Just like when we went to FL a few years ago for my Lasik surgery. We drove to visit my cousin, some friends of Michael’s family, and Joey. But everyone was spread throughout the state, so we spent a lot of time driving on highways and through urban sprawl with strip mall after strip mall.

So this trip was only partially a vacation. At least we did get to do a couple of fun things. The balloon ride over Temecula wine country at sunrise was spectacular. Michael took a ton of pictures. One of the other couples got engaged on their private balloon. We shared ours with an older couple. It was kind of tight in there with 5 people. I was in “the back” of the basket, so didn’t get to see as much until after we had passed over it. I tried to deny my fear of heights, and was successful unless I looked straight down, so I didn’t do that. But it was very special anyway.

And the drive up Palomar Mountain was exhilarating. The slow 7 miles up a winding dirt road with no guardrail made me queasy, again my fear of heights and “steeps” as Michael calls them. But at the top it was beautiful parkland with 400 year-old cedars and Native American archaeological specimens. We walked down a trail for a bit, among remnants of a fire from a couple of years ago. It’s frightening to think of those incredible trees going up in flames.

The Hale observatory is huge with a very interesting history. You can see the magnificent telescope and the big large wheels that turn it. Amazing!

The wineries were okay, except that I was allergic to something around there. So I sneezed and dripped until we got some drugs after which I was dried out and stuffed up.

So I couldn’t taste the wine!!!

And the wineries were only okay. We are so used to our friendly, welcoming wine clubs here on STX that appropriately pair wines with food. None of the Temecula wineries served food with the wine! You stood up at the bar, and just got 4 or 5 sips of wine for $8-$12 (with a complimentary glass at a few of them).

I wish we’d have had more time to visit more of them rather than spending so much time driving, though. Maybe we’d have found some fun, funky ones. The one I liked best wasn’t even in Temecula, it was on the way back from Palomar Mountain, in the higher country. A very small, family-run place which used only their own grapes in all of their wines. It’s called Shadow Mountain Vineyards and it was the only place from which we bought wine. We tasted 3 reds: a merlot; a 2005 “variation”, (which consisted of 50% merlot and 25% each of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc grapes” that grow on the northern slopes of Palomar Mountain at an elevation of 3400′”); a 2005 carignane and a 2006 viognier. They had tiny crackers and bits of cheese so you could get a better feel for the way the wine would taste when served properly, like with food. We bought a bottle each of the viognier, the variation, and the carignane, along with a half-bottle of 2005 old vine zinfandel. It was so cute we couldn’t resist! Can’t wait to have a chance to buy some nice food to drink it with.

The four wineries we visited in Temecula were: Wilson Creek (no food, but free glasses); Ponte (they have a restaurant, where we had lunch – good food, but none with the wine tasting, AND no free glasses either); Bella Vista (the oldest winery in Temecula, a cute older Romanian couple own it, no food, but free glasses); and Callaway (crackers, a restaurant that closes at 5pm, and free glasses). We got there late and were looking for food, so we asked the workers for restaurant suggestions. They told us about the chains in the shopping centers! “Claim Jumper” and “Olive Garden”….Ugh!

I just couldn’t get over the fact that the restaurants all CLOSE at 5pm. Just when they could be opening and making a bunch of money from late afternoon visitors. And they don’t give you a morsel with the wine tasting. I get much less drunk if I have some food to absorb the wine. Remember, this is America with very strict rules about drunk driving. It felt sort of “slam bam, thank you ma’am”-ish. I might be more inclined, if I had a nice taste of food with each sip, to buy something in the gift shop, stay for a nice dinner, purchase more wine…..

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 6:42 pm and is filed under fin folk, Puerto Rico, Reviews, St. Croix, Terry Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.