie was up pretty much all night, jumping around, which surprisingly shook the whole trailer! But in the end, I think he liked it, and will enjoy our week long trip coming up!

Lions and Tigers and Bears... oh MY!

August 24th, 2012 - Mt Madonna - Watsonville, CA

Our first full weekend in the airstream.  We got a bit of a late start on Friday leaving the storage facility all buttoned up around 7pm.  We made it to Mt Madonna a little before it got completely dark.  Our little spot in the RV section looked great.  Rob backed right in, no problem!  As Rob got us leveled, stable and hooked us into our power and water (partial hook-ups) while I got dinner going.  This is our second time in the airstream and we have found that prepping something for dinner on Thursday night and warming it up or finishing it on the airstream Friday night works the best!  This time we had LARGE meatballs and speggetti!  Worked out great.  We jammed the sheets on to the bed and fell fast asleep.  

(in the middle of the night) Ping ping ping ping..."Rob..Rob what is that noise?"  ping ping ping..did we not plug the water into the right spot?? "hummm it must be raining"  I thought that is really weird it is the middle of August in San Jose, there was NO rain in the forecast.  It was supposed to be 90 degrees.  Oh well... we shouldn't have put the awning up...should have brought pants and shoes instead of shorts and flip flops...so we had our first night of rain.  

We got up bright and early Saturday morning to the rain still really coming down.  We turned on the local Salinas news, the weatherman came on and said it was going to be 75 and clear skies... we looked outside and it was still raining...there were no clear skies! We even saw people building fires... we were like oh thats too bad that they have to build a fire in the rain!

Our view....

So Rob made a run for the car to pull out a few breakfast items and this is what he found...

As you can see it is only soaking wet MUD back by the trailer.. the FJ was barely wet!!!  And here we thought we were in a hurricane the night before!  Well come to find out it was just tropical storm campsite 112.  There was a redwood tree right beside us, that caught the clouds and dumped ONLY on our campsite.  ALL the other spots were completely dry!!  Now we know!  Even people came by and told us on Saturday about the clouds....too little too late!  

Once we dried out a little we ventured out to Watsonville.

We then made our way back to Mt Madonna and watched some of the Little League World Series... I know right?!?!... and had our Veuve christening! :)

Then we watched some Nascar...keeping with the airstream style we had our Veuve while watching Nascar with our new champagne flutes!

But then we decided we were CAMPING...so we should go outside and enjoy the beautiful outdoors

Oh wait this is GLAMPING!  Who needs an outdoor TV?  We can see NASCAR through the window!  With the campfire roaring! (You can see we tried to pull the airstream into the dry area for the second night!) 

Rob made an amazing dinner on Saturday night.  We stopped by a butcher during the day and pick up some marinated tri-tip.  We also picked up some brussel sprouts and grilled those on the fire.

But our SPECIAL treat for the night was Robs new purchase....a whirly pop!  I was a bit hesitant to have such a uni-tasker in our very small space.  But I was wrong... it was the BEST popcorn I have ever had!  (whenever Rob cooks he pulls out the smoke detector battery! that is what is hanging down in the picture!  Dont worry we put it right back once we are done cooking!) 

We had a great second weekend!  It will be a bit before we get back out, but we can't wait.  I think we have the whole towing thing down now.  We hitched up on our first try a couple times now and I think we have the airstream fully stocked, so we just need to grab some clothes and we are off! 

Casa de Fruta Casa Di Fruta..la la la

August 18th, 2012 - Casa de Fruta RV Park - Hollister CA

After pulling out of the dealership we drove about 50 miles to Casa de Fruta.  Rob did a wonderful job of driving over Pacheco Pass.  We pulled into the campground, checked in and pulled into our first site (a nice pull-thru!)  And score! the hook ups were on the correct side!  We undid the hitch and Rob pulled forward (just a little) so that we could practice re-hitching in the morning!

Rob got us all plugged into power, water and cable and put out our Zip Dee awning and even our cool little awning lights!

I started cleaning the inside and setting up.  It is so small, but we found a place for everything. We went for a little walk, did some wine tasting at Casa de Wine, then came back for some cheese and crackers and AIR CONDITIONING it was over 100 degrees at Casa de Fruta.  

A little later we started making dinner.  On the menu for our first real night in the airstream was a heirloom tomato salad with fresh mozzarella and homemade hamburger helper.  One of my first memories on our family boat when I was little was my mom making tuna noodle helper, I LOVED that stuff.  Now 22 years later I am not the biggest fan of canned tuna and I didnt think the box stuff was classy enough for the Airstream. So we made a version from scratch.  It turned out pretty good!  We were going to go back and get a pie from Casa de Fruta but it was dark and we were exhausted and cable TV and the AC were just to good to walk away from!  We tried out the wet bath for the first time (worked better then expected!) Much better night of sleep the second night! 

We got up Sunday morning feeling great!  Tent camping has been fun over the last 10 years, but nothing compares to having your own bathroom, shower, sheets, a duvet, TV, power for laptops and most importantly in Hollister, air-conditioning!  We are hooked and loving the Airstream.  Rob made amazing "Rob McMuffins" one of his specialties that won me over back in our courtship days!  We did one more thorough cleaning (which only takes about 30 minutes including washing the floor on my hands and knees...Rob said the mop was too big!)  Rob got us all un-hooked and we dumped the tank.    

Then the nail biting part came... would we be able to get it hitched back up?!!?  I looked around and decided that if all these people could do it... so could we! and we (or mainly Rob) did it.  We did a couple practice rounds of backing up in the empty camp spaces (we still need some more practice).  Then we hit the road! 

We got to our storage unit, unhitched, did our final check and said "We will see you next weekend!"