Wine Camp Podcast

Castles, Caves & Breakfast Wine – A Wine Camp Adventure in Paso Robles

• Niel and Monica • Season 2 • Episode 3

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In this episode of Wine Camp, we packed our curiosity (and our corkscrew) for a trip to Paso Robles that turned into pure wine country magic. What started as a casual weekend became a swirl of unexpected moments — a spontaneous stop at a tasting room on the town square to kick things off, “breakfast wine”, a surprise cave tour deep beneath a winery, and. Add in a castle visit, beach town wanderings, twinkling lights, and a few classic Wine Camp shenanigans, and you’ve got one unforgettable Central Coast adventure. Pour a glass and come along for the ride. This one’s equal parts vino and adventure!

#AustinHopeWines #TroublemakerWine #XLVWine #laventurewine #Tincity #WineTasting #WinePairing #Vino #CaliforniaWine

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Music: Windows Rolled Down by The 126ers, Wes Hutchinson
Windows Rolled Down - The 126ers Wes Hutchinson % - Free Music Download For Creators (happysoulmusic.com)

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Wine Camp. Welcome back. We're back. I'm Monica.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm Neil.

SPEAKER_01:

And we took a road trip.

SPEAKER_00:

We did. Full of shenanigans. Yes, we did. Uh Pasarobles. Yes. End of September we went to Paso Robles, which is without stops, like five hours from here. So is it that long of a drive? Yeah. It went by so fast. It was because we were talking the whole time. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Even we had lots of stops. Even when we got in that loop on the way back, we'll get to that later.

SPEAKER_00:

Monica has a uh has a map in her mind of where all the Starbucks are.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so we hit the road. Um oh Paso Robles. So don't come at us, Paso Robles, Paso Robles, Paso Robles, I don't know. The locals say Paso Robles.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh who am I to argue with a local? Right. So it's on the central coast of California, which is like the perfect weather conditions. It's more inland, so it's a little it gets hot, but it is you know 30 minutes from being at the ocean.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And we spent a lot of time there.

SPEAKER_01:

We did. We spent a lot of time in town. In town. And at the ocean.

SPEAKER_00:

And at the ocean.

SPEAKER_01:

We did a lot. So okay, so we headed down, and it was, it just happened to be the day after the uh uh the rapture. The rapture.

SPEAKER_00:

Neither of us were raptured, right? I don't think that comes as a shock to anybody. It certainly wasn't a shock to me.

SPEAKER_01:

We talked a little bit, I told you. Um I did check social media to make sure my pastor was still around. Yeah. And I checked on you. So we know that was a false prophet. Um but the rapture, you we're not supposed to know when it's gonna happen anyway. Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

And we were we, you know, what what really happened is we were recording ourselves driving down there because we thought, let's just try that as part of the road trip. But um, you know, technical difficulties, which is super unfortunate because we were freaking hilarious on the way down talking about the rapture and all sorts of other stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

But we we are boomers since we think that's to be expected. That's right. Even we stopped to eat lunch on the way down, and we stopped at the Scottish restaurant. Yes, McDonald's. McDonald's. And uh we tried to use the mobile app.

SPEAKER_00:

It was very difficult.

SPEAKER_01:

We had a little kerfuffle.

SPEAKER_00:

We tr we tried to get a hold of tech support, but they were at work, so they they couldn't help us.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god. Yeah, the time it took us to make our orders on the mobile app.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, gosh. I mean and not just one order, two, because I had uh get a Big Mac free on the app. I'm like woot woot woot. So I placed my order and ordered a uh a soda also, but all I got was a soda because apparently I did it wrong. So then I had to place another order to get my Big Mac, but you had to order uh I have a minimum like a dollar fifty order with it or something. So I had to order fries. I don't even eat the fries, which they have great fries, don't get me wrong. But anyway, so I ended up spending more money than I needed to just to get the free Big Mac. It was stupid.

SPEAKER_01:

Because we really had our own drinks already, yeah. Water, coffee, whatever in the car. But no, we had to get the jacket.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it was a road trip, so and I love a road trip. Oh, snaps for snacks. Yeah, because no calories count when you're on a road trip. So we were loaded for bear. We had stuff in there that I haven't had in years. I'm like, oh, now we're gonna have to have some candy and we're gonna crackers of it, meat and cheese and slami, and we had um snacky things and all the protein bars just to offset all that other stuff. Right, you know, and fruit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, yep, and we probably had two dozen liquid IVs. Yes, because we both brought enough for both of us, not knowing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that was used zero of everything. Because we were walking around going, oh let's let's have lunch there. Yeah, let's stop here, let's stop there. Anyway, but we eventually made it to Paso Rules, also known as Paso.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And um we had a nice little hotel room. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So complimentary wine every night.

SPEAKER_00:

And we're talking, oh, and then we have a new stage, you know. We've discussed before the Napa pore, the sonoma pour the amador pour and the backyard pour. I'm gonna tell you that that hotel poured somewhere between uh Amador and Backyard.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was huge. Those were big pours. Um, yeah, so uh the wine was decent at the hotel for being hotel complimentary wine. And I understand the owner has an interest in wine, either he makes it or he, I don't know, something the owner. But this wasn't his wine. That's what they told me at the desk. Oh, it was his wine. That's why they had the wine on tap. Oh, which says a lot, right? That means it's a big vat of it underneath the cabinet. I did not see a box under the cabinet when she opened it.

SPEAKER_00:

She was having trouble getting it going. Um, yeah. I think she was having trouble turning it off.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, really poor, clearly. I mean, they were to the rim. It was funny. That's how my husband pours a glass of wine. On the rare occasion.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a mega glass of wine, right? Like a Johnny Depp testimony type of thing. It's a mega glass of wine.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

So we yeah, we finally made it to to Pascal Robles and got checked in at the hotel, and then we decided, hey, let's go to the downtown square. It's on the on the park, which like all these little old towns have, up and down the ghost. And so we were uh going there, we were gonna go get some dinner and just kind of look around. We had we had a couple places that we wanted to go. One was we wanted to try this wine called Troublemaker, right? Because my son, the professional bass fisherman, he travels with a guy who um is sponsored by Troublemaker.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So we get all these little this little bits of information. You gotta go try Troublemaker.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you gotta go there. They're really good. It's um it's made by um this uh Austin Hope fellow. And so anyway, we we're like, yeah, that okay, but that's one of the places we want to go. So we start off walking around the square. Oh, we've got like 50 feet. I mean, I start off, we literally just started off, we parked and stepped on the sidewalk. Yeah. And I'm like, well, looky Monica. A bar. It's not just a bar, it's a tasting room. Yeah, a window on the world, a window on the park. And that's really all it was. It's like they threw up the metal um um like a garage door. Like a garage door, and voila, a tasting room.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was like a like a tasting bar right there on the sidewalk. It reminded me a little bit of when I was in New Orleans many, many years ago, there were bars, and I'm using air quotes. Um, basically it was like a closet. The guy would open the door and he had a keg with a counter, like a plywood counter. Uh, and he had a sign that said cheap ass beer is two dollars.

SPEAKER_00:

And I don't know why it seems much more charming in Italy when they have a little little little like teeny tiny door, little like like like a cupboard door. Yeah, and you knock on it. And you can get a glass of wine or or an affogato or something like that. But we so anyway, we went and we said, Hey, let's taste some wine. There were a lot of other people doing that. And it turned out it was the Austin Hope tasting room. So we got our troublemaker and I don't know what else I bought. What else did I buy? I bought a couple of I bought some other wine too. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01:

Because I was starting out strong. Right. So we sat there and chatted with um Jody. Jody. Jody and Allie. And Allie, right, right. Yeah, very sweet ladies. Yeah, and that place is called Hope on Park. Yes. We did pick up one of their pamphlets. Um, anyway, they were absolutely still lovely.

SPEAKER_00:

So and the people that we were chatting with while we were there. Oh, there is just something very uh communal about uh, you know, tasting wine. You just can chat with anybody. Yes. And um you know what else they do? I don't know if you picked up on this, Monica. It's like if you wanted to just get a little glass of wine, they'd put it in a to-go cup, and you can take it, no lid, over to the park and drink it at the park.

SPEAKER_01:

They did have a lid. Oh, did they have a lid? They did have a lid so you don't spill in the park? Right, right, right. Little plastic glass of wine with a lid, and you could get it to go. And they also made some wine cocktails there. So it was we didn't have those, but very curious. But yeah, speaking of the people that we chatted with, but remember Pam? I yes, a lovely lady, super sweet. She was telling us, I think she moved down here from the Bay Area, I think, and then she was telling us about a woman she knows. And I'm not gonna name names because I accidentally said Pam's name already.

SPEAKER_00:

You didn't give her a last name. No, I did not. Pam Wink.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. She was telling this funny story. I don't even know how we got on the subject, but this little old lady, relative of hers, who had been out walking her dog or something, or at the grocery store. She was at the grocery store, and this young man, I think the woman is in her 80s. Yes. And this young man at the grocery store, you know, made eye contact with her, smiled and said hello with a big smile. And she smiled and said hello right back, and then she told Pam later, basically, I think I still got it because I think I wanted to with him.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think she was like pushing 90 or something. Good for her. You go, girl. Good for you. Oh my god, how did we get I don't know. That's the thing. When you're in these places, first off, the alcohol's flowing. Right. And so so are the words. It's just it just goes hand in hand.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, let's see. Once the wine starts flowing, yeah, I think lose lips. But she was cute.

SPEAKER_00:

Another thing about Austin Hope, they have the best wine-carrying bags.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, we definitely have to put a picture of that bag on the window.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh, it's the best bag. It's like a really heavy-duty felt. Yeah. And then like a leather air quotes, I guess. A strap on it. Yeah. It's like the best bag ever.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's bright orange.

SPEAKER_00:

Bright orange.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

I use it for my trick-or-treating bag. Or you can look around and peep at the neighborhood and people can fill it up with wine.

SPEAKER_01:

Four or six. I don't remember how many it helped. Oh, yeah, that's perfect. Another thing about Austin Hope is Jody took us into the back room. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That location where they curate just amazing wine experiences.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh. Because it looks like it's just that front, right? The countertop and you know, a little place for you to stand and taste the wine. But behind the door, it's like the Wizard of Oz is back there, right? And beautiful. They, like you said, they have so many tastes and experiences. They have different rooms, different um seating areas. And you it's amazing all the different ways that you you have to experience their wine. Right. In a private setting.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I'm sure you have to make reservations for those experiences.

SPEAKER_00:

We didn't even get to the winery itself. Yeah. We just went to that place.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So then we went to dinner. Yes. And we had dinner at a little restaurant called Taste. So good. Yeah. Okay. So we weren't that hungry because we had had Scottish food for lunch. That's right.

SPEAKER_00:

Who knew Scottish food could be so filling?

SPEAKER_01:

The big Mackin Fright. And then uh so we weren't that hungry. So we were looking at the menu. Everything looked so good.

SPEAKER_00:

And and this place is like a recommended place too. It's right on the on the square. Um, and we'd heard about it before, so we were pretty happy when we could get a table. Oh, key note though, we were there, we started midweek. Oh, yeah. So we didn't have to worry about weekend crowds or anything.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So yeah, so that's probably why we got right in there for dinner. And I remember looking at the menu, and they had not one, not two, three or four different Brussels sprouts. Four types of Brussels sprouts. And you and I do love us some Brussels sprouts. We do indeed. So uh, you know, we decided to get a couple appetizers. We thought, man, should we get a third one?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we really went back and forth on it and decided let's just get two to start.

SPEAKER_01:

And we got water because at that point we'd been tasting it Austin Hope. It's important to stay hydrated.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh who I have never seen a full meal of Brussels sprouts. Fat flatter was huge and piled high.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And it was delicious. And I'm trying to think, so they were uh um the Brussels sprouts were roasted. Yeah. And they had on uh we substituted the cheese that they had for a goat cheese.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right. It was gonna be feta.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was gonna be feta, which is fine. But we used uh waitress recommended uh substituting it for goat cheese for a more mild flavor, and I believe there's probably some balsamic involved. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01:

And I don't remember what else was on that.

SPEAKER_00:

And there was all sorts of it was delicious. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So we had um a full meal of Brussels sprows, and then we ordered the brie.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes again.

SPEAKER_01:

My god charcuterie board.

SPEAKER_00:

It's important to get your protein in the form of cheese, I guess. It was a full charcuterie board. It was huge. Yeah. So uh it was, I mean, honestly, when I think of like let's get an appetizer, you know, they're usually like small plate, right? Maybe they used to be appetizers and then they came along with appetizers and small plates. And now they now there's just options. So but these appetizers were like for a crowd. Yeah. It was a platter, like a I wish we'd had some warning.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh we didn't eat it.

SPEAKER_00:

Because we left a lot of it behind.

SPEAKER_01:

We did, because we didn't have anywhere to save it. Um, but there was a family next to us, and I looked over at what they were eating, and I guess they just had regular plates of food because it looked very normal. But anyway, it was delicious. I highly recommend it. Taste taste. Yeah, so we went there, and then what else did we do?

SPEAKER_00:

We went to a speakeasy. We sure did. How fun was that?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, that was my first time ever doing that.

SPEAKER_00:

And we've been talking about doing that three times, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Do a circle, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's like do the secret handshake, all this. Yeah. We went to the speakeasy, and um what was crazy about it is like I was like, let's, you know, I thought we were just going through the hoops, right? Knock, yeah, they open the door, you know, all this cryptic stuff, and but no, they you knock, they open the door, and they go, We'll be back. I was like, oh, okay. Because I'm like, they must be having to clean a table. Yeah, no, but we walked in, it wasn't a big place at all. But it was moody.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was very cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, and we had to give up our phones. Yes, that was hard, not not for any reason other than uh do I know you?

SPEAKER_01:

I wanted to take pictures. I know I wanted pictures.

SPEAKER_00:

We think you're gonna give some stranger my phone, but we don't give the stranger our phone.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no.

SPEAKER_00:

So they take it and they put it in this uh rubbery envelope of a thing, and then latch it close, and it's like when you go to, I don't know, Kohl's and they have the magnetic lock on the clothes, so it goes beep, beep, beep, beep. Um, it's like that. And so they have to have the apparatus to open it. So then they give it back to you, you know, and and you're just sitting there with this phone you can't access. And yeah, we kept wanting to access our phones because uh we want to look stuff up, right? We want to take a picture, but Monica, tell tell the listeners why they don't want you to have your phone. Well, hell, I don't know why. Oh shoot. That was like bumble bleed. Um because they want you to be in the moment. Oh my god. What is in your water bottle? Is it water? Is it what? Austin Hope. No, they want you to be in the moment and experience because even the bartenders are pretty much in character and very engaging because it was so intimate.

SPEAKER_01:

Such an well, and we got seated at the bar, which was very cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Which is I really like I like to sit at a bar. Yeah. I mean, it's fun when you have a huge group to be at your table and but if it's just a couple of people, sit at the bar. You engage with the bartenders, you engage with the other people at the bar. It's again more community-based.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. So the bartender was, you know, very chatty. And yeah, there we sat with our phones locked in these bag pouch things. Um, kept saying, Oh, we should look, oh, can't do that. Can't look that up, can't do this. Get a picture, can't do that. Oh my god, we should take a picture of us.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, we can't take a picture of it.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like it took me a minute to let go of that.

SPEAKER_00:

But once you do, it's really nice to to disconnect because you do get engaged easier with other people. There aren't distractions and you do get to be in the moment. I think there's also this heightened sense, uh, well, heightened senses because they made some unique drinks at this bar. I had a grasshopper just because I felt like well, that's kind of trendy for the you know, speakeasy type of thing. But then they had a slew of old fashions which are super popular again.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I had the like maple pecan, I had the butter pecan old fashioned. Yeah. And I'm not really a whatever's in that distilled bourbon.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not not distilled alcohol, it's not your thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, not really. But that was good. It was so good that I had another one the next night at the restaurant that's in front of that that it's attached to.

SPEAKER_00:

And they they um so they, you know, like crispied up, burnt up some cinnamon. Yeah. And then they um, I don't know, they smoked some other stuff in underneath the cake on like it's like a cake platter. So on the wood on top. A cloche. I don't care. It's the lid of a cake plate. I don't care what you call it. I'm like, I'm like, at my house, that's a cake plate with a lid, glass dome on it. A wooden base and the glass glass.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a cake platter. No, it's a it's a cloche. It's a wooden base with a cloche, yeah. That we set things on fire with a couple of things. Or you could put a cake in it.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, but that was a really it was it's a whole presentation when they do it. I mean, they really go through the the moves on.

SPEAKER_01:

And it was good. Um you know when when you talked about how they came to the door, we knocked on the door, the front door, the woman came to the door, and she how many, and she goes, I'll be right back. It was a little Wizard of Oz-ish. And then the smoke and magic and stuff the bartender was doing behind the bar. That was kind of cool too. Um, yeah, a little bit it was moody, like you said, very moody. It was cool.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, and they had like um little snugs where people were like sitting in, you know, like a booth. Yeah, snug.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that's a new word, but that's a very cool word.

SPEAKER_00:

A snug is like um I learned this when I went to Ireland. Oh back in the day, like you know, a hundred something years ago, right? Um, oh, and the women would go to the bar, they can be really seen if they put them in a little tiny like alcove room. Snug. And so people will go into snugs and have like private conversations and and all that. So yeah. I think I saw something like that. Pinky blinders, probably. Pinky blinders. A man with the big red hat or whatever. Yeah, that was cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, snug. Yeah. Plether of useless information. Okay, so the speake was called 1122 speakeasy. And it's behind Pappy McGregor's. And Pappy McGregor's is right, well, look it up on Google it.

SPEAKER_00:

Listen, if you went to the square, you'd see the sign that said, Oh, Pappy McGregor's. But you walk, you you I guess you can walk through Pappy McGregor's.

SPEAKER_01:

To go to the back side of the building.

SPEAKER_00:

Backside, but if you want to get into the speakeas, you have to go outside onto that other st down the alley. Yeah. Down an alley. Yeah, we did have to go down. Um and then to the other street.

SPEAKER_01:

In the hood of Paso Robles. So the next day. Oh, we went to Cambria to go walk around.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, we did.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that little town too. It's such a cute little town. Yeah. On the between Paso and the ocean, somewhere.

SPEAKER_00:

That's actually, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's such a cute little town. We did do that. We wandered through there a little bit. Um shops. We also went to Cayucos. Oh, but the day we went to Cambria, after we did that, we went and toured Hearst Castle. Oh, was that's the day we went to because then we drove to San uh San Simeon, where Hearst Castle is. You know, for me it was a special treat because um I've been to these places before, but you haven't. I felt like quite the tour guide. Yes, you was. You were cool. Uh Hearst Castle, man. It's it's the uh it's the summer cottages of Rhode Island on the west coast. You know, it's those it's those big big mansion type things.

SPEAKER_01:

So opul. He was so over the top and opulent and wasteful.

SPEAKER_00:

Interesting thing that they said on that tour was that uh after his dad died, his mom was withholding the money from him because she was afraid that he would spend it foolishly and waste it all. And he did. I mean, though it's the stuff he hauled in from Europe to build this place and the amount of times that they redid the construction to to modify. I mean, the change orders on that must have been crazy. But the view's spectacular. It is. Um, I was surprised that so we went to uh the pool that's below the tennis court. Yes, and it's a gorgeous indoor indoor pool, um, lots of beautiful tile and gold. Lots of gold.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, but uh not only was that for the use of the gas, but also the staff could use that pool. I was very surprised by that. But hey, it's probably really hard to get people to come all the way out to San Simeon and and work like that back then. There was very little the transportation wasn't easy. And and uh what did the bus stars?

SPEAKER_01:

So you you drive up to the visitor center, it's now run by the state parks, but yes, it's five miles of a windy road up the hill on a bus that gets right up on the edge. Yes, and there are some precarious and what I also loved about going to visit that is I remembered that there's a tie between the William Randolph Hearst and New Clairvaux Winery. That's right. Which uh I don't know what episode it is, but we had a couple of episodes on the New Clairvaux Winery where um the Trappist Cistercian monks have a monastery, and there's a story. If you want to hear the whole story, go listen to um those episodes. But uh Hearst is the one who bought the stones, had a monaster a Trapez Cistercian monastery in Spain, disassembled, schlepped or shipped all those stones over to San Francisco. And then schlepped. Yeah, shipped and then schlepped. And uh the story is eventually got the stones got left in uh Golden Gate Park, and later the stones made their way to um Vina Vina, the little teeny town. Don't blink, yep, you'll pass that. That was it. That was Vina to the little teeny tiny mount town of Vina and rebuilt as their chapter house in uh church. Absolutely beautiful, but that was a connection, so that was a really cool thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And and um also uh he had like a full-on zoo there, like roaming-free zebras, and you can still see zebras today, even though most of the all those animals are gone, the zebras apparently escaped. And are they descendants of the original zebras? No, they don't grow zebras here naturally, of course they're descendants.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, no, I mean, did he bring over new zebras? No, or somebody bring over new zebras, or these are the zebras.

SPEAKER_00:

These are those this is those are those zebras. That's what I meant. Yeah, yeah, okay. It's the descendants of first castle. Yeah. There's zebras and there's some other stuff, some sort of like antelope or something that's there as well. But I didn't see them, but we did see the zebras on our way down the windy road back to the parking.

SPEAKER_01:

And then I think the next day we started out with a breakfast wine at LXV.

SPEAKER_00:

Cool place. Yeah. Um, the the owners uh are um uh Nita and hold on, I have their names. Yeah, Nita and I can't remember his name.

SPEAKER_01:

Nita and K Kunal Mittal. Um and they are well, we didn't get to meet Kunal, but Nita was there.

SPEAKER_00:

She was very involved in the tasting experience. Because the tasting experience instead of just going to the taste, we wanted to do a special experience, and it was a wine pairing with spices.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yeah, that was really awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

And so um they're Indian. Yeah, and uh I think she said they went to uh Berkeley, yeah, I think it was and they graduated with like big degrees, right? But they loved wine so much and traveling for wine that they decided to get into the wine industry and start making wine. Apparently, their parents were not so happy about that after getting those big degrees, but here they are killing it. But it was really neat because the spices they had us go in order, they were put on um a goat sheep's milk a sheep's milk cheese, so it was a little harder. Um just little bites, and um, we tasted in a certain order, and uh the spices they had a very like Indian flavor to them, a variety of them. Like there was the butter chicken. I love butter chicken at the Indian restaurants, but they had the seasonings for that. That was the last one we tasted, right? And a variety of them, anyway, so good, and you could buy the spices, so we did, we did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So LXV, um, beautiful little tasting room, very intimate, and it was a great experience, and their wines are delicious. I don't know who's making their wines, but um, I don't know who their winemaker is, I should say. Uh, but delicious. I bought several bottles of The Spell, and I think you bought The Secret and The Spell or So highly recommend LXV. In fact, I think it was a couple days before we were going, I came across um a video on TikTok of a young woman saying, I'm going to Paso this weekend. That's right. Does anyone have recommendations? So I saved it. I said, We're gonna, we're going straight to the notes and taking recommendations. And this is one of the recommendations.

SPEAKER_00:

And taste was also, yes, taste.

SPEAKER_01:

Austin Home. Yeah, we pretty much wrote on her tails. Yeah, we didn't even see her. We were kind of on the lookout for her, but we didn't see her, whoever you are. Um, but yeah, that was one of the recommendations, and it did not disappoint, I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_00:

And was that the night we went to Censario?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes, we went to the light show, but we did something else after this because this was breakfast wine.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that was breakfast wine. We did something else.

SPEAKER_01:

I thought it was funny. A lot of wineries there open at 10. We made this reservation for 11 or something like that.

SPEAKER_00:

So what else did we do? Oh no, we went to I don't know, we we did a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

We went back to the coast, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

I think we went to Caillou Coast that day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Another cute little town. Yeah, very cute, little artsy type of town. Just walked around a little bit, walked around, poked our head at some shops, had a little Nosh.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that was fun. Recommend that. And then and then we came back. I we got more hotel wine. We got more hotel wine. And then and then we went to Censario.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Cool place. That's uh number one recommendation. It's a light show. And again, you've been there before, but how long ago?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I was there in 2020. And um So it's these L this artist um got this hillside, so the hillsides are tucked way in, so you don't get any residual lights like from roads or anything like that. And Paso Robles has rolling hills. Uh huh. And so that's really pretty. They used to be covered with cows before they were covered with grapes. But now there's still now there's less grapes, but whatever. But anyway, so these rolling hills and they're covered with these hundreds of thousands of LED lights that just change colors. So you're up there and you go in and they have when I first went, that's all they had was just those rolling hills and I think like a little portable bar. Yeah. Um but that was about it.

SPEAKER_01:

But now so much more. And now they have well, first of all, there's a whole building and a stage, like a bandstand. There was a band there, lots of tables to sit at, a place to get drinks, another place for food. And then they had a VIP section, which we weren't really that familiar with. They apparently didn't know who we are. Anyway, so then you start. Um we got there before the sunset.

SPEAKER_00:

Which was important because I think that the view with the sun setting through those hills, it's all golden, right? And then the the sunset comes, and then as the sun sets, the lights come on. Right. And they have a lot of benches around the pathways now to sit on.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right. So you can walk around, it's accessible and walk around, um, and then these lights on the hillside, and then you walk through, just follow the path. Then you come to an area where there's several other areas now. Um, there was one where they had they look like well, they were fishing rods, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was called the fishing hole, is that area of their exhibit. And I think what they do is um because they're what I what I heard that they do is that they um get I'll just call them bids or from uh artists on ideas of what to do. And then they select and they implement it. Yeah. So this one, I don't know if there was water in there or not. I don't think so. I don't know. It was dark, I couldn't see.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But it's like, I don't know, probably a hundred or so fishing rods with even the little eyes on it for the lines to go through, which is where the LED light went through.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's just and they were like set up like a fan of fishing rods. Did I call them fishing poles at first? I think you can call them either one. Oh no, not my house.

SPEAKER_00:

And hole. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

My husband always says it's a rod.

SPEAKER_00:

Is that what Rod says?

SPEAKER_01:

My husband Rod says he's the rod. Um so there was the gone fishing or whatever section. Absolutely beautiful. And then there was another one where they had these um d displays of wine bottles. Right. Almost they were like towers. Yeah, like round cylinder type towers. But they're all wine bottles, right? All wine bottles and lit from the inside and music.

SPEAKER_00:

Music playing. It was really cool, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00:

It's really cool, and you can walk through all those towers and just get the full experience of the music and and all. And like like you said, it's all completely accessible, wheelchair accessible and everything. Yeah. And so then they had another one that was the fireflies. So on a hillside. Oh, yeah. There's all these little tiny white, these tiny tiny lights, but then the breeze catches that hillside and they move back and forth. Like fireflies. Like fireflies.

SPEAKER_01:

That was very beautiful, too. And I think our favorite one was it's like almost like an umbrella of LED lights with a cylinder in the middle, and then they just change color, but the music there was so moving.

SPEAKER_00:

It was like some of it was like classical, like it was orchestral, yeah, right. Yeah, it was as if orchestra an orchestra was playing, and the all those, I don't know, like umbrellas or mushrooms or whatever they were supposed to be, yeah. They changed color um depending on the music and the notes and the speed. They're all different, like some are the like for the bass and and some are the the treble and all that. So and then they have tables set up in there that you can just go with your drinker or whatever sit at. We probably were in there for like an hour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just sitting there and it's very moving.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then the last one is um, like have you seen those Moroccan lanterns? That's right, with the cutouts. With the cutouts. And uh that was a very interactive one where you can spin these things around. They're huge.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right. They're like eight, nine feet tall or something.

SPEAKER_00:

And you can spin them around and then the lights can go, don't go getting dizzy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you could get dizzy.

SPEAKER_00:

And then they had uh some of them look like a half a dome, and then they had those inside, and you could sit in there and just experience again, music's playing. Yeah, beautiful. So cool.

SPEAKER_01:

And then we ran into the lady, uh, what's her name? Uh Kathy. Yeah, Kathy. Okay, so we met Kathy when we walked in to first got there.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, okay, we were standing in line at the bar. But I'm sure you guys all knew that.

SPEAKER_01:

As one does. Um so we're standing in line at the bar and we were looking at the wine selections because we wanted to get glasses of wine, and this woman was standing behind us or something, and she said, I don't, in her cute southern accent, I don't know anything about Kentucky or something. She's from Kentucky. I don't know anything about wine. I guess I I said, Well, what kind of wine do you like? Do you like white or red? She said, Well, I like white Zinfandel. I said, Do you're in wine country, California? I was teasing her. I said, Do not say that out loud here. So anyway, we had a good laugh, went about our way. And then at that last stage of the display, we saw her and her son. Yes. And so we went up to her to say hello, and she told her son, these are the ladies that told me not to say that. I didn't even know out loud. And we sat and had a lovely conversation. Yeah, they were lovely. Again, Facebook because we're millennial.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I was a millennial. I'm Generation Jones.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh so highly recommend Sensoria.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, very cool place. Well, they and they said they have plans to expand even more. Yeah, I was talking to one of the guys that worked there, and he said um he pointed out this one particular hillside, and he said they're gonna extend the lights up to this hillside so it looks like an infinity lights into infinity, and then they're gonna build a hotel up there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And then there's some uh plans for a housing development to go in nearby, which is interesting. But I mean it's a big it there's nothing up there in those hills.

SPEAKER_00:

No cows, no grapes, you know, only lights. Just lights, just twinkly lights, which uh are my favorite.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, as we yeah, we learned everything sparkly and twinkly now. Another thing we did while we were there is we hit a couple of thrift stores because you know I like to thrift. And I you were so kind to go along with me. Let me show you.

SPEAKER_00:

You showed me the beautiful, the beautiful uh I desanitized when I came out. I was like, where's the hand sanitizer?

SPEAKER_01:

You showed me the beautiful towns and the light show, and I showed you the goodwill.

SPEAKER_00:

Goodwills. No, that was cool. That was funny. One man's trash is another man's treasure. That's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_01:

We the next day we went back to um the ocean because we love it.

SPEAKER_00:

As we call it in California, the coast, as opposed as opposed to the east, eastern United States. I call it the shore. The shore, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

We have a coast, they have a short time. We have a coast, they have a shore. How funny. It's funny those terms that you use. Uh we went to what was that other time? Morro Bay. Morro Bay. We went to Morro Bay. And um thick fog. We haven't seen thick fog like that in a long time. That's going through the hills. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

It was it was it was like white out.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. It was you gotta follow that white line on the side of the road kind of driving.

SPEAKER_00:

You did a great job. Thank you. We made it back safely.

SPEAKER_01:

We went out to the rock, Morrow Rock, that day, and we watched some surfers. That was very cool. Um, walked around that town a little bit again.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, we went to my favorite little garden shop there.

SPEAKER_01:

Overpriced.

SPEAKER_00:

I cannot afford it, but I get lots of ideas. I know, and you did, you did recreate a little I did. One year I saw I found this, they had this cute little plastic lantern with a fake flame in it, and they had it decorated on top with garlandy stuff for Christmas, and I think they wanted like eighty-five dollars for it. What? And um, so I made me one. I ordered the eight dollar thing from from Amazon, and I had some leftover garland stuff. And you zhit it so much it up, and you loved it. I made you one. I know, I loved it, I know, and it didn't even cost me$85.

SPEAKER_01:

Battery-powered little flame that doesn't give off heat, but no ambiance. That's right.

SPEAKER_00:

It's all about the ambiance. But it's a cute store, they have some great stuff, it smells really good in there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, they have oh beautiful things.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, Morrow Bay is pretty cool. We went over to the rock, walked around the rock. Yeah, not on it. You're not allowed on it. It's huge. Plus, you don't want to go anywhere, it's covered with seagulls centuries of seagull poo.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, but what we did realize, and I believe it was when we were there, we should have put brought um our beach chairs.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, because we could have just sat there and had snacks and we had waters and yeah. So next time yeah, next time we're packing the beach chairs. You know, we're boomers, we're how old we've been on how many road trips together with our family. Yeah. You'd think we would know by now. I know.

SPEAKER_00:

What the heck? We'll get we'll figure it out. We'll get it. We could have just bought some chairs.

SPEAKER_01:

We could have done that too. At the thrift store. At the thrift store. Oh my god. Okay, so uh the next day we okay, we got a call the day I think we were at I can't remember if it was the day we were in Cayucos or when we were at Morrow Bay, but you got a call from your son. Yeah, my son called me. I was about the guy's and the guy's dad. And he started giving you the guy's phone number to reach out to him and call. We don't know. Ums a guy, my son knows your son, and he asked me to call me.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, my son, the fisherman, who fishes with this other guy that's uh uh sponsored by Troublemaker. Um, my son calls me and he's like, Okay, so I talked to White, and that's the kid's name that's uh sponsored by Troublemaker. Right. And he goes, he goes, so you he said to give his dad a call because his dad is the vineyard manager for La Aventure winery. And um he goes, and and and he'll he'll he'll talk to you and all this type of stuff. And I'm like, does he know I'm calling? I'm like, now it's awkward, right? Um how do we apply a cold call? I'm sorry, I don't do that. But um can you just call for me? But anyway, we did. We reached out to the guy, and and you and I both knew it was gonna be uh really a kind of a bad time because it's the crush, they're processing all those grapes and everything like that. Um, but we did call um Dave DeBusque. Super nice guy.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

And he's like, you know, I'm kind of busy right now, but what about Sunday, oh no, Saturday morning? Yeah, I can meet you at at the winery and I can talk to you and show you around. You go down, was it 46 and then to the winery, and then he goes, when you get to the to this to this road, I cannot remember what it was called now all of a sudden. Um he goes, you know, hang right and then follow it till it ends. It becomes a dirt road. Becomes a dirt road battle grade exactly go through all these and then there'll be a gate. Push the button. The red button. The red button. Push the red button and the gate will open. And I was like, okay, so we did that. We're like, are we sneaking in? I mean, there was nobody there, it was early in the morning. And we get up there and he said, You'll meet us at the taste room. So we're and people were showing up for work. For breakfast or oh, and for breakfast wine. And for breakfast wine. Yeah. Um, and we didn't realize till we left that the gate closes after everybody.

SPEAKER_01:

So everyone has to push the red button.

SPEAKER_00:

Everybody, we we weren't that special. Yeah. Um, but anyway, Dave was so nice. He spent a couple hours with us and he showed us everything about that. Uh it was a maze. For instance, you know, they always say, Oh, this used to be the sea floor. Oh, yeah, yeah. And you're like, whatever. Yeah, right. Okay. But then he takes us out into the vineyard and he says, This is the shale from the sea floor, and it is light as a feather. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

The dirt.

SPEAKER_00:

It is a choke.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Or limestone shell.

SPEAKER_00:

Something like that. And so then, yeah, limestone shale. I don't know. Anyway. Ocean floor. Ocean floor. The ocean floor was so light. And then um he also showed us where they that they had got some fossils like a seashell, um, um uh vertebrae. Right whale vertebrae.

SPEAKER_01:

A bone, yeah, big huge bone on so that they dug up with so when they okay, let's talk about this place. Um give a little bit of the history. Uh the owner French from France. Um the owner is a Frenchman, and when he bought the property here, he thought it reminded him, I guess, the the soil or whatever, the location, the weather, all this stuff. The terroir. It all uh reminded him of property in Champagne region. So he bought this property and it was all just um dirt and what what did he say? Trees, I guess. Yeah, there was nothing. No, it was not it, it was not improved. Right, right, no grapes. Uh he has built the most beautiful tasting oh my gosh. It's amazing. Um, and it's it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

They have their own little nursery there where they grow their own rootstock, the rootstock, and then they'll they'll splice on another, whatever you call that. Graft it on. Graft on. They have people that come and graft and they for the different varietals that they do.

SPEAKER_01:

They do so much though.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so that was interesting. We've never actually seen that before, so it was pretty cool. Yeah, and then um he showed us their you know, their big tanks where they're processing the wine and how they pump them over and everything. Super cool. And then he where did he take us, Monica?

SPEAKER_01:

He took us to the cave. So I'm thinking I've been up to a couple of caves. We've been to some caves. Yeah. Caves up here in the foothills and one in uh Sonoma.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, but this isn't a cave.

SPEAKER_00:

This is like an underground 30,000 square foot. I thought that there was gonna be a nuclear missile coming up, lifting up out of there.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, so we still go through this giant iron door into the dirt weren't any soldiers standing by it, which made it super suspicious for me, NORAD. Yeah, he opens this giant iron door into the hillside, and we walk in. I am not kidding you, it was unreal. The it 30,000 square feet of cave.

SPEAKER_00:

And a lot of these caves that we've been in before, it's like somebody, you know, not even just dug a hole, they just like built a room onto the edge of a rock wall and call it a cave. But no, no, this was bored.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, from two sides, two ends. They they came at one end, did so much of it, you know, um reinforced the structure and everything. And again, this is old seafloor, right? Ocean floor. Um and then they've got these uh, I think three rooms that you can go into and have a wine tasting experience. We thought they should have their staff meetings in there.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, uh it's a work, they're working case.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes. So these little rooms have the exposed wall of the dirt, and he's also all the sediment. He reaches over and grabs a piece of the wall and just breaks it off like because it was that brittle.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and and so it you see all the sediment layers, right? And you can see the tectonic movement and in those layers and how they jut upward. Yeah, and yeah, it was beautiful, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, it was beautiful, beautiful, and the the caves are lined with all their barrels. I don't know how many hundreds of barrels they had in there, but that's and the temperature is completely controlled because it's underground. Yeah, so they have he showed us they have these little what do you call them for your air air cleaning? Like a thermostat. Like a thermostat in in every so often along the caves. And he said, Okay, it tells you what the temperature is here, what the moisture level is. CO2. Yep, CO2, and then you said it's it's the canary. The canary from the caves.

SPEAKER_00:

Canary in the mine shaft. Yeah, yeah. And he goes, That's exactly what it is. It tells us if there's anything wrong. They have a very intricate system of maintaining the air quality, the safety. They have a lot of vents, including one place, just one. So they have vents on the on the ground, right? Drains and all that. Yeah, but they have one area where if you stand on it, your voice echoes. Yeah, it was. And it's no different than any of the other areas that you know visually, right? But this only in this one place. Only this one place. And he said they found that by accident. It's their little winery mystery spot. That's right. There's probably a bumper sticker. Um but we he's at one point he says, Well, do you know how deep we are? I'm like, I don't know, like 10, 15 foot. And he's 60 foot deep. Yeah, it didn't even feel that way. The pictures we have are amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, I know. Well we'll put those on Instagram.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we'll put them on Instagram.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely beautiful. La Aventure. I'm probably not saying it right.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't speak French, but it's not adventure, it's adventure, so it's la Aventure because the owner um he sold two chateaus in France and then traveled the world trying to find the right place to be, and this was his adventure. Yes, yes, this was his adventure.

SPEAKER_01:

Anyway, it's and Dave was oh, Dave was awesome. And a wealth of information. Um but they're barrels. Let's talk a little bit about the barrels. So I I didn't know this, but uh like the wine regions, and I might not have this exactly right, but like the wine regions in France, the barrel industry, the barrel making industry, I forgot what it's called, is uh very regulated in France. So apparently a uh barrel making company, what there's a name for they're coupon benders, they're coopers, right?

SPEAKER_00:

They're benders, they're coopers, but the benders are the ones that put it all to Yeah, make the slats and all that.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So very regulated. So a Cooper is allotted a forest or a section of a forest, and that is it. Yep. They can only get their wood from there, they can't go outside of it. You know, they're licensed for that or somehow regulated. And La Venture uses, I think, a dozen or so Coopers. And so they have these barrels shipped over from France and they use them one time. Yeah. And then they uh resell them. Um but very interesting. And so their cave again, as I said, is lined with all their barrels of wine and again the temperature regulation or the temperature control, and because they're able to line the caves, and they're still, I don't know, 10-15 feet in the middle to walk through, um, they're able to test and sample and look at their every barrel just standing there. They don't have to climb up ladders. Exactly. Yeah, a lot of wineries storage space is um because I don't know, don't they have to turn them or do something like that?

SPEAKER_00:

No, maybe not in the barrel. Maybe there's just the bottle. But anyway, they don't have to climb up on a big ladder for the rack. It's all at the waste level.

SPEAKER_01:

And these barrels are beautiful. I mean, I just have visions of barrels in my backyard.

SPEAKER_00:

I can see that in your backyard. Big barrels of wine. Party at Monica's house.

SPEAKER_01:

So the owner's name is Stefan Aseo. Uh he does not play around with his winery and his wine.

SPEAKER_00:

Very serious.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And it shows. It shows. Beautiful place, delicious wine, and um.

SPEAKER_00:

The staff are super friendly. Oh, yeah. And they do a lot with interns because apparently in France it there's something that they have to have interns.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I missed that.

SPEAKER_00:

I was probably busy taking notes. Probably. She's a note taker. Um, but then he has uh at his winery, he has interns also that he brings over from France, and he has some from like Cal Poly's right there, right? Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's right there and has a huge uh agricultural studies program, including uh viticulture and and all that. So wine making wine stuff. I was trying to think of the word.

SPEAKER_01:

There's like, you know, wine things wine business stuff, grapes, baking barrel, chemistry. I don't know. Looking forward to going back. Definitely we'll go back there.

SPEAKER_00:

I thought we had so much fun at Passerobles. Yeah, and we that whole area.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. We spent so much time with Dave DeBusque at La Aventure, uh, that we didn't even get to stop into Austin Hope's winery, which was next door. Right next door. Next door means down the road over the cow grate onto the paved road, I think. And you know, a mile or so. No. Whatever next door is.

SPEAKER_00:

That's pretty correct, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

Next door in wine country terms.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Uh we didn't get to a we had we had quite the uh list of places we were gonna go to, and we didn't make it to hardly any of the ones we were going to. No. Because we got distracted with all the other stuff that there is to do down there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, uh, we went to Tin City. Oh, Tin City in uh kind of on the outskirts of Passover Rowls.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, cool place.

SPEAKER_00:

It is cool. It's like big warehouse type of buildings, so they call it Tin City.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there's several buildings.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh breweries, distilleries, wineries, restaurants, everything coffee, desserts. Yeah, it's a very cool place. You could spend all day, two days, three days there and never touch everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. It's a pretty cool place. We had a delicious lunch at a little Italian or something like that. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they make all their own pasta. I saw people walking out with bags of pasta. Yep. The food was delicious. It was good. We were busy.

SPEAKER_01:

It was good. And we went to the little um olive oil and balsamic stores.

SPEAKER_00:

Olivos. Um so that place was pretty cool. They actually they actually said they get their olives from Oraville, which is up north here.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's funny. Olivas de Oro, California ground olive oil.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and they have all different flavors. We did a tasting there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_00:

And that was funny because she did a blending of stuff like right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so let's see. You have a couple of the bottles here. So I think they paired like the uh Meyer Lemon olive oil with fig white balsamics. And then the mandarin olive. That would be like for a salad dressing was delicious, and then the mandarin orange olive oil with the vanilla bean balsamic. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And that that tastes like um a cream sickle. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That did, that did. That's all it took. I was hooked.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, and we went and had glass, I had a glass of wine and a couple of other little tasting rooms there. Yep. Cute places. We met a uh tasting room dog. I've heard of it.

SPEAKER_00:

A dog from Madagascar. Yeah. Looked like a look like a Highland Terrier or something. Mixed with something else, I don't know, with a beach on or something. I don't know. I can't remember his name. I don't know if it was like Wayne or Wally or something. Wally. It was Wally. Wally. Wally, he was a cutie patootie. Yeah, just a puppy, too. Yeah. He was sweet, and he was he was in full wine dog mode. Like he just laid there when people came in and greeted them, and then he come sit by you. Like, how's the wine? Yeah, so it was a great trip. I want to go, I'm ready to go back. Well, we gotta go somewhere else next time, though. I know there's so many places to go. So much wine, so little time. So if you get a chance to get to pass the robles, by all means, and there's so much more to see. I mean, you you could take a variety of ways there, but we took the scenic route. We went straight down I-5. It's a garden spot.

SPEAKER_01:

The not scenic route. Um on the way out, okay. Again, uh we hit it just at the right time, wrong place, wrong time, actually. Because there was construction going on on a couple of four times. They had me so confused. I don't know. We literally looped around like three to three times.

SPEAKER_00:

I was like, oh, okay, it's this way. This is the ramp we went. No, nope, nope, flip around, go back again. Okay, we're gonna catch it this time. No, how did we miss it again? I don't know. Back at the like three times, but worst case scenario, which actually would have been worst-case scenario, we ended up in Bakersfield. And then we could just take 99 aura. Right, right, right. But right after we got back, I saw this guy on TikTok and he said, he goes, he's in his car, and he goes, if you're ever driving through the central valley of California on I-5, he goes, the the left lane, minimum 95 miles an hour. Oh shit. Do not do not come into this lane unless you're going 95. Oh my god. And I'm like, right on. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, good trip. We're gonna hit the road again here soon, I think. Yeah, soon. We'll see. We'll see. I'm going to uh Minneapolis, Minnesota next week.

SPEAKER_00:

And you know what they have there?

SPEAKER_01:

Wineries. I know. So I'm very curious to look at the wine lists on the menu. Are they growing wine in Minnesota? Yeah, they have wineries there. Are they growing wine?

SPEAKER_00:

They're growing grapes for wine grow for wine. They come in in 750 bottles, 750 milliliter bottles. Or you could get the great big one. It's your choice. Sometimes they come in little cans, but those are just bigies. Those are just like buds.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, they're grown wine. I don't know why I was actually curious to see how much California wine is going to be on the menu there. I'm just curious which California wines they'll have.

SPEAKER_00:

Guaranteed they'll have Bogle.

unknown:

Guaranteed.

SPEAKER_00:

Guaranteed. Yeah. So we'll see. Yeah, that'll be fun. I'm I can't wait for you to come back after doing all your research.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

So we'll we'll cover that, I'm sure. All right. Well, thanks for joining. See you next time. Bye.