Pages

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

If your doctor ever tells you that you only have a year to live, spend it in Gerber.

(Alternative title was: "We are not drinking pinot..."

Drove up the state for a wedding in Red Bluff over the weekend. Red Bluff is a much better place to spend a weekend than is Gerber. I would post pictures of downtown Gerber, but they are too depressing. There's a post office (your tax dollars at work), a tiny market, a pizza place, and a bar...actually the bar and pizza place might be the same place, my memory is a little fuzzy. Fortunately, I was able to minimize my Gerber exposure to around two hours; that was more than enough time. Here's a picture of one of the Red Bluff pharmacies, followed by a picture of the view from our room at the house of Nicole's aunt and uncle (in Red Bluff). If you are thinking that Nicole's aunt and uncle do not have enough horses, I believe the others like to spend their mornings on the opposite side of the house.



But enough about Red Bluff...if you want wedding information, perhaps something will appear on Nicole's blog. (Nico, your blog will be considered dead within the next 48 hours, and your permanent link will be removed.)

We stopped in Santa Barbara Wine Country on the way back. Those of you keeping score at home might remember that we were supposed to be riding the Napa Tour de Cure last weekend...but something about a 100 mile bike ride when neither of us had been on a bicycle in 6 months seemed like a bad idea. But I digress. I was a little leery of the trip to the Santa Ynez Valley, as we had not been up there since before Sideways. I have few photos of this part of trip, as we were trying not to look like Sideways tourists...of which there were plenty. In retrospect, we actually were Sideways tourists. We ate at the Hitching Post II (which used to be a quiet restaurant, but was now so crowded that a dozen people were having dinner at the bar), and we elected to do Sideways bicycling tour #1. Sideways bicycling tour #2 is probably a better ride, but we had done most of that ride 5 years ago...and it looked much, much steeper.

Wineries we stopped at on the 50 mile bike ride:
1) Lafonde: The pinots were okay, the Lafond Vineyard Syrah was exquisite.
2) Sanford: Eh...I was not able to smell:
...a little citrus... maybe some
strawberry... passion fruit... and
there's even a hint of like
asparagus... or like a nutty Edam
cheese.


Apparently, I have only one picture from Solvang. It's Nicole, in front of one of those Thomas Kinkade paintings that she likes so much.

2 comments:

Mrs. Nicole Lasko said...

That is a Thomas Kinkade picture of Disneyland, which is the only reason I posed. Thomas Kinkades are the epitomy of overpriced tackiness.

Sorry if you have one.

Michael Lasko said...

Great news, the painting is still available. Wow, that guy can paint. If there's a more talented artist anywhere, Nicole has never heard of him.