Day Trip to Wine Country

this is the view out the front windows of the house

 those mountains in the background

 are the Santa Ynez mountains,

the only California mountain range that runs east/west instead of north/south

this is what's on the backside of those mountains

(and a bit to the west),

Lake Cachuma. 

Santa Barbara's fresh water source

currently at 27% capacity

yikes!

we drove through gorgeous mountains and farm land

(we think these are nut trees)

headed to the western most reaches of the county.

since we left a little too early to do a wine tasting (10am)

we ended up here

 as far west in SB County as one can go

the boy(s) seriously love the beach!

what else did we discover right there on the same beach?

Amtrak! 

Who knew?

when searching for tickets from Hudson, NY to Lompoc-Surf, CA

the app says, basically...

you can't get there from here.

I would venture to guess its the only Amtrak station

that warns of shark attacks

 we headed back to the closest town of Lompoc

(about 5 miles away from the beach/train station)

and had a serendipitous lunch.

Such a find in a sleepy town.

We were finally ready to taste some wine.

Since the western reaches of SB County are cooler than the east

there is more pinot noir grown here.

Even the California pinots are BIG!

Mosby grows Italian varietals, 

most of the vines brought over from Italy.

while having our second and final tasting

the little man decided to help himself to the second half

of Christopher's roast beef sandwich from lunch.

another thing he has NEVER done before.

he didn't leave a crumb, it was like it disappeared from the car, 

the only evidence was the wrapper.

We're thinking old age allows one to take some liberties...

with his belly full of a sandwich 

and our brains touched by red wine in the middle of the day

we headed home for a nap.