Central Coastin’ – Day 2, Part 1

When last I blogged, Chris and I had eaten and drank our fill at the Lido, and we hit the hay at our hotel in Avila Beach.  As you can probably guess, I woke up earlier than he did, so it was off to the massive bathroom, laptop in tow, to log into class and start grading some student papers before he arose.  Although I’ve become accustomed to killing early morning time in almost every conceivable position and (relative) level of comfort out there, this bathroom offered a vanity level table and stool, which meant I essentially had a desk to work on.  Sweet!  I happily typed away and was able to finish off a few student submissions until Chris woke up around 7:45 or so.

He headed out for a run while I got ready, and after his quick shower, we were off in search of morning sustenance (our hotel had a free continental breakfast, but we were in the mood for something more substantial).  Although Avila Beach is small, our hotel was around 1.5 miles away from the beach itself, set back along a marshy area near the golf course; it was super quiet, which was nice, but we did need to either walk along the handy Bob Jones Trail or drive to get to the restaurants and cafes along the main stretch of town.  Given my recent knee concerns, we hopped in the truck and off we went.

We first stopped at Kraken Coffee in downtown Avila; although all restaurants have coffee for breakfast, not all of them have chai, my preferred hot beverage, so we normally try to hit up a real coffeehouse while we're out and about.  We strolled downtown with our drinks (both were great) and attempted to eat at the Custom House, but we weren’t allowed in with our beverages; I get the whole “don’t let kids bring their ice cream cones in during the summer,” but really?  Two adults with lidded beverages?  It seemed excessive, so we were happy to take our business elsewhere, down the street to the Avila Grocery and Deli.  While it was mainly a grocery store/market, they also had a hot food counter in the back, and our breakfast burrito and croissant sandwich were delicious.

Wandering along the Avila dock.

According to last night's Uber driver,

the dock past this point was closed for reconstruction

due to the huge storms that recently went through the area.

Sweet, sweet caffeine.

Lots of panoramic shots on this trip.

After breakfast, it was back to the hotel to pack up everything we’d need for the day.  This was the day we’d see the riders on the Amgen Tour of California go by, and since we didn’t know how popular the race was in this area, we wanted to be to our designated viewing spot (designated by us through lots of prior research) with plenty of time to spare.  We’d brought snacks from home, including Cheez-its, Milano cookies, and apples (as well as beer, Cokes, and water), so we headed to another nearby grocery, Woodstone Marketplace, to flesh out a picnic lunch.  We wandered through the market for a bit, eventually finding a great packaged set of cheese and salami; we also grabbed some crackers for the cheese, a fresh olive salad, and some homemade chocolate chip cookies (what?  There’s no such thing as too many cookies), and it was back in the car and on the road.

We wanted to see the riders on the eastern side of the 227, and since they’d be crossing this on their way into San Luis Obispo (SLO), we erred on the earlier side of things, wanting to ensure we were across it before the road shut down for the race.  Since I knew we’d have some time to kill, before we left, I found a few wineries in the area, all located along the same smaller road we were using to get to the race route, and we visited all three, enjoying our tastings there.

First, we hit up Chamisal, where the sommelier on duty gave us all sorts of great information on the nearby area; as opposed to Paso Robles, which is higher in elevation and more inland, this area (technically within the city limits of SLO, but more broadly called the Edna Valley) tends to be cooler due to the coastal breeze.  Thus, the grapes that work well here are mainly chardonnay and pinot noir, which are two of my favorites.  The wines here were good, and since the som and I had the same haircut (sadly, no pictures of this), we figured we had to pick up a few bottles (two pinots) to drink later, once we made it home.

Amongst the vines at Chamisal

Next, it was off to the Niven Family tasting room, which represented several brands, including Baileyana, Tangent, Zocker, and True Myth.  As the som at Chamisal had mentioned to us, the Niven folks produce all sorts of grapes, and they focus each of their labels on a different set; for example, one of them is mainly focused on German varietals (Zocker), while others are specifically lesser known whites (like albarinos).  While we didn’t love all of their wines, all of them were interesting, and we ended up taking home a chardonnay and a pinot from here as well.

The pretty label at Baileyana

Finally, it was time to visit Wolff, and this was probably our favorite stop.

Getting ready to taste at Wolff

Our tasting guide, Clint, was really mellow and took the time to impart his knowledge of the property and vines, including the first mention we heard of completely dry vines – vines that the vineyard doesn’t irrigate at all, allowing nature to do the hard work.  Apparently, when you have dry vines, the roots of the plant have to dig deeper into the soil to find nutrients, and this in turn gives the grapes on that plant a much greater taste of the local terroir.  We ended up taking home two bottles of Wolff’s offerings – an old vine chardonnay and a teroldego, two varieties we didn’t know existed until this moment in time. 

In addition to making good wine, Wolff was super dog friendly (including almost all areas of the tasting room), and Clint’s dog Daisy and his brother Mark’s dog Sammie joined us to soak up some sun on the porch.  We had a great time visiting with the pups, and I’m sure we took some interesting smells home to our own dingo.

Daisy!

Sammie!

Running a winery is ruff.

Hee.  Ruff.

Oh, to be an old lab.

Daisy's collar reads,

"Please don't feed me."

After we bid adieu to Wolff, it was time to head to our designated corner to watch the race.

We drove down Orcutt Road a bit further to where it intersected with Tiffany Ranch Road, and then took Tiffany Ranch to Corbett Canyon, which is the road the racers would be using in just a bit.  I guess we’re so used to streets being closed for hours at a time for our marathons and triathlons that we overestimated the amount of time we’d need, as we ended up waiting for a few hours and watching plenty of motorists blowing past our parked truck right down the road the bikers would be using.  We knew we might be out on the road for some time, so we enjoyed our picnic lunch, and I got some more grading done for class.  We had the windows in the truck open, and the breeze was lovely – it was really was a gorgeous day.

Grading time!

Picnic lunch in the truck

Working our corner.

 As you can see, the weather at this point was outstanding.

Nearby thistles.

Chris: "Those thistles look angry."

Me: "All thistles are angry."

Eventually, some folks joined us on the corner, and we made friends with the other spectators.  We kept track of the riders using the smartphone app provided by the race, and it worked really well. After a while, we started seeing police officers on bikes and in cars, and we knew the riders would be here soon.

Something might be happening soon!

In the next blog, tons and tons of pictures of famous bicyclists!

Later!

Amy