Monday, May 12th
After another good breakfast at the Embassy Suites, we drove to the Zaca Mesa Winery:
Red wine; it's not just for breakfast anymore:
Their vineyards border on Demetria and, at least from Sandra's point of view, was a miss-able destination. I think there may be some neighborly property dispute. The tasting room is a mile or so past the entrance to Demetria. The grounds were nice enough:
The young lady who was operating the tasting room got there a few seconds before us:
She was knowledgable and showed us a nifty $50 gadget that aerates wine as you pour it through the device:
I have to confess I could tell the difference. The wines were OK but it was 10am...
Our next stop was on the same road, the famous Fess Parker Winery. Fess Parker (yes, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone) was born in 1924 in Ft. Worth, was in his first movie in 1950 and came to the valley many years ago after retiring from the Disney TV/Movie business:
Here, with the other Disney money-makers:
Fess is a much-beloved figure in the region and drives about at his advanced age (84) in a Hummer. He's often at the Fess Parker Inn & Spa in Los Olivos on Thursday nights for karaoke. I'm not kidding.
The grounds were immaculate and the roses enormous:
..and just as lovely as the ladies:
The tasting room was impressive and beautiful as the grounds. Our tasting room host was very pleasant and fun and the wines were better than expected:
Rich Wolf and Ina Thompson, friends from La Jolla, were tandem-biking in the area and rode up just as we were leaving Fess Parker. They're joining us for dinner tonight at the Los Olivos Cafe.
Lunch time! There's something about starting drinking at 10am that makes a body hungry. We decided to drive into Los Olivos and find someplace to dine. Almost by accident we decided to have lunch at this charming cafe -- that turned out to be the same place we were coming for dinner that night. Reasoning that the menus would be different for lunch and dinner, we decided to try it out. And that's where we had the best Reuben sandwich of our lives. This should NOT be missed!
The next stop is walking distance, so we did:
Gael had particularly wanted to taste Qupe wines. They don't have a tasting room, per se, and the place we went for tasting was a wine broker/tasting room -- and they weren't pouring Qupe today. Bummer. The chap behind the counter, Tim, was very nice but we didn't taste anything there that was memorable.
Our next stop was another short walk to Andrew Murray:
The young lady behind the counter was seriously personality-deprived. Upon questioning, she knew her stuff, but her interpersonal skills were lacking. The wines were quite good but the experience just so-so.
Gael and I did look adorable, however:
We planned a tasting at the Los Olivos Tasting Room which shares the building with the Los Olivos Cafe (our spontaneous lunch and planned dinner destnation). Los Olivos (the town) is not all that big. As we drove around, we stumbled across an unscheduled winery, Tres Hermanas Winery:
I don't remember the wines, but I DO remember the "quarter-horse" they had in the tasting room:
We did settle down and taste some wine; my recollection is that the horse was the best thing about the experience. I think the facial expressions tell the story:
It's off to dinner:
There was a short wait:
.. while The Los Olivos Cafe set up our table for ten in the middle of the restaurant. We called Rich and Ina and advised them about the early start and they met us there. While we were having drinks (wine mostly) I noticed a couple of celebrities being seated at an adjacent table:
 
I recognized them both at once, but it took a minute to pull Jonathan Silverman's name out of long-term memory.
He's best known for a leading role in 1989's "Weekend at Bernie's". The plot centered around two low-level corporate drones being invited to an executive's beach house on Long Island for the weekend (good career move) only to find their host dead (no, it's a comedy). It was an enjoyable film and a recommended rental.
His companion (his wife) was well-known to me as well, but I just couldn't pull her name up. I wanted to go over and tell them both I admired their work, but I was embarrassed that I couldn't recall her name. I'd seen her first in 2005 in a failed sitcom (the name of which I couldn't recall on the spot) called "Committed" where she played a young lady in New York who had a dying clown living in her closet (I am NOT making this up). The clown was played by Tom Poston. I really liked it but it only survived twelve episodes.
I next saw her in a legal drama series in 2006-7 called "Close to Home" set in (of all places) Indianapolis. She played an Assistant District Attorney named Annabeth. I remembered the character's name but not hers. Boo.
And, finally, she had a three-episode arc on "The Dead Zone"; I saw all three. I had insufficient signal on my iPhone to bring up anything, so the evening ended without my speaking to either one of them. Jonathan Silverman did ask Bill what the deal with the badges and tiaras was, and he explained.
Oh, her name is Jennifer Finnigan and I really do enjoy her work! According to her bio, she was also on Crossing Jordan and won three Daytime Emmys for her role on "The Bold and the Beautiful". Gotta love the internet..
Here's our "party of ten":
Dinner was good but not as good a dinner as lunch was a lunch (if that makes sense). Little half-hour drive back to Lompoc and so, to bed.
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