Today we woke up early and hit the beach. We had it almost to ourselves, minus a few dudes who apparently slept there the night before. The beach we were on was right next to the harbor, so it was more of a bay, but the sand was nice and the view was awesome.

We stayed on the beach for awhile and then went to the pool for a bit as well, where I read and Larry blackberried and scratched his beard.

After the pool we packed and checked out and then went back into the town for lunch. We went to a little bistro and had a great meal and a little wine, it was one of our favorite meals on the whole trip.

After lunch we attempted to get some Cold Stone, but the line was too long so we nixed it. Then we got back in the convertible and headed the 90 miles to LA. We made it mostly there until we hit traffic, so we stopped at In N Out and got some milkshakes. When we got to LA we (sadly) traded in our car for a more boring standard one, and then drove over to the W Hotel.

We tried to check in, but there was some kind of issue with the one we reserved, so they upgraded us to a pimp suite.

For dinner that night we went to Nine Thirty, which was in the W. It was good but nothing to write home about. The W was recently remodeled by one of the guys from Queer Eye, and we saw him pop in the restaurant for a few seconds while he was giving someone a tour.

Pics from Day 5 are here.

Monday we woke up, checked out of the Palomar and headed south on route 1 to Santa Barbara.

The beginning part of the drive was a bit foggy. It would come and go, but you could definetely feel the coolness of Northern California. We stopped a couple places along the way to take some pics of the scenerary (although these pics don’t do it justice). It was pretty incredible.

The middle part of our trip was through a national forest and Big Sur. The weather cleared up there for a bit, but then it got so foggy it was like we were driving through a cloud. When we cleared the park it cleared up again, and this time for good. We stopped in a tiny little town for lunch, and then the top came down for the rest of the trip.

We arrived in Santa Barbara around 6pm (just in time for free wine and cheese time!). We checked into the West Beach Inn and walked the main street in town. Our hotel was really great – it was a tiny beach motel, but our room was really modern (HD TV, large, high bed, modern fixtures), they gave us from wine and cheese and breakfast, great pool and hot tub open til 11 pm, and a nice little garden in the middle.

The town of Santa Barbara is really cute as well. All the architecture has a Spanish feel and the main strip of town is full of little shops and restaurants. On the way back we had a gorgous view of a very full moon over the water.

For dinner that night we brought in a pizza and ate it with our (delicious) wine from Mondavi.

After dinner we watched that week’s Entourage and Flight of the Concords (hilarious) and wrote the first 2 days of what you’re reading right now. We finished the night with a dip in the hot tub.

It was a low key night, but probably our favorite night of the trip.

Pics from Day 4 are here.

Today we hit Napa Valley. We started our day with some Starbucks and then picked up our AWESOME convertible rental. From there we headed out of San Francisco, past Lombard Street,

over the Golden Gate bridge

and out to the Valley. About half way there the fog cleared and the top came down.

Our first stop was Artesa Winery. Artesa is located in between Sonoma and Napa Valley and is know for its modern style and great views.

We took a tour of the winery and did a tasting. We had a younger guy who did the tour and our tasting which was nice since he understood our likings more and even sneaked us a couple extra tastes. Larry and I both liked their Sauvignon Blanc, and Larry loved the dessert wine.

After Artesa we stopped in the town of Napa for lunch, and then headed out to the main “strip” of wineries. We hit Cakebread Cellers next. Cakebread is a really small winery with really nice, passionate people. We did a tasting and then our tasting guy was nice enough to give us a private tour of the winery and the vineyards.

After that we went to Mondavi, which is said to be the mecca of Napa Valley (a guy at Artesa said you can’t go to Napa without going to Monavi).

It was a ton bigger than the other two we visited. We went on a very long comprehensive tour of their vineyard and winery, and then had a tasting in their bottling room. We bought a bottle of their Sauvignon Blanc before leaving (see Day 4).
It was a perfect, full day in Napa. We learned a lot about wine-making, grape picking, and all the other intricacies of wine.

I drove us back to San Fran with the top down. We hit some traffic on the way back and then had an excruciating semi-difficult time finding a place to park. That night we went back down to the Wharf for some seafood. It was cool to see it at night. We ate at a “casual dining” restaurant where Larry had his (ok) lobster and I had a vat full of chowder. Then we called it a night.

More pictures from Day 3 here.